The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will allow Texas to delay implementation of new EPA Cross-State Air Pollution Rules (CSAPR). While the court considers the Texas petition, the state must continue to enforce the old air-pollution standards. All states have a minimum of three years to implement the new air-quality rules. The court officially designated the Texas case “complex.”
A three-judge panel granted Texas electric power producers’ request to not be required to comply with the new federal rules on mercury pending further review, according to an announcement from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. The review will begin in April.
Cutting mercury and other toxic emissions are important for health, according to the EPA new rules announcement on Dec. 21. “Since toxic air pollution from power plants can make people sick and cut lives short, the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are a huge victory for public health,” said Albert A. Rizzo, M.D., national volunteer chair of the American Lung Association, and pulmonary and critical care physician in Newark, Del., in the EPA announcement. “The Lung Association expects all oil- and coal-fired power plants to act now to protect all Americans—especially our children—from the health risks imposed by these dangerous air pollutants.”
The EPA considers the new rules an essential step toward continuing to achieve the goals of the original Clean Air Act. “By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health—and especially for the health of our children. With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement.
Utility companies have countered that the rules requiring stricter emissions standards for coal plants could trigger double-digit increases in utility bills. Critics have said the rules threaten the reliability of the grid and could lead to job losses. “The EPA’s latest overreaching and unlawful regulations jeopardize the availability of reliable electricity in Texas, imperil hundreds of jobs for hard-working Texans, and violate federal law,” Attorney General Abbott said in a statement. “Because of the lawless approach advanced by unelected bureaucrats at the EPA, the State’s ability to prepare for dramatically reduced power generation was severely undermined.”
Abbott quoted Luminant CEO David Campbell’s testimony to a legislative committee: “In addition to the loss of jobs, other negative consequences of CSAPR’s short deadlines and drastic reductions include [l]oss of tax revenue in communities surrounding affected Luminant facilities—revenue that totaled more than $25 million in taxes last year,” in a statement Abbott released announcing the state’s legal action against the EPA.
Abbott filed a request for a stay of the new rules. He named the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Public Utility Commission, the Railroad Commission, and the General Land Office as plaintiffs in the Texas legal action against the EPA. The basis of the complaint is about whether Texas is fairly judged by the air-quality samples taken from other states, whether it had enough time and opportunity to give input into the federal regulations, and about where relevant air-quality samples were taken.
The new rules mean bringing the 40 percent of coal plants that have been grandfathered in and not required to install emissions reduction technology, in compliance with the standards of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. “EPA estimates that manufacturing, engineering, installing, and maintaining the pollution controls to meet these standards will provide employment for thousands, potentially including 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs,” according to its press release. Power plants have three years to comply with the new rules and can request a fourth year.
The EPA had tried to avoid the anticipated resistance from Texas two days before Christmas by declaring they would skirt defiant state authorities by overseeing emissions permits. That strategy became moot when the appeals court granted the stay last week.
