Smoke rises from the Colstrip Steam Electric Station, a coal burning power plant in in Colstrip, Mont.WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency was justified in not establishing a new air quality standard for acid rain.
The EPA decided in 2012 after a lengthy rulemaking proceeding that it needed further scientific study before it could set a new air quality standard for oxides of nitrogen and oxides of sulfur.
Environmental groups claimed that EPA’s failure to issue a new multi-pollutant rule violated the Clean Air Act.
In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was turning aside the environmental groups’ petition for judicial review because the EPA could not form a reasoned judgment as the Clean Air Act requires.
“EPA did not simply leave in place the old standard,” said appeals judge A. William Randolph. “Although it did not promulgate a new standard, it identified the data gaps that prevented it from doing so and initiated a data-collection program designed precisely to fill those gaps and facilitate future regulation.”