What a coincidence, the court said. The numbers were the same.

The consequences

The CAIR court decision on power plants took a big anti-pollution rule off the books - the one that the EPA believed could prevent thousands of premature deaths annually. But it also hit utility companies hard.

In 24 hours, the spot market for sulfur dioxide emissions trading fell from $300 per ton to $100 per ton, triggering huge losses for those who had invested in allowances. PPL Corp., one of the nation's 10 largest electric companies, reported a related $33 million loss in November. A spokesman said as much as $77 million more in trade allowances remains at risk.

PPL had already invested $1.5 billion to construct scrubbers at two Pennsylvania plants that generate wholesale electricity for Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. Each project doubled the size of the existing plant.

"I've been in the business 30 years," said PPL vice president Dennis Murphy. "This is the first time EPA has said, this is exactly what you have to do, and then while we're in the process of building it to meet the rule, a court comes in and says it's totally gone - never mind."

A $750 million project in Montour, Pa., south of Williamsport, was already online. PPL's second $750 million scrubber project is nearing completion at a power plant south of Harrisburg, on Brunner Island in the Susquehanna River.

Twelve thousand tons of coal arrive by railcar daily at the 1960s-era PPL Brunner Island plant, and, until the scrubber goes online, it will continue to spew sulfur dioxide and particulate matter into the air. The pollution wafts from a 600-foot-high smokestack and drifts east toward Philadelphia.

"We're in compliance with our permits, but man, we don't like it," said PPL engineer Ross Magee. He oversees the scrubber project, a "clean coal" system that PPL says can reduce sulfur emissions by 97 percent and decrease mercury output.

Scrubber projects are major endeavors, consisting of sophisticated new buildings, enormous filters, and state-of-the-art smokestacks. They take years to design and construct, and trigger a shift to cheaper coal, which is purchased well in advance. So when EPA put out the CAIR rule in 2005, power companies had to make a significant business decision: Start building scrubbers or wait to see what the courts would do.

Murphy said PPL decided to build immediately because if it didn't and the courts had upheld CAIR, the company would have been forced to buy expensive allowances on the trading market to comply with the rule.

"When we looked at it, by 2010, we figured we would be able to be ahead environmentally and have allowances that were tradeable," Murphy said.

Now, in the wake of the CAIR ruling, PPL also faces competition from power plants that have not yet built scrubbers.

Shortly after the CAIR ruling, PPL and other companies - as well as states and environmental advocates - asked Congress for a quick fix, one that would temporarily reinstate the CAIR rule by law.

But in an election year, Democrats and Republicans couldn't come to a fast agreement, and a proposed bill didn't even get introduced.

Lame-duck battles

Bush may be a lame duck, but the EPA court and regulatory battles continue, even in the final weeks of his presidency.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard an appeal on a new EPA rule related to fish-kills near power plants. A lower court, ruling for the environmental group Riverkeeper, had struck down the EPA's methods because they employed cost-benefit analysis. In that case, the EPA joined a power company's appeal.

The EPA also issued two new rules last week.

First, the agency proposed new air pollution standards for medical waste incinerators, pleasantly surprising environmentalists.