Sierra Club and others sue air-quality agency over emission-credit program

If you ever need a reminder of the power of Big Oil, read on.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which oversees a region with the dirtiest air in the nation, decided in December to give polluters like oil refineries a break instead of requiring them to implement tougher smog-cutting rules. This vote was considered the most significant smog-fighting proposal within its jurisdiction in over a decade -- and the agency blew it.

Sierra Club has sued the agency over what's called its Nitrogen Oxide Regional Clean Air Incentives Market program, or NOx. Earthjustice along with Communities for a Better Environment, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are part of the lawsuit too.

The program, which some say was heavily influenced by oil lobbyists, allows polluters to pay small amounts of money for pollution credits rather than invest in technology that would curb pollution. Over objections from the Air Quality Management District's own staff, the governing board approved the plan.

It wasn't just clean-air activists crying foul either. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the agency's program is wrong-headed.

The Los Angeles Times reported March 17 that the EPA found the emissions-trading program "has been ineffective in reducing smog-forming pollutants and has allowed some of the region’s largest-emitting facilities to avoid installing pollution control equipment." The paper later editorialized on the decision in a story titled "Backsliding on Clean Air."