EPA Will Ease Coal Plant Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency will begin announcing in the next several weeks rule changes aimed at discouraging new government lawsuits against operators of aging coal-fired power plants in favor of incentives for voluntary reductions in toxic emissions, according to EPA officials.

After nearly a year of intense internal debate, the Bush administration has decided to formally alter a clean-air enforcement initiative begun under President Bill Clinton in 1999 that spawned dozens of lawsuits against some of the nation's worst polluting power plants, agency and White House officials said.

Currently, older power plants that expand or significantly modify their operations can be sued for violating the Clean Air Act unless they agree to install costly anti-pollution equipment.