The lawsuit was filed by New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
From The Associated Press, 3/17/06:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-epa-clean-air,0,7485345.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
States Win Suit to Stop New EPA Standards
By MARK JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. --
A federal appeals court sided with 14 states Friday and blocked the
Environmental Protection Agency from going forward with new
regulations activists say would lead to more air pollution from the
nation's power plants and factories.
The new rules would have allowed older power plants, refineries and
factories to modernize without having to install the most advanced
pollution controls.
The EPA has disputed claims that the changes would increase pollution.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that the EPA's changes
violated the language of the federal Clean Air Act, and that any such
change can be authorized only by Congress.
Fourteen states and a number of cities, including New York, San
Francisco and Washington, D.C., sued to block the change in 2003.
"This is an enormous victory for clean air and for the enforcement of
the law and an overwhelming rejection of the Bush administration's
efforts to gut the law," said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
who led the suit for the states.
"It is a rejection of a flawed policy."
Peter Lehner, Spitzer's top environmental lawyer, said the decision
applies to about 800 power plants and up to 17,000 factories
nationwide.
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A victory for human beings who must breathe to stay alive.
Harry
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