Feb 20 - Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

New Jersey filed another legal challenge against federal environmental policies Tuesday, this time questioning a new rule that gives industry more leeway in reporting air pollution.

The state asked a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to review a rule, adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency in December, that lets factories, coal-fired power plants and other pollution sources decide when increases in air emissions are significant enough to require detailed record-keeping.

It also asked the EPA to reconsider the change.

The rule is dangerous, state officials said, because emission records help regulators decide when plants are violating clean-air limits.

"What this rule does, essentially, is leave plant operators to determine for themselves whether their emissions call for installation of new pollution controls," Anne Milgram, New Jersey's attorney general, said in a statement.

The EPA measure, announced Dec. 14, covers hundreds of plants around the nation. New Jersey blames many of them, especially big Midwestern coal plants, for the smog, acid rain and mercury emissions that waft into the state from beyond its borders. State officials have spent much of the past seven years in court fighting various Bush administration attempts to change the regulations governing those plants.

The administration has defended its proposals, saying they help plants become more efficient while still protecting air quality. But the courts have generally sided with New Jersey and other states.

The EPA did not immediately respond Tuesday to a call seeking a comment. An industry group representing electric power plants also did not respond, saying it had not yet seen New Jersey's court filing.

One Washington activist, however, called the December rule "a Christmas present to smokestack industries."

"It was designed to reduce the public's ability to know if industry is increasing its emissions," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. "In effect, the Bush administration is saying, 'Let's trust industry.' "

Lee Moore, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said other states may join New Jersey's challenge against the new rule.

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E-mail: nussbaum@northjersey.com

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