Bad emissions rules get their comeuppance

Good. States rejected Bush's proposed marshmallowy emissions rules. Now the law rejects them. The battle is always over externalities. Internalizing them means rising costs of production. But companies that pollute ought to pay. And consumers ought to pay if the latter is reflected in rising costs. There's a certain unreality and ignorance that persists otherwise.

Looser Emission Rules Rejected: Court Says Changes By EPA Violated Clean Air Act

A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's four-year effort to loosen emission rules for aging coal-fired power plants, unanimously ruling yesterday that the changes violated the Clean Air Act and that only Congress could authorize such revisions.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with officials from 14 states, including New York, California and Maryland, who contended that the rule changes -- allowing older power plants, refineries and factories to upgrade their facilities without having to install the most advanced pollution controls -- were illegal and could increase the amount of health-threatening pollution in the atmosphere.