To move forward on tough new pollution standards for soot and smog, the EPA will have to argue and win its case before the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Friday turned down the agency’s request for a full appeals court review of a decision by a three-judge panel last spring that found that the EPA lacked the constitutional power to set new pollution standards. The ruling last May came in a case brought by a collection of business groups, led by the American Trucking Association, which contends that the new standards would cost $45 billion to implement. The EPA, which says the standards would protect lives and save billions in health care costs, will ask the Justice Department to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
