10th Circuit Boosts States' Authority To Use SO2 Trading In Haze Air Plans

摘要

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has rejected environmentalists' suit challenging EPA's approval of several western states' use of a sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions trading program to satisfy regional haze air plan pollution control mandates, boosting states' authority to use cap-and-trade to meet their haze program requirements. Five environmental groups filed suit claiming that the regional SO2 trading program failed to guarantee necessary pollution cuts to qualify as best available retrofit technology (BART), which is the level of emissions control required in plans for complying with EPA's regional haze program. But the court in its unanimous Oct. 21 opinion said that it would defer to the agency's analysis that found the trading program was a "better than BART" alternative.