Four Northeast States Sue Pennsylvania Power Company
In the latest skirmish over the new-source review provisions of the Clean Air Act, four Northeastern states have announced their intention to sue a Pennsylvania power company over emissions they say are drifting across state lines to worsen smog and cause respiratory problems. The Bush administration announced in November that it would abandon some 50 investigations of polluting facilities; New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer then requested comprehensive files from the U.S. EPA and vowed to press forward where the feds had left off. He is joined by state officials from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in this suit against Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy, which operates five coal-fired power plants in West Virginia. “From Day 1, the Bush administration has tried to eviscerate and undercut the Clean Air Act,” Spitzer said. “We at the state level will fulfill the critical policy mission of ensuring that the air we breathe is clean.”
