State of Oklahoma, et al v. U.S. EPA

Jun 22: In the U.S. Court of appeals, Tenth Circuit, Case Nos. 12-9526 & 12-9527. The Appeals Court issued a brief order indicating, "Petitioners, the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers, and the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, seek a stay pending review of that portion of the Environmental Protection Agency's final rule requiring the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions at four electric generating units. We conclude that the stay factors have been met in this case, and we therefore grant the motion for stay pending hearing by the merits panel."

 

    The Oklahoma Attorney General, Scott Pruitt, issued a statement in response to the order saying, "This is a significant victory for the State of Oklahoma, and it temporarily prevents the EPA from enforcing a federal plan that will raise utility rates for Oklahoma consumers. The EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act and we will continue to challenge that decision to preserve the ability of Oklahoma stakeholders to create an Oklahoma solution."

 

    On June 7, U.S. EPA issued a final rule [77 FR 33642-33659], effective August 6, 2012, that finalizes revisions to the rules pertaining to the regional haze program. The rule finalizes EPA's finding that the trading programs in the Transport Rule, also known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), achieve greater reasonable progress towards the national goal of achieving natural visibility conditions in Class I areas than source-specific Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) in those states covered by the Transport Rule [See WIMS 6/7/12].

 

    Access the Order (click here). Access the statement from the OK AG (click here). Access an AP article on the order (click here). Access the complete FR Final Rule (click here). Access an EPA fact sheet on the final action (click here). Access EPA's Regional Haze Program website for more information (click here). [#Air]

 

GET THE REST OF TODAY'S NEWS (click here)
32 Years of Environmental Reporting for serious Environmental Professionals