"EPA Seeks Rehearing of Cross-State Air Pollution Ruling"

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked for a full-court review of a decision by a three- judge panel that threw out a rule designed to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants."



"The agency, in a filing today in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, said the judges in the 2-1 ruling striking down its cross-state air pollution rule developed 'regulatory policy out of whole cloth' in violation of their role of review.

'The panel’s decision upends the appropriate relationship of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government by rewriting clear legislation, ignoring explicit statutory jurisdictional limits, and stepping into the realm of matters reserved by Congress and the courts to the technical expertise of administrative agencies,' Norman Rave, a Justice Department lawyer, said in the filing.

The panel’s decision dealt a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to curb harmful emissions with a regulation it said would provide 'dramatic' health benefits for 240 million people."

Tom Schoenberg reports for Bloomberg October 5, 2012.
 

Source: Bloomberg, 10/08/2012