COLUMBUS, Ohio - The nation's largest power generator broke clean air rules when it failed to cut emissions of smog-producing soot, a Justice Department lawyer said Wednesday.

The case against Columbus-based American Electric Power that began in federal court is the biggest of several filed in the waning days of the Clinton administration against utilities in the Midwest and South.

The government and eight states in the Northeast, including New Jersey, say AEP broke the law when it made major modifications to nine coal-burning plants without installing equipment that would have cut pollution drastically.

U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus is hearing the case without a jury. AEP could be forced to pay billions of dollars for pollution controls and millions of dollars in penalties if it broke the Clean Air Act.

AEP and other utilities that face similar suits contend that the work done on the plants was routine maintenance - not major modifications that trigger the requirement for expensive new pollution controls.

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