A federal appeals court backed claims made by 14 states and prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from enacting new rules regarding air pollution.
Environmental groups have explained that the new rules would increase pollution by allowing older power plants, refineries and factories to modernize without having to install the most advanced new pollution controls. The EPA claims the changes will not increase pollution levels.
'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 suit for the states. 'It is a rejection of a flawed policy.'
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that EPA's changes violated the language of the federal Clean Air Act. The court held that changes such as the one attempted by the EPA can only be authorized by Congress.
Fourteen states and a number of cities, including New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., sued to block the change in 2003.
According to Spitzer's top environmental lawyer, Peter Lehner, the decision applies to about 800 power plants and up to 17,000 factories nationwide.
The EPA was disappointed by the ruling. 'We are disappointed that the court did not find in favor of the United States,' said EPA spokesman John Millett. 'We are reviewing and analyzing the opinion and cannot comment further at this time.'
The plaintiff states included California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
