U.S. Court Blocks EPA Standard on Modernizing Plants, Factories
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=amDH99SUOX4k&refer=top_world_news
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. appeals court ruled that the
Environmental Protection Agency can't make it easier for
power plants, factories and refineries to avoid installing pollution
controls when they replace aging equipment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
sided with 15 states and three cities that said a rule issued by
the EPA in 2003 violated the Clean Air Act. The federal law
requires plants undergoing ``any physical change''
that would increase their pollution discharges to
install the best available control technology.
The EPA's rule, which wasn't enforced during
the lawsuit, interpreted the law to let plants
install new equipment without including
pollution-control devices as long as the new
installation cost less than 20 percent of the
plant's value.
Such an interpretation would produce a
``strange'' result in which a law intended to limit
increases in air pollution would allow plants
``to increase significantly the pollution they emit
without government review,'' the court ruled today.
``The decision is a major victory for clean air
and public health,'' New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer said in a statement. ``It will
encourage industry to build new and cleaner
facilities instead of prolonging the life of old,
dirty plants.'' New York was one of the states
that sued the EPA over the rule.
EPA spokesman John Millett said in an e-mailed
statement that the agency was disappointed in the ruling
and had no further comment.
Other states joining the lawsuit were California,
Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Cities participating were Washington D.C.,
New York City and San Francisco.
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