Clean Air Interstate Rule: A good start, but not enough to clean air in the Southeast

Across the Southeast, air pollution from upwind states sickens and kills our people, hurts our economy, and degrades our natural areas. Southern states have waited a long time for measures to clean up the air. By issuing the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), EPA has finally explicitly recognized the contribution upwind states make to air pollution in the Southeast. While CAIR is a positive step toward tackling the problem of "transport" pollution, it doesn't go far enough.

CAIR sets deadlines too far out. It puts a burden on areas that are struggling to clean their air to meet federal health standards for ozone and fine particle pollution. These areas need to clean their air by 2007-2009 (ozone) and 2010 (fine particle pollution), yet the CAIR deadlines are set as far out as 2015-subjecting people to five more years of unhealthy air.

CAIR's delayed deadlines and cap and trade system of pollution credits let dirty power plants delay installing modern pollution controls, resulting in additional air pollution that could be eliminated.

What EPA can do to address the deficiencies under CAIR is to make a positive finding on the petition filed by the State of North Carolina under Section 126 of the Clean Air Act. A positive finding will be an essential backstop to ensure that the regional air clean-up expected under CAIR will in fact happen, and will happen on schedule. Also, in its response to the Section 126 petition, EPA needs to set deadlines for pollution reductions from the plants targeted in the petition that will allow North Carolina and its neighbors to meet the ozone and particle pollution attainment deadlines.