States can enact tougher-than-federal monitoring requirements for air pollution from factories and power plants, after a federal appeals court tossed out a U.S. EPA rule keeping them from doing so. Primary plaintiff Sierra Club celebrated the victory; defendants were the U.S. EPA and the American Petroleum Institute, which should seem like an odd pair, but somehow just doesn't surprise us. The tossed-out rule aimed to "decrease the amount of information available to the public and the amount of information that polluters are going to have to report," says Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club, thus "greatly lowering the likelihood they would be held to account for violating the Clean Air Act or any other environmental laws." But the court's decision, says Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, "will give states back the tools they need to hold polluters accountable and help ensure that everyone has clean, healthy air to breathe."
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