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August 19, 2008
Court Rules for Clean Air
In Sierra Club vs. Environmental Protection Agency, the DC Circuit Court today struck down a Bush administration rule limiting states’ ability to enforce the Clean Air Act. The rule blocked states from issuing their own air monitoring requirements for soot, smog, mercury and other types of air pollution from power plants, factories and other stationary sources. As a result states were forced to abide by the lax federal standards, which required virtually no monitoring of dangerous air pollution.
In response the Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope issued the following statement.
"This is huge victory against one of the most egregious rollbacks of environmental protections in our nation’s history.
"As one of the first rollbacks of the Bush Administration, this rule helped set a pattern of limiting the application of environmental laws to benefit polluters and denying the public the right know about pollution in their communities.
"Public health should be a top priority, not polluters’ profits. Today’s decision will give states back the tools they need to hold polluters accountable and help ensure that everyone has clean, healthy air to breathe."