The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it is proposing new regulations to limit downwind smog pollution from electricity generating stations and other facilities under the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor” provision.
Additional domestic power plants and industrial facilities will have to comply with new requirements to limit smog affecting those who live across state lines from their operations if the plan is approved.
The proposal targets emissions of nitrogen oxides in particular and would grow the number of power plants subjected to its cross-state air pollution rules to include those in 25 states beginning in 2023.
Industrial sources in 23 states determined to contribute to downwind smog would also be subject to new emissions standards beginning in 2026. Targeted sources include kilns in cement used in cement manufacturing and boilers and furnaces used in iron and steel mills.
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“Air pollution doesn’t stop at the state line,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
The good neighbor plan follows Regan’s announcement earlier this year that the agency would more stringently regulate emissions of mercury from power plants.
Meanwhile, a new Biden administration rule to regulate power plant greenhouse gas emissions more widely under the Clean Air Act is still outstanding. Questions about the extent of agency authority to issue sweeping “outside the fence” regulations to that end are the subject of a major Supreme Court case, West Virginia v. EPA, for which justices just heard arguments at the end of February.
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U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represented the EPA during oral arguments, said the regulation is expected this calendar year.
