EPA is formally freezing implementation of its latest “good neighbor” smog control plan for a remaining 11 states in the wake of the June stay issued by the Supreme Court.
In a newly posted interim final rule, the agency officially acknowledged the impact of the court’s decision on its latest bid to further cut smog-forming emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources that contribute to downwind compliance problems outside their home states.
Because EPA had informally halted enforcement following that decision, the new rule is to some extent an administrative punctuation mark. But it also includes measures to ensure that power producers continue to meet earlier steps to cut pollution that crosses state lines, according to an accompanying summary.
Besides Ohio and Indiana, two of the states that had sought Supreme Court action, the rule covers California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
