The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Court Reinstates Clean-Air Rule During EPA Fix

December 24, 2008 - Maine environmental leaders hailed a federal appeals court ruling on Tuesday that reinstated clean-air regulations established by the Bush administration while the Environmental Protection Agency makes court-mandated changes.

In July, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which required 28 mostly Eastern states to reduce smog-forming and soot-producing emissions that can travel long distances in the wind. The court said the EPA had overstepped its authority by instituting a rule with "more than several fatal flaws."

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel decided to reinstate the rule until the EPA develops a new clean-air program under the incoming Obama administration.

The ruling allows Maine and other states to move forward with their own regulations based on the EPA rule while they wait for new federal limits on pollution that drifts here from the South and West.

Maine was among the states that challenged the federal rules in court, said David Littell, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

"This is good news for Maine," Littell said Tuesday. "The clean-air regulations developed under the Bush administration were insufficient but an improvement over what we had before. It's the difference between having a complete train wreck and having something in place that needs fixing."

Judge Judith W. Rogers said going without the federal rule while the EPA fixes it "would sacrifice clear benefits to public health and the environment." The judges didn't give a deadline for new regulations but said Tuesday's decision isn't an "indefinite stay" of the July ruling.

The EPA had predicted the federal rule would prevent about 17,000 premature deaths and tens of thousands of heart attacks each year by dramatically reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. It also would save as much as $100 billion a year in health-care costs and eliminate millions of lost work and school days.

Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA administrator who helped to write the federal rule, said the impact of the court's latest action is unclear. Holmstead now works for Bracewell & Giuliani, an international law firm that represents businesses "impacted by pervasive and complex environmental issues, laws and regulations," according to the firm's Web site.

"The regulated industry looks forward to working closely with the new administration in formulating a response to today's decision," Holmstead said. "The resulting rule must balance important environmental, economic and energy objectives."

Edward Miller, executive director of the American Lung Association in Maine, said the Bush administration neglected that balance.

"We hope this signals a change in attention, focus and direction toward protecting the public's health and being more business-friendly," Miller said. "We don't believe those things are incompatible."

From PPH staff and wire reports December 24, 2008


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News