The cash-in-on-Bush rush is literally gathering steam — and New Mexico is right in the way:

The Navajo Nation's Diné Power Authority and its partner, Texas-based Sithe Global Power, have been doing their darnedest to add another coal-fired steam-electric plant to the Four Corners collection of air-polluters.

To its credit, and to the astonishment of Big Business, the Environmental Protection Agency has balked at the idea.

So the power company and its tribal front sued. We've waited four years, and that's long enough, said the plaintiffs. What they meant was, if we wait any longer, there's going to be a new president — one bound to be tougher on polluters than George W. Bush is. Let's get a federal commitment to construction while we can.

And this week, the EPA caved in, filing a consent decree saying it will act by the end of July on the company's request for an air-quality permit to build a 1,500-megawatt generator south of Farmington — a plant dedicated to keeping Arizona's urban hordes supplied with electricity.

Don't do it, said Gov. Bill Richardson to the feds; it'll keep you from carrying out the "full and thorough analysis of the far-reaching impacts this plant will have on the health of New Mexicans."

Oh, bother, comes the response from Sithe; this'll be the cleanest coal plant the country has ever seen. Let EPA issue us the strictest permit it can — and we'll comply with it.

And if the company can't, what'll happen? Will it have to shut down the plant, leaving Phoenicians with only their swimming pools for staying cool? Fat chance.

"Every indication is," says Richardson, "that this is an agreement being pushed by the Bush White House to the detriment of air quality in the Four Corners region." He's urging EPA to delay issuing the permit pending full consultation with New Mexico regarding the far-reaching environmental impacts — which, he says, include asthma-causing ozone, mercury and greenhouse gas emissions.

Either the governor hasn't seen, or properly rejects as propaganda, the advertisements and commercials conning America toward a grand new era of "clean coal" — the kind that emits clover instead of smudged air.

After all, says the company, there'll be Clean Air Act limits on the stuff wafting from our 'stacks: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and, yes, lead. So you're not likely to notice much pollution. And carbon-dioxide sequestration? No can do.

But when Desert Rock's emissions are compounded by those from the two older generators, what kind of mess will that make for the New Mexicans downwind of coal-burning country? Shouldn't there be a look at existing air-quality conditions before throwing another power plant into the mix?

Oh, don't worry your heads about that, comes the response — and besides, we're beyond the jurisdiction of your environment department, so what can New Mexico do about it?

Maybe more than Sithe thinks: Legal remedies remain. And New Mexico isn't alone. Colorado shares our state's concerns about air pollution, and could give weight to a Four Corners coalition for cleaner air. Meanwhile, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry and Attorney General Gary King are keeping communications open with the company and with the Navajo Nation.

As for EPA, it should anticipate the cumulative effects of the region's smokestacks, and make its air-quality requirements really tough ones. That might send the project's lawyers back to their war rooms — unless the big bosses figure they should start building now, and work out the details of public health later.

New Mexicans should give the governor, Attorney General King and Secretary Curry credit for a good fight — and hope EPA careerists can hold Sithe and company to tough and effective air-quality rules.