COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina business groups are supporting a proposal that would let industries move to the state's smoggiest cities without using new, expensive pollution control gear.

While businesses say it is a reasonable way of controlling ozone, the key ingredient of smog, environmentalists say the state plan might not be strong enough to fix the ozone problem in Columbia, Greenville and several other cities now under greater federal scrutiny.

The state's Department of Health and Environmental Control says tougher federal standards would hurt the state.

"New facilities will choose not to locate" in areas of South Carolina with excessive ozone pollution, according to a DHEC staff report given to the agency's governing board last week. The report said that would place "certain areas of the state at a significant economic disadvantage," particularly Columbia, Greenville, Florence and Aiken.

They're among the largest South Carolina's inland cities and expected to fall out of compliance with tighter federal ozone standards next year. Smog is less of a problem along the coast because ocean breezes dissipate the pollution that makes it difficult for asthmatics and others to breathe.

Federal rules call for eliminating excess ozone by 2010. States are trying to avoid the tougher federal rules by developing plans on their own that the Environmental Protection Agency reviews.

But South Carolina's ozone-cutting plan calls for more modest pollution-control equipment on many types of industries than the federal government foresees. Federal rules call for industries in high smog areas to use the latest pollution controls, regardless of cost.

DHEC says in at least one case the higher federal standard would cost five times as much as the type the agency is proposing.

DHEC administrators gave their proposal to the agency's board last week.

"Getting ahead of the curve on this one would minimize the potential negative impact on our industrial development efforts, while at the same time, making sure air quality standards were a step ahead of the coming federal regulations," said Will Folks, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

John Walke, an air expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the South Carolina plan is an attempt to mollify the business community.

Still, he's not ready to condemn the proposal. "If it works, we'll stand up there shoulder to shoulder and congratulate them. But there is real reason for skepticism," Walke said.

Information from: The State