Court Overturns Coal Pollution Ruling

Posted on Aug 22, 2012

Timitrius (CC BY-SA 2.0)

A U.S. appeals court Tuesday overturned an Obama administration rule aimed at decreasing harmful pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency said the reductions would have resulted in health benefits for more than 240 million people.

The EPA’s rule intended to cut the plants’ sulphur dioxide emissions by 73 percent and nitrogen oxide by 54 percent from 2005 levels. Two of the three judges who ruled on the case said the EPA exceeded its “jurisdictional limits” in interpreting the Clean Air Act, The Guardian reports.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

The Guardian:

The Columbia district circuit appeals court said in a 2-1 decision that the Environmental Protection Agency had exceeded its mandate with the rule, which was to limit sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants in 28 mostly eastern states and Texas.

The court sent the cross-state air pollution rule for revision, telling the agency to administer its existing clean air interstate rule – the Bush-era regulation that it was updating – in the interim. The EPA said it was reviewing the ruling.

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