EPA fails to protect NC citizens from other states' pollution

Chapel Hill-The Environmental Protection Agency has denied a request by North Carolina to clean up pollution from 13 neighboring states and instead issued a weak plan that doesn't tackle the state's upwind pollution problem and is in violation of the Clean Air Act. EPA's announcement was prompted by lawsuits filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Environmental Defense, and by the North Carolina Attorney General.

"Instead of leading the states in efforts to clean the nation's air, EPA is battling states like North Carolina that are working to improve air quality," said Marily Nixon, Senior Attorney and Director of SELC's Healthy Air Project. "EPA is opposing North Carolina's efforts to clean up old, dirty, power plants located near our state lines, even though public health demands it and the Clean Air Act requires it. There is no excuse to not use this opportunity to ensure cleaner air for North Carolina."

"North Carolina has worked hard to encourage power plant clean up in upwind states, but there is still more work to be done before we can all breathe healthier air. Following the spirit and the letter of the Clean Air Act, EPA should have found in favor of North Carolina's good neighbor petition," said Michael Shore, Environmental Defense senior air policy analyst.

In March 2004, the State of North Carolina filed a "Section 126" petition seeking to compel the EPA to force cleanups at older coal-fired power plants in thirteen upwind states. The "good neighbor" provision in Section 126 of the Clean Air Act allows a state to petition EPA for a finding that power plants in upwind states are impeding its ability to attain air quality standards. As part of a court-supervised settlement, EPA was required to take final action on the petition by March 15.

Rather than requiring actual emissions reductions at specific upwind plants, EPA denied North Carolina's petition and instead issued a plan that will illegally substitute implementation of the weaker federal Clean Air Interstate Rule to remedy the state's air pollution problems.

Adopted last March, CAIR requires 28 Eastern states to clean up power plant emissions by 2015 using a cap-and-trade scheme. However, CAIR allows dirty plants to continue to operate too long before cutting their pollution, and because CAIR allows plants to trade pollution credits, plants that are polluting North Carolina's air can avoid emissions reductions by purchasing credits. Furthermore, by concentrating only on the state's soot problem, EPA's plan ignores the contribution neighboring states make to North Carolina's smog.

Even though North Carolina passed the Clean Smokestacks Act in 2002 - one of the most aggressive air pollution laws in the country - over one third of the state's counties have air that fails to meet federal health standards. Twenty-six of those counties violate the federal smog standard, in part because of pollution generated in 13 upwind states. Soot, or particle pollution, is also a problem for the state. Despite these problems, last December EPA proposed weak new standards for particle pollution that fail to protect public health.

After filing suit against the Environmental Protection Agency in the fall of 2004 to force EPA to act on the Section 126 petition, SELC and Environmental Defense joined the state of North Carolina in agreeing to a settlement with the agency which required the agency act on North Carolina's petition. North Carolina is the first southern state to file such a petition, a tool that has been successfully used by northern states to force midwestern and southern states to curb ozone-forming emissions.