From the Associated Press via Yahoo! News:
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The Bush administration proposed new regulations Thursday that could allow the nation's dirtiest power plants to release more air pollutants each year - and possibly undercut lawsuits aimed at forcing companies to comply with the Clean Air Act.
The proposal follows a June federal court ruling that said power plants can throw more pollutants into the air each year when they modernize to operate for longer hours.
It's the latest in a series of attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to make the nearly 30-year-old Clean Air Act rules for coal-fired power plants more industry-friendly. Some changes were held up by lawsuits from environmentalists and state officials.
"We are now doing to smokestacks what we did to tailpipes," said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, who predicted the regulations would spur greater technology innovation.
"We want to remove any unnecessary regulatory obstacles," he said. "We're focused on practical, achievable results that don't get delayed by years of litigation."
The EPA proposal affects the nation's 600 coal-burning power plants, which represent 55 percent of the nation's electric generating capacity. Industry officials say the plants are getting cleaner. But they continue to produce millions of tons of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide blamed for smog, acid rain and soot and other fine particles that lodge in people's lungs and cause asthma and other respiratory ailments. They also remain a big source of mercury, which works its way up the food chain after being absorbed by fish.
EPA "is embracing industry-backed loopholes that undermine basic protections for millions of Americans breathing harmful smokestack pollution," said Vickie Patton, an attorney who handles air quality issues for the advocacy group Environmental Defense.
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