http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpair214670186mar21,0,3847016.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlinesIt's not certain yet whether a unanimous federal appeals court decision last Friday will be the final spike through the heart of the Bush administration's effort to make life easier for polluters. But the ruling was a major victory for a clean-air coalition of environmentalists and state governments, including New York's.
The issue is the "new source review" provision of the Clean Air Act, which requires plant operators to install modern pollution-control technology whenever they modify their plants in ways that significantly increase emissions. Industry didn't much like the Clinton administration's active enforcement of this requirement - or the lawsuits that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed against plants that violated the law. So, when Vice President Dick Cheney met with industry leaders to shape the new administration's energy policy, new source review was a prime target.
The solution was Environmental Protection Agency rules that tinkered with definitions - so that plant operators could do larger upgrades but still fit them in the "routine maintenance" category and avoid adding pollution controls. Spitzer was a leader among the states that sued. On Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the states in a tough, take-no-prisoners decision.
But stay tuned. Stung by the ruling, the polluters and their administration pals will now turn to Congress.
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