The Environmental Protection Agency is clamping down on power plant pollution in 27 states that contributes to unhealthy air downwind. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson today announced a plan to reduce smokestack pollution causing smog and soot in downwind states, where it combines with local air contaminants, making it impossible for those states to meet air quality standards on their own. The rule differs from one proposed by the Obama administration in July. Power plants in the District of Columbia and five states—Louisiana, Delaware, Connecticut, Florida and Massachusetts—will no longer have to control year-round emissions of two pollutants: sulfur dioxide, responsible for acid rain and soot, and nitrogen oxides, which contribute to both smog and soot. Texas, by contrast, will have to reduce more pollution than in the initial proposal, which required the state’s power plants only to address summertime smog-forming pollution.
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber says it was pleased with Jackson’s plan because it lends credence to its position that Louisiana was not responsible for cross-state pollution of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. In a conference call with reporters, the EPA chief said the regulation would make sure no community has to bear the burden of polluters in another state. She says just because pollution drifts far from a power plant “doesn’t mean pollution is no longer that plant’s responsibility.”
