Pivotal Supreme Court Case To Determine Clean Air Protections

(7 October, 2003 — Washington)  Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a Clean Air Act case that has far-reaching implications for the power of the federal government to lower harmful air pollution from industrial sources.  Alaska v. EPA, Alaska challenges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power to make large new air pollution sources install the best available pollution control technology when a state fails to do so.  An unfavorable decision in the case would allow states to put in place weak pollution controls for new power plants and industrial sources, even thought proven, cost-effective control technology is available.  Environmental Defense has filed a “friend of the court” brief in the pivotal case. 

“Safe, breathable air and a clean, healthy environment is the right of every American, and this case is pivotal in ensuring that the federal government has adequate power to protect that right,” said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton.  “If the Court denies EPA’s power to protect public health and the environment from industrial air pollution, America’s clean air standards could deteriorate into a patchwork of weak, widely varying state laws.”

“The harmful effects of air pollution don’t respect state boundaries.  The U.S. needs a strong national clean air program to protect the public’s health, ” said John Balbus, MD, director of the Environmental Defense health program.  “Current air pollution levels are causing asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, and premature death.  All evidence shows America should be strengthening clean air protections, not undercutting them.”

In the case before the Court, Alaska issued a construction permit for a large diesel generator at Teck-Cominco’s Red Dog Mine, requiring pollution controls only a third as effective as technologies the state determined were feasible and affordable.  EPA brought an enforcement action to prohibit construction until a proper permit was issued.  Red Dog is the largest zinc mine in the world, located five miles from the Noatak National Preserve, a spectacular mountain-ringed river basin containing an intact Arctic ecosystem.  The case arises under provisions of the Clean Air Act governing the pre-construction review permit requirements for large new power plants and industrial sources, a key element of the Act’s “new source review” program.