Green groups threaten EPA with legal action

Green groups threaten EPA with legal action Earthjustice and Friends of the Earth have threatened to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for missing the April 27 deadline to regulate ocean-going vessel emissions.
   The EPA committed to the April deadline in a 2003 Final Rule approved by the Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but recently postponed it until December 2009.
   “The diesel death zones around port and coastal communities continue to expand with no relief,” said Teri Shore of Friends of the Earth in San Francisco. “With this last delay, Bush’s EPA has shredded any hope that ship smokestacks bringing cargo to our nation’s ports will be forced to clean up any time soon.”
   Sarah Burt of Earthjustice said: “EPA’s cavalier approach to the Clean Air Act is forcing polluted communities to take this issue to the courts.”
   Sen. Barbara Boxer recently introduced the Marine Vessel Emissions Act of 2007 (SB1499) that would require cleaner fuels and engines in all oceangoing vessels calling on U. S. ports. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis introduced the same legislation in the House of Representatives (HR2548).