States sue EPA again over power-plant mercury rule

States sue EPA again over power-plant mercury rule

Washington (Platts)--19Jun2006

New Jersey and 15 other states filed another federal lawsuit against the
Environmental Protection Agency Monday in an effort to block EPA's
industry-backed rule regulating mercury emissions from coal-fired power
plants.

The suit, filed in the US Court of Appeals in Washington, was prompted by
EPA's refusal to strengthen the rule during a six-month-long "reconsideration"
process that the agency concluded on May 31.

The states first sued EPA over the mercury rule in March 2005, shortly
after the agency promulgated the measure. But the DC Circuit Court put that
lawsuit on hold while EPA conducted its internal review of the rule, which the
states had asked the agency to do.

Among other things, the states wanted EPA to revise the rule so that all
power plants would have to install state-of-the-art pollution-control
equipment to reduce their mercury emissions.

But EPA refused, sticking instead with its industry-favored
"cap-and-trade" approach that allows generators to buy pollution-reduction
"allowances" from other firms instead of reducing their emissions.

The states, led by New Jersey, say EPA's approach is illegal under the
Clean Air Act. "New Jersey will continue to take action to ensure that the
Clean Air Act's protections are enforced even when the federal government
abdicates its own responsibility to do so," said New Jersey Governor Jon
Corzine, a Democrat.

EPA believes the cap-and-trade approach is legal under the Clean Air Act,
and argues that it will encourage the dirtiest power plants to reduce their
mercury emissions on the fastest timeline.

The lawsuit that the states filed Monday will allow the claims in their
original challenge to the mercury rule to move forward, though oral arguments
in the case will probably not take place for at least several months.

Besides New Jersey, the other plaintiffs are California, Connecticut,
Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire,
New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

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