March 20, 2004

Environment - North Carolina AG Pressures EPA on Out-of-State Air Pollution

An AP story yesterday published in the Indianapolis Star reported:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Attorney General Roy Cooper asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to force power plants in Indiana and 12 other states to cut down on air pollution he said is harming air quality in North Carolina.

An official with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management said Indiana already is making progress in reducing air pollution, and the move by North Carolina was "not particularly helpful" to regional efforts.

"This is a regional situation and we need a regional solution," said Janet McCabe, IDEM's assistant commissioner for air quality.

Besides Indiana, the coal-fired plants named in Cooper's petitions are located in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

A second Star story today, this time via Knight Ridder, reports:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Dropping its attempts at persuasion, North Carolina petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to force reductions in power-plant pollution from South Carolina and 12 other states, including Indiana.

Pollutants blowing in from those coal-burning states dirty North Carolina air, the petition says, and sap the effectiveness of legislators' crackdown on power plants in 2002. While that legislation became a national model, other states didn't follow suit.

With Thursday's filing, Attorney General Roy Cooper followed the act's directive to "use all available resources and means" to make other states do the same. * * *

It was only the second time since 1990 that such a petition has been filed with the EPA -- North Carolina was a target of the first one. Amid this year's elections, the tactic is not likely to win friends for North Carolina.

"This is an election-year stunt," said Trey Walker, a spokesman for South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster. "It seems like a fight is what they want, and a fight they shall have."

The petition, if granted, would force pollution cutbacks that could chill South Carolina economic development, Walker said.

The Munster Times had this story Friday.

A check of the North Carolina Attorney General's web site provides links (via "news") to the a number of press releases on this matter.

Posted by Marcia Oddi at March 20, 2004 08:27 AM