4. AIR POLLUTION: Groups file lawsuit over soot rule for coal plants (E&ENews PM, 07/15/2008)

Lydia DePillis, E&ENews PM reporter

Two environmental groups asked a federal court today to review a U.S. EPA rule that exempts new coal-fired power plants from fine particulate standards that they say would allow dangerously high soot emissions.

Earthjustice filed the petition in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, on the last day of the Clean Air Act-mandated deadline for challenging the rule. The groups also are sending a separate petition to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asking him to withdraw the rule.

EPA's "new source review" rule allows plants to keep emitting fine particles for a three-year "transition" period while the agency develops a better test method, as the agency believes its current method to be inadequate.

Sierra Club spokesman Pat Gallagher said the three-year regulation hiatus removes one of the main barriers to construction of new coal plants, in a "really cynical disregard for the health of children everywhere."

"Fine particulates are one of the most dangerous pollutants that new power plants emit, and represent a severe constraint on their ability to be constructed," Gallagher said. "So this rule, by constraining the way in which fine particulates are measured and exempting factories from having to use the best available control strategies, gives power plants a free pass."

According to the groups' release, EPA adopted standards for fine particulate matter in 1997 after regulations for "coarse" particles failed to adequately protect human health. New plants will still have to meet coarse particle limits.

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