Tuesday, a United States appeals court decided to reinstate a regulation put forward by the Bush administration, concerning reducing air pollution from power plants.

The ruling actually reversed a decision made by the same court back in July, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the regulation known as CAIR, Clean Air Interstate Rule.

At that time, on July 11, the court reckoned that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had pushed beyond its authority by having brought forth a trading plan aimed at decreasing emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at power plants in the East and Midwest.

Now, prompted by arguments given by the EPA, along with environmental advocates, the U.S. court has resolved to allow CAIR to remain effective as a temporary solution until the EPA draws up an improved plan.

The July decision had rejected the CAIR scheme on the whole, which included regulations with regards to interstate emissions that gave rise to acid rain and smog.

Consequently, that ruling came into much criticism from environmental groups and members of Congress representing the states subject to power plant pollution coming from other states.

Speaking of the new ruling, Frank O'Donnell of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch stated via an e-mail that the program, which is scheduled to come into force on January 1, would be a holiday gift to breathers, while Vickie Patton of Environmental Defense Fund said that the nation expected Obama to fix the mistakes made during the Bush administration.