Carolina Blue Skies, Still Blue

In a decision late yesterday on a challenge brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center, its clients [including the Sierra Club] and the state under the Clean Air Act, a federal appeals court rejected the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s denial of relief to North Carolina from upwind sources of pollution that significantly contribute to the state’s air quality problems.

The federal agency must now act quickly to require reductions in fine particle and ozone pollution from the offending upwind sources. More than 1,000 people in North Carolina die each year due to exposure to power plant pollution-- the ninth highest rate in the country. Hundreds of thousands more suffer related asthma attacks and other respiratory problems, including about 170,000 children.

This is another important benchmark in North Carolina’s campaign to force coal-fired power plants in other states to clean up pollution that harms the health of our citizens. You can read the SELC press release here.