Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, on Thursday said the EPA should move quickly to finalize its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and other delayed measures, adding it would be cheaper than subsidizing some renewable power technologies. The EPA is coming under increased political and legal pressure from companies and states seeking to delay or revise several long-delayed rules to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury from power plants.
Here is an article that I found interesting in the Chicago Tribune from a couple of weeks ago. It involves, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Nebraska Resources Council and Friends of the Earth, who are the plaintiffs, who are trying to halt work on a pipeline that would be constructed from Western Canada all the way to Texas. The plaintiffs are naming the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as defendants, because of their oversight roles. The suit alleges that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed the pipeline operator to prematurely disrupt the environment because the pipeline project has not yet received U.S. State Department approval, but the lawsuit says federal officials have already authorized TransCanada to mow native grasslands along the route and relocate American burying beetles, an endangered species. The plaintiffs say TransCanada, the pipeline company, has cleared a 100-mile pipeline corridor through the Nebraska Sandhills, despite a federal law that prevents the launch of projects before they receive approval. The plaintiffs are also contending that the decision to allow the pipeline to be built is a sign that federal officials aren’t committed to the review process. Both parties are awaiting the final decision of the State Department which is supposed to be decided in December.
