Court Blocks Another EPA Smog Rule
By H. Josef Hebert
Copyright 1999 Associated Press
May 26, 1999
A federal appeals court today ordered the
Environmental Protection Agency to suspend implementation of a rule
requiring 22 states to take measures that
control interstate movement of smog-causing pollution.
The court decision, pending consideration of a lawsuit
challenging the rule, is
the second blow against
a major
EPA air pollution regulation in two weeks. The same appeals court
turned back the
EPA's smog and soot regulation on May 14.
The action today by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the
District of Columbia directs the
EPA to stop implementing the regulation, pending consideration of
a lawsuit that
had challenged the requirements.
As a result, the 22 states, from Michigan to Maine, will
not be required to
submit plans
in September that would describe in detail how they intend to
reduce the
interstate transport of pollution. The actual pollution reductions
are not
expected to be required until 2003 and in some cases 2005.
It's not certain how the ruling will affect eventual
implementation of the
rule, even if the
EPA
turns back the legal challenge. The
EPA said in a statement that the court's action was a ''procedural
delay.''
The lawsuit challenging the rule was filed by several
Midwest states and a
number of utilities that operate coal-burning power plants in the
Midwest and
Ohio Valley.
The tougher
emission controls, announced by the
EPA last October, would most greatly affect coal-burning power
plants in the Ohio
Valley and Midwest. Environmentalists have argued those plants
produce large
amounts of nitrogen oxide that eventually drifts to the Northeast
as smog,
making it difficult for those states to
comply with federal air quality standards.
Some of the Midwest states and the utilities have argued
that the long-range
transport problem has been exaggerated.
The appeals court said it was granting a partial stay of
the regulation so
states would not have to meet the September deadline for submitting
implementation plans, pending
a further order by the court.
The case is being heard by Judges Douglas H. Ginsburg,
Stephen F. Williams and
Judith W. Rogers. Ginsburg and Williams both were on the
three-judge panel that
on May 14 overturned the
EPA's regulation requiring tougher controls
on soot and smog. That decision is expected to be appealed by the
Clinton
administration.
Responding to today's ruling, the
EPA said in a statement that ''this is a procedural delay to allow
all parties to
argue their case'' that ''temporarily delays these important health
protection
for the American people.''
''The
Environmental Protection
Agency and a number of states will argue before the court the need
to move forward
with these important public health potations,'' the agency
continued.
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