US court rejects EPA rule on power plant pollution

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Bush administration's plan to reduce polluting emissions from power plants and help states downwind from the facilities meet federal clear air standards.

The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency went beyond its authority to create the Clean Air Interstate Rule, known as CAIR, which used a trading scheme among utilities to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at power plants in 28 located in the East and Midwest.

The rule, issued by EPA in March 2005, aimed to slash power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by about 70 percent by 2015, preventing 18,000 deaths a year.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the EPA used a flawed approach in developing the CAIR rule, it could not be fixed in a piecemeal manner and the regulation had to be withdrawn.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said he was "extremely disappointed" with the court's decision. He had yet to be briefed on the court's ruling and did not know what steps the agency would take next. When asked, he did not answer whether there was time left in the Bush administration to rewrite and fix the rule.

Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch in Washington, described the court's ruling as "the legal equivalent of a dirty bomb: literally tens of thousands of Americans could see their lives cut short by dirty air."

Democratic Sen. Tom Carper, whose state of Delaware is affected by pollution from power plants in other states, said the court's ruling means Congress must take the lead in helping people who are forced to breathe smog coming from beyond their state's borders.

"We need to roll up our sleeves and finally pass legislative updates to the Clean Air Act so that Americans can breathe cleaner air," Carper said.