Appeals panel: White House-backed change violates Clean Air Act
Friday, March 17, 2006; Posted: 6:38 p.m. EST (23:38 GMT)
ALBANY, New York (AP) -- A federal appeals court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday from easing clean-air rules on aging power plants, refineries and factories, one of the regulatory changes that had been among the White House's environmental priorities.
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Fourteen states and a number of cities, including New York; San Francisco, California; and Washington, had sued to block the change in 2003, saying it would allow more air pollution.
"This is an enormous victory for clean air and for the enforcement of the law, and an overwhelming rejection of the Bush administration's efforts to gut the law," said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who led the lawsuit for the states. "It is a rejection of a flawed policy."
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The three-judge panel said the EPA's reading of the Clean Air Act was "a Humpty Dumpty world" interpretation and that Congress had made clear it wanted older facilities to add pollution controls whenever they make modifications.
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