As we mentioned a few days ago, Congress is working on legislation to protect the Clean Water Act from some changes the Executive branch has made over the past few years. Well, now, the Judicial branch of government is doing the same, as the Washington Post reports that a United States Court of Appeals has overturned a Bush administration ruling “that prevented states and local governments from imposing stricter monitoring of pollution generated by power plants, factories and oil refineries than required by the federal government.”

The ruling, which fell 2-1, determined that the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to allow states to set stricter pollution standards than required is violation of the Clean Air Act. From the Post’s article:

Judge Thomas B. Griffith wrote for the majority that federal standards often are not sufficient to ensure proper monitoring, so states and local governments must be allowed to fill the gap. “The question in this case is whether permitting authorities may supplement inadequate monitoring requirements when EPA has taken no action,” Griffith wrote.

This is good news, naturally, and the EPA has stated it will look at the ruling and “determine the appropriate course of action,” whatever that means. But buried deep in the article is my favorite part:

In 2002, the EPA proposed a regulation that would have required states and local governments to beef up monitoring in the absence of federal guidance or strong pollution-tracking standards. But industry groups challenged the proposed rule, and the EPA backed down. Instead, the agency adopted a rule that prohibited states and local governments from supplementing the monitoring efforts.

I’ll paraphrase: The EPA wanted stricter monitoring, but industry raised Hell, so the EPA made it illegal to create stricter monitoring. Faaaaantastic. takepart here and contact your representatives to Congress and let them know the Clean Air Act is important to you, and they need to vote for the Clean Air Restoration Act.