EPA has issued final and proposed rules designed to modify the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) provisions by offering power plants and other industrial facilities, in EPA's words, "greater flexibility to improve and modernize their operations in ways that will reduce energy use and air pollution, provide incentives to install state-of-the-art pollution controls, and more accurately calculate actual emissions of air pollution."
Green groups attacked the new rules, claiming that they loosen the NSR provisions and will lead to more pollution. Attorneys general in several Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have announced that they will file suit to prevent the rules from taking effect.