John M. Broder
The New York Times
7/6/2010
WASHINGTON — Acting under federal court order, the Obama administration proposed new air-quality rules on Tuesday for coal-burning power plants that officials said would bring major reductions in soot and smog from Texas to the Eastern Seaboard.
The Environmental Protection Agency is issuing the rules to replace a plan from the administration of President George W. Bush that a federal judge threw out in 2008, citing numerous flaws in the calculation of air-quality effects…
…The cost of compliance to utilities and other operators of smog-belching power plants would be $2.8 billion a year, according to E.P.A. estimates…
…A spokesman for the utility industry said companies had already achieved large reductions in the pollutants since 1990.
“E.P.A.’s new proposal would require dramatic reductions in power-sector emissions, on top of major reductions to date, on a very short timeline,” said Dan Riedinger of the Edison Electric Institute, the main lobby for the utilities.
The companies were grateful, Mr. Riedinger said, that they would be allowed to trade emissions permits, but the prospect of tougher standards on other pollutants beginning in 2012 created “a great deal of regulatory uncertainty.”…
Read the entire article at the New York Times. H/T The Astute Bloggers
