Mr. Saitas said the state would not shy away. States taking action When Texas and federal laws exempted old plants from many clean-air rules in the 1970s, the theory was that new, cleaner plants would replace them soon. Grandfathered sources in Texas put out about 884,000 tons of pollution a year, more than one-third of the state's industrial emissions. Alcoa is seeking a voluntary permit for its smelter operation and will do so for its power plant, Mr. Hodson said. However, EPA enforcement guidelines issued in 1998 say new permits don't erase old violations.
Guidelines also call for civil fines, sometimes running into millions of dollars.
That's what happened when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the EPA started suing or threatening utilities in 1999 for having made unpermitted changes in the 1980s. The suits address stubborn problems with coal emissions that drift hundreds of miles, adding to acid rain and smog. Some are still in court, including an EPA action against the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA, the country's largest publicly owned power company, argued that the changes it made were maintenance. It also said the EPA miscalculated emissions.