Conservation groups’ lawsuit over emissions seen as threat to forest products industries [From the web]

BANGOR, ME, Aug. 16, 2011 (Bangor Daily News) - A national coalition of conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday over carbon dioxide emissions from large-scale wood-burning power plants that pulp and paper industry officials say are crucial to their businesses.

The conservation groups, which include the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the national Center for Biological Diversity, are attacking an EPA decision to temporarily exempt large-scale wood-fired boilers and other biomass incinerators from carbon dioxide emission limits spelled out in the Clean Air Act. The EPA created the three-year exemption so it could develop better regulations, but the conservation groups argue that the delay will lead to a rush of new carbon-spewing biomass boilers.

"The EPA's action will in the near term increase carbon dioxide emissions that will persist in the Earth's atmosphere and cause climate damage for more than a century," Ann Weeks, an attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation and the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said in a press release.

Bangor Daily News - Conservation groups' lawsuit over emissions seen as threat to forest products industries

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