Acting Attorney General Stephen J. Judge announced that New Hampshire and nine other northeastern states today filed an emergency request for a court order stopping federal reforms to clean air rules from going into effect on March 3, 2003.

Touted by EPA as providing more "flexibility" to industry, the reforms relax the ground rules for meeting the Clean Air Act requirement that major polluters install modern emission controls when they make changes that will significantly increase air pollution. This Congressional requirement, called "New Source Review" or "NSR," is one of the few tools that states have to control emissions from older, more polluting plants because the plants were exempt from installing modern emissions controls until they upgraded. According to EPA estimates, the reforms will result in 50% fewer facilities being subject to NSR requirements. The reforms become effective on March 3, 2003 and every state is required to incorporate the reforms into its air program.

The ten states (Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont) filed a legal challenge to the reforms in a federal court of appeals in the nation's capital on New Year's Eve, the same day they were published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"). Last week, they asked EPA to reconsider its decision to adopt the reforms and to delay the effective date until the court has decided whether the reforms are valid. The emergency motion asks the federal court to halt the reforms until its review of the challenge is complete, which could take many months.

The emergency request includes testimony from air pollution experts on the harm the states would suffer without a stay, especially in the form of increased air pollution from large, upwind industries like midwestern power plants and refineries. Besides the public health and environmental harm created by the reforms, the states point out that they would have to absorb the increased costs of complying with EPA's mandate that the reforms be immediately incorporated into every state air program. They also describe the reasons why the court will ultimately find that the reforms are illegal, so that maintaining current clean air rules will avoid confusion, as well as irreparable harm to the states and their citizens.

Acting Attorney General Judge commented: "We will resist any effort to weaken the laws that protect our citizens from the health and environmental damage caused by air pollution. Relaxing clean air requirements will only increase the harmful effects of acid rain and haze from upwind sources on our state's economic interests, such as tourism and recreation."

For further information, please contact Maureen D. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, at (603) 271-3679. A copy of the Emergency Motion for Stay can be found below.

The Emergency Motion for Stay  

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