A three judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has scrapped the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule which was issued on July 2011. The rule was the EPA’s attempt to address the problem of legally permitted emissions crossing state lines causing the downwind state to be out of compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Two of the judges on the panel sided with more than three dozen challengers to the EPA’s rule which imposed caps on emissions for 27 states. The rule imposed a cap on sulfur dioxide which can lead to acid rain harmful… Read more
Tag: Cross State Air Pollution Rule
EPA Proposes to Increase Emission Limits in Nine States
On October 6, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a proposed amendment to its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which would increase state-wide limitations on emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in nine states. Finalized only three months earlier, CSAPR establishes an interstate emissions trading system that caps emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from electric generating units in 27 Eastern states. The goal is to reduce interstate transport of pollution to help downwind states in their efforts to attain and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The states affected by EPA’s October 6 proposed increases… Read more
EPA Finalizes Clean Air Transport Rule
On July 6, 2011, EPA finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) under the Clean Air Act, which requires states take action to mitigate cross-border air pollution. The CSAPR, also known as the Clean Air Transport Rule, provides a national regulatory framework for reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from more than 1,000 power plants in the eastern United States as they contribute detrimentally to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and fine particulate matter in “downwind” states. The Rule requires significant reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that cross state lines. Plants in the 27… Read more