BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Environmental activists are defending the federal Environmental Protection Agency's moves to reduce haze from western North Dakota's coal plants.
The plants burn lignite to produce electricity. The EPA and the state Health Department disagree on the best way to reduce pollution from the Leland Olds and Milton R. Young electric plants.
The EPA advocates a method that it says will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent.
The Health Department says the method isn't likely to work and its benefits are exaggerated. State officials support a method that they say will reduce emissions by about 50 percent.
Jeremy Nichols of the Denver group WildEarth Guardians says the EPA's preferred technology works in other plants that burn lignite.
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The EPA is holding public hearings on the rules Thursday and Friday.
