A federal
appeals court today stuck down a highly controversial air pollution rule that
was a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s environmental agenda. The 2003 rule gutted key provisions of the
Clean Air Act, known as New Source Review, that require power plants and other industrial
sources of air pollution to install modern pollution controls when they make
physical or operational changes that increase emissions.
“Today’s
ruling is a tremendous victory for public health and the environment,” said Environment
California Field Organizer Moira Chapin.
“The court slammed the door on the Bush administration’s attempt to
create a gaping loophole in the Clean Air Act for some of the nation’s worst
polluters.”
The 2003
rule would have allowed more than 20,000 power plants, refineries, and other
industrial facilities to replace existing equipment with “functionally
equivalent” equipment without undergoing the clean air reviews required by the
NSR program if the cost of the replacement did not exceed 20% of that of the
entire unit. The exemption would have
applied even if a facility’s air pollution increased by thousands or tens of
thousands of tons as a result of the replacement.
The NSR program
is key to ensuring that aging U.S. power plants—the nation’s largest
industrial source of air pollution—meet modern pollution standards. Nearly three-quarters of all power plant
boilers are over 30 years old and most continue to operate without modern
pollution control technology. These
older plants release 99% of the sulfur dioxide (SO2), 98% of nitrogen oxides
(NOx), and 91% of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants. SO2 and NOx form soot and smog pollution, and
CO2 is the leading global warming pollutant.
In
December 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked implementation of the
rule, pending its review of the case.
Today the court struck down the rule, saying it violates the Clean Air
Act.
Environment
California’s federal advocacy office was a
plaintiff in the case, along with a coalition of states and environmental and
public health groups. The court’s
decision is available at http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200603/03-1380a.pdf.
