Court Rejects Bush Administration’s Pollution Rule

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A United States Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected an EPA rule that prevented states from establishing stricter emissions monitoring systems for high polluting industries such as oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and the like.

In 1990, the Clean Air Act was modified to limit the emissions of big industrial polluters by requiring them to procure state issued pollution permits. Furthermore, states were allowed to tighten Federal monitoring requirements to ensure adherence to the set pollution levels.

In 2006, however, EPA introduced new rules that prevented states from resorting to stricter monitoring of emission levels. Since the new EPA rule made it difficult to come up with clear and transparent data pertaining to emission levels, it triggered opposition from environmental groups that culminated in a lawsuit.

The court reached its decision on Tuesday, which was in favor of the environmental groups. Keri Powell of Earthjustice, who fought the case on behalf of the greens said :

“This is a huge victory for everyone who breathes…We can’t have strong enforcement of our clean air laws unless we know what polluters are putting into the air.”