Federal Court Throws Out EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

August 21, 2012 | 12:52 PM

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. threw out new rules aimed at reducing smog and acid rain. The Cross-State Air Pollution rule created new limits on nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, and applied to pollution that crossed state lines. The rules would force aging coal-fired plants to either install new scrubbers or shut down. A significant number of these plants are also converting to natural gas.
The Lehigh Valley’s Portland Generating Station, operated by GenOn, has long been a source of smog for New Jersey. The company announced it would close the plant by 2015, due to the cost of complying with the new rules.
BusinessWeek has more on today’s ruling.

“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today sided with more than three dozen challengers to the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which imposes caps on emissions for 27 states. The rule was put on hold by the court while it considered the legality of the regulation.
The court ordered the agency to enforce a 2005 rule known as the Clear Air Interstate Rule, until a viable replacement to the cross-state pollution rule is made.”

The 27 states include those that contribute a significant amount of air pollution to neighboring states. The court’s decision questions the EPA’s authority in enacting the provision, also known as the “Transport Rule.”

“Here, EPA’s Transport Rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority in two independent respects. First, the statutory text grants EPA authority to require upwind States to reduce only their own significant contributions to a downwind State’s nonattainment. But under the Transport Rule, upwind States may be required to reduce emissions by more than their own significant contributions to a downwind State’s nonattainment.

To read the ruling, click here.