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Indiana University experts comment on court decision striking down clean-air rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University faculty experts A. James Barnes and Philip S. Stevens are available to comment on a recent federal appeals court decision that struck down the Clean Air Interstate Rule. The rule required 28 mostly Eastern states to reduce emissions of smog-forming and soot-producing emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency predicted implementing the rule would prevent about 17,000 premature deaths a year.

Philip S. Stevens, an environmental chemist and a professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the court ruling is a major setback for the EPA and for states trying to meet Federal clean air standards.

"The Clean Air Interstate Rule would have established a flexible 'cap-and-trade' program designed to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from electric utilities," Stevens said. "These are some of the primary pollutants that lead to acid rain, ground level ozone and fine particulate pollution, the latter two being the primary components of photochemical smog. It was patterned after the Acid Rain Program, which was a major component of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 that resulted in significant reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide from the power industry through a similar emissions trading program.

"Because ground-level ozone and acid rain are regional pollution problems," Stevens continued, "these cap-and-trade programs have been shown to be effective in reducing the emissions that lead to their formation. The Clean Air Interstate Rule, which was backed by both environmentalists and the majority of the utility industry, would have further reduced these emissions and improved air quality.

"Without this rule, many states, including Indiana, will likely have trouble meeting EPA's new health standard for ozone."

Stevens' research and teaching interests focus on the characterization of the chemical mechanisms in the atmosphere that influence regional air quality and global climate change. He can be reached at 812-855-0732 or pstevens@indiana.edu.

A. James Barnes, professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and adjunct professor in the IU School of Law--Bloomington, said the EPA made a good-faith effort, but the law wasn't entirely on its side.

"The EPA started with good intentions trying to craft a comprehensive response to the problem of what to do when the emissions that originate in one state interfere with the ability of another state to meet the federal standards designed to protect the public health," Barnes said. "The agency sought to try to devise a system that would obtain the reductions in an economically efficient manner, but it did not have clear authority for some of the things it tried to do and in other instances it did not act consistently with some requirements in the current Clean Air Act.

"These shortcomings were brought to the court's attention, and it held that the EPA had not acted consistently with the law. The disappointment voiced by environmental groups is understandable, because the end result of the court's sending the program back to EPA to recraft means at least a half-decade delay in getting the contemplated reductions in place, regardless of whether EPA redoes the regulations or tries to get new legislation giving it explicit authority for the approach it took.

"I think some of the parties that challenged selected aspects of the provisions were surprised that the court stayed the entire regulation," Barnes continued. "But I believe some of the defects would be hard to fix without making some systemic changes in the CAIR program."

Barnes, a former dean of the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, served from 1985 to 1988 as the Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection, the agency's No. 2 official and its chief operating officer. He can be reached at barnesaj@indiana.edu.

For assistance, contact Jana Wilson at 812-856-5490 or wilsonjs@indiana.edu or Steve Hinnefeld at 812-856-3488 or slhinnef@indiana.edu.

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