For the second time this year, federal judges have upheld EPA’s rejection of a Texas Clean Air Act plan on the grounds that it didn’t do enough to cut smog-forming emissions that spread beyond the state’s boundaries.
EPA “complied with the statutory requirements and its reasoning was sound,” Judge Stephen Higginson of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in the majority’s 2-1 opinion released late Monday in response to a lawsuit brought by Texas almost a decade ago.
The suit challenged EPA’s rejection of Texas’ 2012 “good neighbor” plan, which was intended to comply with a statutory requirement that bars states from allowing industrial pollution that causes downwind compliance problems elsewhere.
In this instance, Texas maintained that emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from its large fleet of coal-fired power plants were not hindering other states’ ability to meet a 75-parts-per-billion ozone standard set by EPA in 2008. Ozone, the main ingredient in smog, is a lung irritant that can help trigger asthma attacks in children. NOx is a prime contributor to ozone formation.
