Thanks For the Dirty Air, Dubya!

"The attorneys general of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut say they are ready to open a new round of litigation to force power plants to make billions of dollars of pollution-control improvements after a decision by the Bush administration to abandon more than 50 investigations into possible violations of the Clean Air Act. The state officials said they would move quickly to fill some of the void left by the Environmental Protection Agency, which decided this week to drop the investigations at the old coal-fired plants, a major source of the air pollution that drifts over the Northeast. . . Until now, the rules, known as New Source Review regulations, had generally required older coal-fired power plants and oil refineries to add new pollution controls if they were modernized in ways that increased harmful emissions. But the revised enforcement standards, which grew out of industry complaints to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force two years ago, create substantial exemptions for industry and would halt investigations that were nearing completion at more than 50 power plants owned by 10 different utilities, E.P.A. enforcement attorneys say. Officials at the agency confirmed the policy shift, but said some new lawsuits were still possible." [NY Times]