Blame Utah for state’s air pollution

The EPA does

BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN

ere’s a new strategy in Colorado’s ght against dangerous ozone air pollution: Blame Utah.

Coal- red power plants and oil and gas drilling in northeastern Utah are responsible for ozone drifting to the east into Colorado’s nine-county nonattainment zone for the pollutant, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

e amount of ozone that Utah is pumping toward Colorado violates the federal “good neighbor” rules of the Clean Air Act, which have been used in the past to force Eastern states to clean up coal plants to help downwind states. e EPA rejected Utah’s State Implementation Plan (SIP) for cutting ozone in February and told the state to prepare more cuts, including adding expensive scrubbing equipment to a handful of coal power plants in Utah and Wyoming.

Utah’s legislature agreed something needed to be done and set aside $2 million — for legal fees to sue the EPA and avoid the extra cleanup.

“Utah is not being a good neighbor,” said Robert Ukeiley, Colorado senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonpro t that