Greens press EPA to revoke 'outdated' emissions exemption

[Geee]

The Hill:

The Obama administration is poised to rescind a little-known emissions exemption for power plants as it seeks to flex its muscle through the Clean Air Act.

 

Green groups are pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize a rule that would force utilities to limit emissions of hazardous pollutants, such as those that contribute to smog, when power plants are shutting down, starting up or malfunctioning.

 

Those emissions had previously been exempted from regulations because they were not considered a part of “normal operations,” but the EPA says that policy is now “outdated.”

 

The environmental group Sierra Club held rallies last week near two facilities that would be affected by the end of the exemption and urged officials to issue the tightened regulation in September, as scheduled.

 

Activists from Detroit and Birmingham, Ala., also met last week with Obama administration officials from the EPA and Council on Environmental Quality in Washington, D.C., to press their case for the rule.

They stressed that the rule would improve the health of residents near such facilities, who they said often tend to be minorities and earning low incomes.