A day before Christmas, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the Bush administration from implementing a major rollback of clean air standards, which would have allowed the nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants to upgrade their facilities without installing the latest anti-pollution controls (as they were previously required to do under EPA’s New Source Review program) -- even if it results in substantial new emissions. Twelve attorneys general from mostly northeastern states, along with a number of cities and environmental groups, filed suit against the Bush rollback, contending that it violated the Clean Air Act. In staying the action pending the litigation’s outcome, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concluded that the plaintiffs had “demonstrated the irreparable harm [of the action] and likelihood of success on the merits” of their case. “This is enormous,” New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said. “The courts have agreed with us that the Bush administration cannot by administrative fiat eviscerate a statute that is critically important to protecting the quality of the air that we breathe… The regs were taking us down a path of dirty air, more asthma and more death.” The court is expected to give its final ruling toward the end of the year.