Court Rejects Effort to Halt Pollution Rules

Two federal appeals court judges on Friday rejected an effort by environmental groups to block the Bush administration from carrying out regulations on power plants that emit mercury pollution.

Without comment, Judges David B. Sentelle and Janice Rogers Brown, both of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, denied a motion to immediately halt the regulations adopted in March by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency’s rules set a nationwide cap on mercury emissions from about 600 coal-burning power plants and put a ceiling on allowable pollution for each state beginning in 2010. Under the plan, individual plants can avoid cleanups by buying pollution allowances from plants well under allowable limits.

New York Times