EPA Aid Falls Short of North Carolina's Request

EPA Aid Falls Short of North Carolina's Request

Aug 02 - The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it would deny in part North Carolina's petition for help in reducing power-plant pollution blowing in from other states.

The agency acknowledged other states harm N.C. air, but stopped short of what N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper had sought: assurances that out-of-state pollution would drop quickly.

EPA offered a plan it says will ensure less pollution across the East. The plan adds to an EPA rule, announced in March, that rolls back emissions in 28 states.

But Cooper, who filed the N.C. petition, said EPA's response didn't go far enough. His office will seek "even more aggressive measures to clean the air."

Cooper said last week he's preparing to file suit against the Tennessee Valley Authority, whose upwind power plants send pollutants this way.

Coal-burning plants are among the nation's largest sources of pollutants that form ozone -- an irritating gas that aggravates asthma -- haze and fine particles. The particles cause thousands of premature deaths each year.

Cooper asked the EPA to act against power plants in South Carolina and 12 other states two years after N.C. legislators adopted an aggressive plan to reduce power-plant emissions.

Legislators had hoped neighboring states would follow North Carolina's lead. Because pollutants can travel hundreds of miles on the wind, N.C. officials said, out-of-state sources are primary contributors to N.C. pollution.

EPA said Monday that those states do contribute to fine-particle pollution in North Carolina but don't make the N.C. ozone levels worse.

Cooper's petition named South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

In March, EPA said its new Clean Air Interstate Rule would address North Carolina's concerns. The rule requires 28 Eastern states, including the Carolinas, to clean up power-plant emissions by 2015.

North Carolina's petition sought EPA-ordered reductions within three years.

On Monday, in responding to the N.C. petition, EPA said it would require those states to take part in a backup plan to ensure pollution is actually reduced.

The agency's plan sets overall caps for pollutant emissions, but allows dirtier power plants to buy pollution credits from cleaner plants.

Cooper filed suit against the EPA last month, objecting to pollution-trading provisions, which he said could allow dirty plants to avoid emissions reductions.

"EPA's final rule needs to require that specific power plants upwind of North Carolina, that are dirtying our air, to cut their emissions in a timely way," added Marily Nixon of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The center represents the advocacy group Environmental Defense, which also sued the EPA to force pollution reductions in other states.

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