(MENAFN- Arab Times) Fifteen US states have petitioned a federal court to block new rules by President Barack Obama's administration to encourage clean power and cut harmful carbon emissions from power plants. The emergency petition to postpone the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) deadline was filed Thursday by attorneys general in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. "This rule is the most far-reaching energy regulation in the nation's history, and the EPA simply does not have the legal authority to carry it out," said West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
"With this rule, the EPAis attempting to transform itself from an environmental regulator to a central planning agency for states' energy economies." The petition seeks a ruling by Sept 8, one year before states would have to submit plans for how they will follow the rules set by the EPA. The plan was unveiled by the Obama administration earlier this month, and aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. In order to meet these goals, states and electric companies must use more natural gas - which is less polluting and more abundant in the United States than oil - as well as more renewable energies like solar and wind.
Meanwhile, ten watersheds around the rim of the Gulf of Mexico € from Florida to Texas € are being looked at as sites for $140 million in proposed conservation projects under a plan to restore the Gulf from BP's catastrophic 2010 oil spill. On Thursday the Gulf Coast Restoration Council, a body set up by Congress to handle money derived from fines from the spill, released a list of the projects it wants to fund. This money comes from a settlement with Transocean Deepwater Inc., a drilling company BP hired for its illfated well off the coast of Louisiana that blew out, causing the nation's largest offshore spill. The projects range from plugging oil and gas wells along the coast in Texas to planting sea grasses in Tampa Bay to planning for a Mississippi River diversion.
Projects
The costliest projects are in Mississippi and Louisiana, states that were hit hard by BP's oil spill. In Mississippi, the council is looking at spending $15.5 million to buy parcels of land along the coast to better conserve land and protect wildlife. In Louisiana, the council is looking at spending $14 million to design a diversion of Mississippi River water into the Maurepas Swamp, an area of bald cypress and tupelo trees northwest of New Orleans. The idea is to reintroduce freshwater and sediment into the swamp. Before money can be spent, the council will gather the public's opinions on the projects at meetings between Aug 20 and Sept 16. The first meeting will take place Aug 20 in Corpus Christi, Texas, at Texas A&M University. The public can submit comments on the plans until Sept 28. Transocean's settlement over its role in the oil spill forced the company to pay about $800 million, and the restoration council says it expects to get $241 million, or 30 percent, of that amount. Much more money is expected to come into the restoration fund from BP.
In July, the five Gulf states, the federal government and the British oil giant agreed to settle civil claims arising from the 2010 spill. Under the settlement, BP has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $5.5 billion under the Clean Water Act, payable over 15 years. Eighty percent of that amount would go toward restoration, the council said. US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, in a statement, said this was a step toward "meaningful and lasting natural resource restoration for Gulf Coast communities." Besides the Clean Water Act fines, criminal fines and money for natural resources damage also are going toward Gulf restoration. In another development, a stretch of river fouled by toxic waste from an abandoned gold mine in southwestern Colorado last week was reopened to kayaking and rafting on Friday while water from river-fed irrigation canals was deemed safe for crops and livestock.
Safe
The US Environmental Protection Agency also said it was safe for homes and farms to resume drawing supplies of drinking water from private wells along the river farther downstream in New Mexico. The lifting of various restrictions marked a gradual return of normalcy to life along the Animas River more than a week after the stream was turned bright orange by the spill of more than 3 million gallons (11.3 million liters) of acid mine waste, inadvertently triggered by an EPA crew. Roughly 45 miles (72 km) of the river running through La Plata County, Colorado, south to the New Mexico border was reopened to recreation by order of the county sheriff, including the city of Durango, a resort town popular for river rafting and kayaking. Water testing by Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment found contamination levels have fallen "below what would be a concern for human health during typical recreational exposure," the sheriff said in a statement.
On Wednesday, state health authorities cleared the way for Durango, about 50 miles south of the spill's point of origin, to reopen its drinking water intakes from the river, though local officials said it would probably be several days before that happened. Water intakes from the Animas also have been shut down for the New Mexico towns of Aztec and Farmington. EPA chief Gina McCarthy said on Wednesday that tests showed the river's overall water quality had returned to pre-spill levels, though the agency said long-term effects on fish and wildlife remain to be seen. Farmers and ranchers along the Animas in Colorado resumed watering their fields and livestock on Friday after irrigation ditches fed by the river had been flushed clean, EPA officials said. Wastewater loaded with high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury was accidentally released from the century-old Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, as an EPA crew attempted on Aug 5 to stem seepage already occurring at the site.
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