WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit struck down another regulation created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The defeated rule, known as the ‘Cross-State’ regulation, set stringent air pollution limits on Alabama’s sulfur dioxide emissions crossing state lines.
The ruling orders the EPA to rewrite sulfur-dioxide and nitrogen-oxide standards for 13 states, including Alabama, that “contribute to soot and smog along the East Coast.”
The court said the EPA’s rule imposed overly strict limits on the 13 upwind states, of which Alabama is a part. As a practical matter, the limits would result in downwind states “overachieving” air quality standards for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
“EPA’s uniform cost thresholds have required states to reduce pollutants beyond the point necessary” to keep down-wind states in compliance with pollution rules, Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote. “That violates the Supreme Court’s clear mandate.”
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange applauded the decision. “Alabama is working carefully to meet federal cross-state emission limits and we are gratified that the DC Circuit Court has agreed with our position that the EPA is once again acting against the best interest of our consumers and our state through overly burdensome and unjustified regulation,” He wrote in a press release.
“The court ruling noted that the EPA is requiring Alabama to implement cost controls that are five times as costly as what would be required to attain the standard,” Strange added. “Clearly, the EPA has overstepped its bounds.”
Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has had an extended record of overreach. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Agency’s use of the Clean Air Act beyond its original intentions. In a 5-4 decision, the majority held that the EPA “unreasonably” interpreted the Clean Air Act when it decided not to consider industry compliance costs and whether regulating the pollutants is “appropriate and necessary.”
That very decision, Michigan v. EPA, shaped the D.C. court’s ruling Tuesday.
Recently, the EPA has also come under fire for its “Waters of the United States” rule, that Alabama is also challenging in Federal Court. The new rule extends the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers’ regulatory reach to an indefinite number of small bodies of water, including roadside ditches, temporary streams or “any waters located within the 100-year floodplain of a traditional navigable water.”
Alabama was one of four states suing the EPA over the overly restrictive cross-state emission standards to prevail in the court ruling. The other states include Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.
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