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Conservation Update

Proposed EPA Rule Would Mean Deeper, Quicker Acid Rain Cuts

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed clean air regulation, known as the Transport Rule, will go a long way in reversing the ravages of acid rain that have plagued the Adirondacks, Catskills and other wild lands in the Northeast.

The proposed regulation announced this week would target pollution from power plants that drifts across the borders of 31 eastern states and the District of Columbia. The regulation would replace the Bush administration’s Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) with a much stronger measure. In 2008, a federal appeals court ordered EPA to revise CAIR, which it called “fundamentally flawed.” The court allowed CAIR to remain in effect while EPA develops the new rule.

The Adirondack Mountain Club never supported CAIR, a watered-down clean air regulation that did not provide adequate protection for the Adirondacks, and we questioned efforts to reinstate it after the court decision. Instead ADK, which has been a leader in the battle against acid rain for decades, called for tougher clean air standards that would make a real difference in reducing acid rain. This proposed EPA rule would cut sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides deeper and quicker than CAIR would have.

By 2014, the new rule, combined with other state and EPA actions, would reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 71 percent and nitrogen oxides by 52 percent from 2005 levels, according to the EPA. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are major causes of the acidic precipitation that has killed thousands of lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks.

In the states affected by the Transport Rule, the proposed rule is projected to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 1 million tons more than would have been achieved under CAIR by 2012 and 1.3 million tons more than would have achieved under CAIR by 2014.

The proposed rule must go through a public comment period before final adoption, which is expected some time next year.

To learn more about the proposed rule, read EPA’s press release and fact sheet.


Neil Woodworth

Executive Director

Adirondack Mountain Club