Activists

In a major win for clean air activists in general and the natural gas industry in particular, the Department of Justice (DOJ) last Tuesday removed the roadblock it had placed in the path of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of “new source review” (NSR) actions against a large number of dirty coal and oil-burning power plants and oil refineries. DOJ said the EPA enforcement actions are consistent with the Clean Air Act, and ongoing prosecutions should proceed.

In a major win for clean air activists in general and the natural gas industry in particular, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday removed the roadblock it had placed in the path of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of “new source review” (NSR) actions against a large number of dirty coal and oil-burning power plants and oil refineries. DOJ said the EPA enforcement actions are consistent with the Clean Air Act, and ongoing prosecutions should proceed.

Wearing yellow arm bands, consumer activists have hit the lobbying trail in Sacramento last week, hoping to beat back a legislative rescue bill for Southern California Edison and any other new energy legislation that could result in utility rate increases on top of the 4-cent/kwh hikes that took effect in a two-phase process earlier this year.

A group of about 20 consumer activists, complaining of highcompensation for utility executives and excessive bail-out costs oftheir companies, attempted to disrupt the annual meeting of theEdison Electric Institute in Chicago Monday.