July 14, 2008: Court of Appeals Overturns Significant Portions of CAIR Rule.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today overturned significant portions of the Clean Air Interstate Rule ("CAIR"). CAIR set forth a regional cap-and-trade program in states primarily east of the Mississippi River to control sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from electric generating stations in order to promote attainment of ozone and fine particle air quality standards. Although the Court did not agree with all arguments made by all the parties that challenged the rule, the Court vacated the rule in its entirety and remanded it back to EPA for further action. With the D.C. Circuit having earlier vacated EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule, which provided for a cap-and-trade program to control mercury emissions from electric generators, EPA's ability to use flexible market-based programs to address regional air pollution issues is now subject to considerable uncertainty.

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