A federal court has rejected Kansas’ challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) disapproval of an air pollution plan from the state.

Kansas filed the case in 2011 after the EPA decided Kansas did not go far enough in ensuring that its air pollution did not blow to neighboring states as part of the agency’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.

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The EPA had rejected Kansas’ state implementation plan for the so-called “good neighbor” rule, which requires that states account for cross-state winds when deciding how to comply with federal air rules.

“EPA acted well within the bounds of its delegated authority when it disapproved of

Kansas’s proposed SIP,” the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote Tuesday in a brief decision.

The regulation requires that state plans “must include ‘adequate provisions’ prohibiting in-state sources from contributing significantly to downwind nonattainment,” the court said. “EPA has the authority to determine whether SIPs comply with the statutory requirements.”

Kansas had only submitted a one-page document to the EPA saying that its compliance plan followed the “good neighbor” provision, causing the agency to reject it.

Kansas and Westar Energy Inc., a utility, had brought the court challenge to the EPA’s rejection.