Maryland AG to appeal EPA denial of reduced emissions from out-of-state plants News
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Maryland AG to appeal EPA denial of reduced emissions from out-of-state plants

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh [profile] announced [press release] Monday that Maryland intends to appeal the decision [agency response, PDF] of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] to deny Maryland’s petition for relief for emissions from out-of-state plants contributing to ozone problems in Maryland.

Maryland filed a petition in December 2016 asking for injunctive relief under Section 126 of the Clean Air Act [text] for the EPA to require out-of-state power plants to utilize their pollution control machinery already installed to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides. These emissions, Maryland argued, were contributing to ground-level ozone issues in Maryland.

The EPA’s decision stated that Maryland had not met the burden to show that the sources named in Maryland’s petition emit or will emit pollutants at a level past what the “good neighbor” provision, Section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I) [text] of the Clean Air Act, allows.

At the end of his statement, Frosh expressed, “Maryland strictly controls NOx emissions within its own boundaries. We intend to appeal EPA’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, so that Marylanders do not have to continue suffering the consequences of other states’ pollution.”

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