Roy Cooper
PER
Roy Cooper Cooper
The steady erosion of the nation's clean air laws under the Bush administration has inspired Roy Cooper, who is the attorney general of North Carolina, to adopt an unusual legal strategy to force out-of-state power plants to stop sending air pollution into his state. In last weeks of January, Mr. Cooper asked federal court to declare air pollution from 11 power plants which is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky which is stated as ''public nuisance'' under common law. The company has spent heavily on controls partly as a result of a consent decree in the 1970's but both Mr. Cooper and environmental groups believe they have potential to do more.