EPA Grant

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week promised a total of about $2 million to a Kennedy School of Government study center for research on air pollution and the effects of environmental regulations.

However, part of the money may never reach the Energy and Environmental Policy Center (EEPC) if Congress approves President Reagan's proposals for a 12 percent reduction in the DOE budget, officials said yesterday.

The DOE has awarded the EEPC $1.2 million for a three-year study on health problems associated with a broad variety of solid air pollutants. This research may eventually help the federal agency predict the consequences of increased use of fossil fuels, Charles Eddington, a DOE spokesman, said.

The EPA grant, totaling more than $700,000 over the next two years, will fund a cost-benefit analysis project of federal environmental regulations. Officials said this money will definitely not be cut because the EPA has allocated it under an executive order by the Reagan administration.

Researchers have not set an agenda for the EPA-sponsored project, David Harrison, associate professor of City and Regional Planning and a principal investigator, said.