Give CAIR a chance

I'm back from some holiday travels and ready to blog! (if some pesky kids would leave me alone [bah, humbug! ... or in the words of the local version of The Christmas Carol: "horsefeathers!" ... I expect to be visited by "the Guest" tonight]):

A federal appeals court in Washington reversed itself on Tuesday and temporarily reinstated a Bush administration plan to reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants.

In July, the court struck down the rule, saying the Environmental Protection Agency had exceeded its authority in devising a new emissions-trading system to reduce that pollution, and must rewrite the rule to fix its “fundamental flaws.” Environmentalists criticized the decision as a major setback for clean air.

In Tuesday’s decision, the court said that having a flawed rule temporarily in place was better than having no rule at all. The agency must still revise the rule but has no deadline for doing so.

The regulation, known as the Clean Air Interstate Rule had been the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s re-engineering of the Clean Air Act. It set significant targets to reduce pollution around the power plants and in the downwind states whose air quality was affected by the emissions. [keep reading ...]

Here is what the EPA says about CAIR:

On March 10, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), a rule that will achieve the largest reduction in air pollution in more than a decade. CAIR will ensure that Americans continue to breathe cleaner air by dramatically reducing air pollution that moves across state boundaries. In 2015, CAIR will provide health and environmental benefits valued at more than 25 times the cost of compliance.

CAIR will permanently cap emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the eastern United States. CAIR achieves large reductions of SO2 and/or NOx emissions across 28 eastern states and the District of Columbia. When fully implemented, CAIR will reduce SO2 emissions in these states by over 70 percent and NOx emissions by over 60 percent from 2003 levels. This will result in $85 to $100 billion in health benefits and nearly $2 billion in visibility benefits per year by 2015 and will substantially reduce premature mortality in the eastern United States. The benefits will continue to grow each year with further implementation.

What's not to like about that?

Comments

[Big E]

This is the type of legislation that not only helps the environment and our health, but also provides an immediate stimulus to our economy. The result of the courts earlier decision was the delay of projects and cancellation of orders to contractors and suppliers. Obama's ideas for alternative energy are fine, but modifications and improvements to our existing coal burning fleet are a win-win now! Let's get these boiler-mod projects back on the books.