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Court vacates EPA cross-state air pollution rule

Chris Murphy
/
Flickr

A federal appeals court has vacated an EPA rule that would have limited the amount of power plant pollution that drifts across state lines. The EPA passed the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule last summer. It was intended to reduce soot and smog by capping power plant emissions of pollutants like sulfur dioxide that can drift over long distances.
 
Sierra Club Missouri Chapter Director John Hickey says cross-state rules are critical for reducing air pollution here in Missouri, and preventing health problems like asthma and heart attacks.
 
“Even if the state of Missouri were to effectively reduce air pollution from power plants located in the state of Missouri, that’s not enough of that same pollution is blowing in from out of state, and we’re breathing that in,” said Hickey.
 
He says now it’s up to the EPA to decide whether to petition the appeals court for a rehearing, or to try to take the case before the Supreme Court.

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.