California Sues Over EPA Changes to Clean-Air Laws

California filed a lawsuit Thursday charging that changes to clean-air laws by the Bush administration could worsen smog and haze and weaken the state’s ability to set its own stringent regulations for power plants, factories and other sources.

The suit highlights a growing rift between California and President Bush over environmental policy. Sacramento and Washington have sparred in recent months over offshore oil drilling, automobile emissions standards, logging in the Sierra Nevada and mining in the desert.

“This is one aspect of a continuing effort by the federal government to roll back and eviscerate California’s strong environmental laws,” said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

The state joins 10 Northeast states that have filed lawsuits alleging that new rules approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will allow dirty old power plants and other businesses to evade state-of-the-art pollution controls. Illinois and Wisconsin officials said Thursday that their states are also filing suits.

“States from coast to coast and different parts of the country are trying to stop the undoing of clean-air laws. It’s very significant California has joined this effort because California has historically set the leadership agenda on clean-air matters,” said Frank O’Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group.

At the heart of the dispute are new regulations approved by the EPA in December that make it easier for industrial plants, refineries, manufacturers and power plants to build and expand without installing the most advanced emissions controls. Many industries lobbied for the changes to the so-called new source review program; they contended that the old rules under the Clean Air Act were unpredictable and cumbersome and deterred businesses from making necessary upgrades. The new rules are scheduled to take effect next month.

Although Northeast states are worried about added smog from power plants upwind in the Midwest and Ohio River Valley, California’s chief concern is that the changes will undermine the state’s regulatory program. California emissions controls typically are more stringent than those by the federal government, yet the new rules will require the state’s 35 local smog-fighting districts to justify their programs to the EPA to keep them in force.