Saturday, March 04, 2000
Court upholds clean-air rules
Victory for EPA a setback for Ohio Valley power plants
The Associated Press and The Cincinnati Enquirer
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to require 19 states, including Ohio and Kentucky, to control interstate movement of smog-causing chemicals from power plants.
The U.S. Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision was a major victory for the EPA and air-pollution control officials in the Northeast, and a setback for utilities in the Ohio Valley and Midwest.
The EPA issued the regulation in late 1998 in an attempt for the first time to reduce the interstate drifting of smog-causing pollution. But it saw the effort locked in limbo last May because of a lawsuit and a temporary blocking order by the courts.
The regulation, aimed large ly at curtailing the long-distance travel of pollution from the Ohio Valley into the Northeast, requires states to develop tougher emission controls for dozens of large coal-burning power plants.
The states were to have submitted plans for the pollution reductions by last September, but those plans never materialized because of the lawsuit. The new controls are to be required by 2003 for some plants and 2005 for others.
In Cincinnati, Cinergy spokesman Steve Brash said company officials had not yet had an opportunity to review the decision and had not decided on a course of action.
“We are disappointed by the decision and we think the very severe time frame set by the EPA can have a very negative impact on the availability of electricity at peak times in the Midwest,” Mr. Brash said.
“We think it's going to be very difficult for utilities in the Midwest to schedule plant outages to do the work necessary to comply, and still have those plants available during the times of peak electric use,” which is primarily in the summer, he said.
The government sued Ciner gy and six other coal-burning utilities in November, alleging they had violated the Clean Air Act by making modifications to older, coal-fired plants without taking steps needed to control smog, acid rain and soot.
Kurt Waltzer, clean-air program manager with the Columbus-based Ohio Environmental Council, said he's not sure how soon the decision will have an impact on reducing emissions. But he called the decision a “real victory” for Ohioans.
“We're all going to breathe a little easier because of it,” he said. “Power plants in the Ohio Valley are responsible for up to half of the smog pollution in the Ohio Valley.”
With the exception of three states originally cited — Wisconsin, Missouri and Georgia — the three-judge panel ruled Friday to uphold the regulation, meaning that the temporary order issued in May was lifted.
The judges said that EPA's regulation “reasonably establishes reduction levels” while leaving the question of how to accomplish those reductions to the states.
“This decision means that we again can move forward to bring cleaner, healthier air to more than 138 million people living in the eastern half of the United States,” EPA Administrator Carol Browner said in a statement.
Assistant Attorney General Lois J. Schiffer said the court decision was important “because air pollution knows no boundaries” and interstate travel of smog-causing chemicals needed to be controlled.
The lawsuit, filed by several Mid western states and operators of coal-burning power plants in the Ohio Valley and Midwest, had challenged the way the EPA determined the source of the air pollution and how it considered the cost of pollution controls for the 22 states to which the regulation applied.
The court in both cases ruled that the EPA had acted properly as it applied to 19 states.
In addition to Ohio and Kentucky, those states are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The court said further review was needed regarding how the regulation was applied to Wisconsin, Missouri and Georgia, because these states were on the outskirts of the broad geographical area targeted by the EPA.
Court upholds clean-air rules
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