EPA's New Source Review Enforcement Initiative: Legal and Policy Flaws

The last six years of the Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA") coal-fired power plant New Source Review ("NSR") enforcement initiative have seen many twists and turns. These range from settlements with several large electric utilities, including Virginia Electric Power Co. and Ohio Edison Co., to having part of the Clean Air Act's adjudicatory provisions declared unconstitutional by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. However, the last month has seen two occurrences that could lead to an across-the-board resolution of the coal-fired power plant enforcement initiative at some point in the next year. An extensive study [35 pp. pdf] of this issue has been authored by David B. Rivkin, Jr., Lee A. Casey, and Mark W. DeLaquil.