WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the nation's older power plants to draw in billions of gallons of water for cooling without installing technology that would best protect fish and aquatic organisms.
In arguments Tuesday, lawyers for the government and electricity producers urged the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that says the government cannot not pit the cost of upgrading 554 power plants against the benefits of protecting fish and aquatic organisms.
Environmentalists want the decision to be upheld.
The case grew out of an EPA decision to not require older power plants to install the fish-saving technology because it was too expensive.
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