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A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, an attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants that cross state lines. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that the Agency had overstepped its authority in the way that it allotted the cleanup work to 28 upwind states. The EPA was trying to solve a longstanding problem of how states can meet pollution standards if their power plants emit toxic chemicals into neighboring states through wind currents.

As part of the rule, the EPA offered to implement a trading system in which states could buy and sell pollution credits, so that the work could be done in the areas where it would be easiest to cleanup. The court argued that the agency would be requiring upwind states to reduce more emissions than their downwind states were subject to and that it violated the Clean Air Act because it did not let states propose their own plans.

If the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule had passed, the EPA estimated that air quality for over 240 million Americans would have improved significantly, preventing 34,000 premature deaths per year from the reduction of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. The rule would have yielded $120 to $280 billion in health and environmental benefits in 2014, outweighing the projected $800 million costs.

Several power companies in upwind states challenged the EPA rule, including Edison Mission, a unit of the California based Edison International, which was the first to sue. The Republican Party has called the court ruling a victory, claiming the EPA rule would have caused higher power bills, less reliable electricity, and cost jobs.

GUEST: John Walke, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Director of NRDC’s Clean Air Program

Visit www.nrdc.org for more information.