Saturday December 18, 1999
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Nearly 400 power plants and industrial boilers in 12 states must dramatically reduce smog-producing emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled Friday.
The action came as the EPA approved petitions from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania complaining that pollutants drifting in from the Midwest prevented them from meeting clean-air standards.
"People in these communities have been suffering by pollution carried in the air across state borders," EPA Administrator Carol Browner said Friday, estimating the mandate would cost companies $950 million. "Today's action means healthier air in those communities."
The EPA mandate requires that 392 facilities reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by a total of 510,000 tons a year by May 2003.
The 12 jurisdictions affected by the ruling are Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia - with the largest proportion of plants in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Six jurisdictions targeted are among those that have filed petitions of their own with the EPA: New York and Pennsylvania, whose petitions were approved, and New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, which have petitions pending.
Power plant officials attacked the tactic, with American Electric Power spokesman Pat D. Hemlepp saying the Midwest is not to blame for Northeastern smog, and that eliminating all emissions from upwind power plants would not result in clean air over the complaining states.
"The problem in these densely populated areas of the Northeast are the cars and trucks they have crowding their streets each day," Hemlepp said.
The Justice Department last month filed lawsuits on behalf of the EPA against 32 Midwest power plants, alleging the plants failed to install the most efficient emission-reducing technology and as a result, massive amounts of pollutants had been released into the air, causing smog and acid rain.
The EPA acted on the petitions from the "downwind" states after two federal appeals court rulings earlier this year stalled a broader strategy of reducing nitrogen oxide emissions in 22 states.
Environmentalists praised the move.
Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Washington-based Clean Air Trust, called it a "an important step while the court cases are being resolved."
