EPA proposal would slash emissions in 31 states and D.C.
A proposal put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday would cut power-plant emissions in 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia.
The rule would add to a Bush-era emissions-reduction effort, called the Clean Air Interstate Rule. CAIR was challenged in court, and federal appeals judges ordered the EPA in December 2008 to adjust the rule. They did not, however, require that the rule be abandoned completely, so CAIR has been in place since the 2008 ruling.
"The rule has become so intertwined with the regulatory scheme that its vacatur would sacrifice clear benefits to public health and the environment while EPA fixes the rule," the judges wrote.
As it was originally written, CAIR used a cap-and-trade program created in the 1990s to cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. Those efforts – designed to reduce smog and acid rain – were largely successful, and CAIR aimed to continue the cap-and-trade program. As the Wall Street Journal notes, though, the appeals court’s 2008 ruling sent the U.S. emissions-trading market into disarray.
The rule announced Tuesday will supplant CAIR and regulate emissions more directly. It will impose significantly tougher emissions rules on power plants – mainly those that burn coal – and will cost emitters an estimated $2.8 billion.
Yet the social and environmental benefits of the rule are estimated at $120 billion. Reduced sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions will improve air quality in urban areas, the EPA says, and cut both emergency room visits and premature deaths.
By 2014, the EPA says, the rule and other measures would reduce sulfur emissions by 71 percent and nitrogen emissions by 52 percent, compared to 2005 levels.
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