Court Sides with Clean Air Act

"Looks like all the king's horses and men at the EPA could not put Humpty Dumpty together again," joked John Walke, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups opposing the EPA's rule change that would allow coal-fired power plants to upgrade their facilities without installing emissions control technology.

The 2003 EPA ruling states that aging power plants would have to install anti-pollution equipment only if the plant’s upgrade costs are in excess of 20% of the total replacement cost of the plant. In March of 2006, an appeals court struck down the ruling, saying that it violated the Clean Air Act and was “contrary to the plain language” of the Act. According to the appeals court, the EPA ruling made sense “only in a Humpty Dumpty world.”

Today the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the Bush administration that would defend the ruling and challenge the appeals court decision. Environmental groups opposed the EPA rule, stating it would allow coal-fired power plants to emit tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SOx) into the atmosphere. These pollutants contribute to acid rain and smog, and are also linked to respiratory health problems.

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Reuters

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