392 Power Plants Ordered to Cut Drifting Smog

Nearly 400 power plants and industrial boilers in 12 states must dramatically reduce smog-producing emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled Friday.

The action came as the EPA approved petitions from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania complaining that pollutants drifting in from the Midwest prevented them from meeting clean air standards.

“People in these communities have been suffering by pollution carried in the air across state borders,” EPA Administrator Carol Browner said Friday, estimating the mandate would cost companies $950 million. “Today’s action means healthier air in those communities.”

The EPA mandate requires that 392 facilities reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by a total of 510,000 tons a year by May 2003.

The jurisdictions affected by the ruling are Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Six jurisdictions targeted are among those that have filed petitions of their own with the EPA: New York and Pennsylvania, whose petitions were approved, and New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, which have petitions pending.