Even if a federal appeals court in Washington struck down a key air-quality regulation as being “fundamentally flawed”, it would look like they are having second thoughts. The court agreed yesterday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow its Clean Air Interstate Rule to remain in place while the EPA makes changes. Basically, this means that power plants in Kentucky and Indiana that installed selective catalytic reduction units will need to start running them year-round starting January 1, rather than only during the summer ozone pollution season. These units can remove about 90 percent of smog- and particle-producing nitrogen oxides from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants.

 

Environmentalists and industry representatives had objected to the initial judgment of the court. Kentucky and Louisville officials have said that they were counting on the rule's 28-state cap-and-trade system for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide to lower pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency has recently designated five counties in the Louisville area and several more in Kentucky and Indian to be out of compliance with national standards for fine particles, which can aggravate asthma and cause heart attacks.

 

The three-judge panel from the federal appeals court said that after reconsideration, it agreed the rule might be good after all, with clear benefits to public health and the environment. Anyway, the panel did not set a time limit for the EPA to complete its revisions, but it's likely they will be handled by the administration of President-elect Barack Obama. However, the EPA estimated the rule would cut nitrogen oxides by about 60 percent from 2003 levels, and sulfur dioxide by 73 percent. Furthermore, the rule would have prevented 17,000 premature deaths, 22,000 nonfatal heart attacks and 700,000 respiratory ailments annually from asthma and bronchitis.