New EPA rule will clean the air for 240 million Americans

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/07/07/117223/new-epa-rule-will-clean-the-air.html

* Posted on Thursday, July 7, 2011

New EPA rule will clean the air for 240 million Americans
By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Pollution that blows hundreds of miles from coal-fired power plants into other states will be reduced under a final plan that the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday.

The rule, a revision of a Bush administration plan, will require pollution reductions in 27 states from Texas and Minnesota on the west to the East Coast. Cleaner, healthier air is expected as a result in the eastern, central and southern parts of the country, home to 240 million people.

The Clean Air Act requires under a "good neighbor" provision that power plants don't export pollution to other states. Some states, including North Carolina and Delaware, cleaned up their own plants but ended up with unhealthy air days anyway because of pollution from tall power plant smokestacks hundreds of miles away in other states.

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The EPA said that the pollution reductions also would improve visibility in parks and reduce acid rain that harms plants and wildlife in forests, lakes and streams.

"This is a historic day for the Adirondack Park, the Catskill Park and the neighboring Appalachian Mountain Range, from Maine to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park," Brian L. Houseal, executive director of the Adirondack Council, said in a statement. The environmental group has been fighting acid rain since 1975.