Federal appeals court strikes down EPA's relaxed emissions rule for power plants

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has struck down a Bush administration cap-and-trade policy for coal- and oil-fired power plants that would have let some plants avoid meeting tighter emissions standards, reports The Associated Press.

The Environmental Protection Agency policy would have allowed "power plants that fail to meet emission targets to buy credits from plants that did, rather than having to install their own mercury emissions controls," AP reports. The rule was to take effect in 2010.

Many states brought the legal challenge, saying the EPA did not have the right to exempt plants from reducing mercury emissions. The states "argued that the cap-and-trade system would endanger children near some power plants that pollute but which also use credits to do it legally," AP reports.

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin brought the lawsuit. (Read more)