A US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to relax air-pollution limits placed on power-plant emissions.
The EPA instituted the rules because some gases emitted from power plants cross state lines and impact “downwind” states. The Court of Appeals ruling still upholds the EPA’s right to impose clean-air standards under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, rejecting the states and industry groups’ argument that the rule was “overly burdensome.” This ruling will force the EPA to redo its rules for 13 states that emit sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, gases that get carried on winds and cross state lines, eventually reaching the East Coast.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the appeals court ruling said the “EPA’s rule imposed overly strict limits on the 13 upwind states,” which would “result in downwind states ‘overachieving’ air quality standards for harmful pollutants.”