Court suspends Bush pollution rules
Reuters/Yahoo News
Wed Dec 24, 5:31 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal court on Wednesday halted a
Bush administration plan to allow power plants, oil refineries
and other industrial facilities to make upgrades to aging plants
without installing costly new air pollution control
equipment.
A coalition of environmental groups and states sued to stop
the new rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency,
saying the policy changes violated the federal Clean Air Act and
would result in more emissions being spewed into the air.
Emissions from coal-fired power plants and refineries can
aggravate asthma, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia.
The U.S. appeals court in Washington, agreed to temporarily
set aside the changes to the EPA's "new source review" rules and
said they could not take effect until the lawsuit challenging
their legality was finished.
EPA officials could not immediately be reached for comment on
the ruling.
The Bush administration has been criticized by Democrats and
green groups for relaxing several environmental protection rules
at the behest of energy companies. The industry contends the
changes simply reflect the administration's analysis of
scientific evidence and costs.
Under the EPA's planned rules, a facility, such as a power
plant, could have replaced equipment without installing pollution
controls as long as the cost of the replacement did not exceed 20
percent of the cost of the plant.
When Congress wrote the new source review provision of the
Clean Air Act in 1977, it assumed most of the aging coal-fired
plants would be gradually replaced with new ones. Congress
exempted plants operating at the time from stricter pollution
controls, unless they launched a major renovation or
expansion.
Green groups welcomed the court's ruling.
Ann Weeks, an attorney with the Clean Air Task Force, said the
ruling means "no harm can be done until the court has decided
whether the rule (change) is legal, which we strongly believe it
is not."
If the EPA had adopted its policy change and the court later
ruled against the agency, Weeks said the damage would have
already been done to the environment.
"The (polluting) emissions are already in the air," she
said.
Weeks said companies could have been hurt financially as well,
if the court had ruled against the EPA after the policy change
took effect, and firms would then have to pay for unexpected
pollution controls or remove the newly installed equipment.
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