A federal appeals court July 11 rejected the Bush administration's plan to reduce emissions from power plants, ruling the Environmental Protection Agency went beyond its authority to create the Clean Air Interstate Rule. Known as CAIR, the program used a trading scheme among utilities to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at power plants in 28 states. EPA issued the rule in March 2005 with an aim to cut power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by about 70 percent by 2015. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the EPA used a flawed approach in developing the CAIR rule, said it could not be fixed in a piecemeal manner and ordered the regulation withdrawn.
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