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a decision that halts funding for dozens of polluting highway
projects in several metropolitan areas, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that current Federal regulations
for approving highway construction violate the Clean Air Act.
The Court ruled for EDF on all issues, striking down Environmental
Protection Agency regulations that allowed funding of planned
highways in areas where transportation plans do not conform to
state air-pollution control plans.
 The Court
also overturned an EPA rule that encouraged construction of roads
with non-Federal funds to evade Clean Air Act accountability.
Finally, the Court ruled that disapproved and inadequate state
air-pollution plans cannot be used as the benchmark for approving
new transportation plans.
"This
Court ruling protects the public from highway projects that would
add more pollution in areas that already violate national air
quality standards," said Michael Replogle, EDF Federal transportation
director. "It will make it easier for local officials to
fund non-highway alternatives that will improve air quality,
protect public health, and expand travel options."
The Clean
Air Act requires cities with harmful pollution levels to adopt
20-year transportation plans that will achieve the limits on
motor vehicle emissions shown in their state air-pollution control
plan. The new ruling means that many previously approved road
projects cannot be funded until cities revise their plans to
ensure that motor vehicle emissions will not worsen an area's
air pollution.
Added Replogle,
"This ruling will encourage transportation agencies to avoid
the mistakes of Atlanta, where officials illegally approved more
than $700 million in road projects after it was known that the
projects would add to excess pollution levels. Atlanta must revise
its transportation plan to cut air pollution before spending
more on highway projects."
The ruling
directly affects road construction within the D.C. Circuit Court's
jurisdiction, including projects in Atlanta and the North Carolina
metropolitan areas of Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, and Winston-Salem.
In the longer run, the ruling will encourage authorities in all
polluted metropolitan areas to draw up transportation plans that
will achieve Clean Air Act requirements.
"When
Congress enacted these Clean Air Act provisions in 1990,"
said Robert E. Yuhnke, EDF's attorney in the case, "it sought
to insure that billions of dollars in Federal transportation
funding would not worsen air pollution at the same time that
other government agencies were requiring emission reductions
to protect public health. This ruling helps assure that transportation
investments will be part of the solution in seriously polluted
metropolitan areas, not part of the problem." 
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