States win suit to stop new EPA regulations

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's four-year effort to loosen emission rules for aging coal-fired power plants, unanimously ruling yesterday that the changes violated the Clean Air Act and that only Congress could authorize such revisions.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with officials from 14 states, including New York, California, Massachusetts, and Maryland, who contended that the rule changes -- allowing older power plants, refineries, and factories to upgrade their facilities without having to install the most advanced pollution controls -- were illegal and could increase the amount of pollution in the atmosphere.

The Environmental Protection Agency's New Source Review policy was issued in 2003 but has never taken effect because of legal challenges by state officials and environmental groups. The administration has argued that the existing standards are too stringent and have discouraged utility plants and other industries from upgrading and expanding. Opponents have characterized the rule changes as a favor to administration allies in the utility and coal industries that would greatly add to public health problems.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who led the court fight to block the administration's New Source Review policy, called yesterday's ruling ''a major victory for clean air and public health" and a ''rejection of a flawed policy."

In a statement, EPA spokesman John Millet said, ''We are disappointed that the Court did not find in favor of the United States. We are reviewing and analyzing the opinion and cannot comment further at this time."

Some studies have linked pollution from coal-fired power plants to as many as 20,000 premature deaths in the United States every year. Environmental activists have made curbing this type of pollution one of their most pressing legislative and legal priorities.

President Bush took office in 2001 promising to ease regulations on coal-fired power plants as part of a larger energy production initiative. Three successive administrators of the EPA have tried without success to alter the rules and policies adopted during the Clinton administration that cracked down on aging power plants and refineries that were not equipped with modern air pollution equipment when they were upgraded and their output was expanded.