WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency wants to set tougher new limits on smokestack emissions from nearly two dozen states that burden downwind areas with air pollution from power plants they can't control.
At the same time, the EPA moved Tuesday to remove two states -South Carolina and Florida - from the "good neighbor" rules, saying they don't contribute significant amounts of smog to other states.
The EPA's proposal follows a federal appeals court ruling this summer that upheld the agency's right to impose the clean-air standards, which block states from adding to air pollution in other localities. Some states and industry groups argue that the rule is overly burdensome.
The rule applies mostly to states in the South and Midwest that contribute to soot and smog along the East Coast.
