The reduction will bring Ohio into compliance with nitrogen oxide emissions standards ordered by the federal government in 1998.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's preliminary plan calls for cuts by May 1, 2004, of 114,000 tons a year of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that causes acid rain and smog.

Ohio wants to cut annual emissions from 163,132 to 49,535 tons.

"Under Ohio EPA's plan, the goal is to encourage utilities and industry to begin reducing emissions as soon as possible," said agency director Christopher Jones.

Utility companies and other industries that voluntarily implement reductions in 2001, 2002 and 2003 will be rewarded with credits that can be used in 2004 and 2005 at other plants in their system or dealt to other utilities.

Credits also can be earned by plants that reduce energy consumption by increasing efficiency and using renewable sources.

Public comment on the Ohio plan -- it is the third one submitted by the state; the others were rejected by the federal EPA -- is being accepted through Friday. Comments should be directed to Ohio EPA, Division of Air Pollution Control, Attention: Engineering Section, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, OH 43216.

For more information on the matter, contact Jim Tichich at 614-644-4844. Ohio expects to finalize its plan by June. It must be approved by the federal EPA.

Failure to have a plan in place by mid-2002 would cost the state federal highway dollars.

The state plan is being scrutinized by environmental groups, said Kurt Waltzer of the Columbus-based Ohio Environmental Council.

The cuts will have no impact on what customers pay for electricity because electric prices cannot be raised in Ohio for five years under the state's deregulation rules.

The reductions should have minimal impact on Ohio utility companies because they have known that such cuts were likely under federal clean-air mandates.

Ohio's plan is consistent with the federal plan and should not cause problems, said Ralph Di-Nicola, spokesman for the Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp.

The company "is already well on its way toward compliance," with $250 million earmarked for improvements at its coal-burning plants, he said.

Thomas Ayers, spokesman for the Columbus-based American Electric Power Co., the parent company of the Ohio Power Co. of Canton, said the state plan "should not really cause major impacts."

Last May AEP installed $200 million in anti-pollution equipment at two units of its Gen. James Gavin power plant in Cheshire on the Ohio River in Gallia County.

The company is installing similar equipment at its Cardinal No. 1 plant near Brilliant and its Muskingum River No. 5 plant near Beverly, Ayers said.

The new equipment at those three power plants should enable the utility to comply with the cuts, he said.

In 1998, the federal EPA required 22 states and the District of Columbia to submit plans for reducing nitrogen oxide.

Ohio's utility companies were ordered to cut emissions by 85 percent.

Ohio, six other states and several utilities took the federal EPA to court concerning the reductions.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia backed the EPA, although it voided the rules for three states -- Wisconsin, Missouri and Georgia.

The U.S. Supreme Court last March refused to hear the case.