EPA Issues Clean Air Rule Covering Upgrades to Powerplants
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a regulation that it says will clarify when powerplants and other smokestack facilities must install up-to-date pollution control equipment when the plants are overhauled. The rule, which Acting EPA Administrator Marianne L. Horinko signed on Aug. 27, was welcomed by electric utility companies but slammed by environmental groups. EPA now is likely to face a challenge in court from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose office had said he would file a lawsuit to block the regulation.
The rule is part of EPA's "New Source Review" program, which was established in the 1977 Clean Air Act. The latest rule defines when plant upgrades go beyond "routine maintenance," and thus require advanced emission-control technology.