NYT: North Carolina Asks E.P.A. to Force Others to Clean Air

[DeepModem Mom]

North Carolina Asks E.P.A. to Force Others to Clean Air
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Published: March 19, 2004


WASHINGTON, March 18 — In a move that opens a new front in the clean air wars, North Carolina has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to crack down on pollution that it says is seeping across its borders from power plants in 13 other states....

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Traditionally, Northeastern states and California have led the legal battles for clean air. North Carolina's action is a reflection of pressure on state and local governments, which face economic repercussions if they are not in compliance with tough new ozone standards that take effect on April 15 under the federal Clean Air Act. States are considering such actions as cracking down on power plants, lowering speed limits and discouraging house painting during sweltering summer months in an effort to reduce the dangerous combination of ingredients that produce ozone. Those ingredients are heat, nitrogen oxides and the volatile organic compounds that are often found in consumer products like paint and barbecue fluid.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than half the nation's population will be living in areas that are in violation of the Clean Air Act after April 15. North Carolina, despite enacting one of the nation's strictest power plant pollution laws in 2002, says it will not be able to meet the new standards in part because of pollution wafting in from other states. Gov. Michael F. Easley and Mr. Cooper, both Democrats, sent warning letters over the past several months, urging neighboring states to adopt strict pollution controls.

In its petition, North Carolina is invoking a little-used but powerful section of the Clean Air Act that allows states to ask the environmental agency to address pollution from out-of-state sources. The section was last invoked in 1997, when eight Northeastern states petitioned the agency to reduce smog from the Midwest. In granting the requests of four of those states, the agency tightened pollution controls for smog nationwide....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/national/19ENVI