MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -The state of Vermont asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to block a two-week test burn of tire fuel set to begin Nov. 6 at International Paper’s Ticonderoga, N.Y., mill.

Gov. Jim Douglas and Attorney General William Sorrell said they had filed a motion for extraordinary relief at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York seeking a temporary injunction blocking the tire burn.

The men said they wanted the court to give time for the federal Environmental Protection Agency to answer the state’s request that it formally object to the tire burn. The state’s motion asks for an additional 30 days after an EPA decision to give the state time to decide further legal steps.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation gave IP a permit to conduct the test burn.

Fuel from old tires is burned in a boiler that the mill uses to make electricity and in its paper-making processes.

“IP is hoping that their potentially toxic test burn will be over before Vermont’s petition with EPA is given the consideration it deserves and that’s unacceptable to us,” Douglas said.

He said the motion filed at the federal appeals court was to “ensure that Vermonters will have their day in court as we seek to prevent IP from burning tires without industry standard pollution control equipment in place.”

Vermont officials have maintained that air emissions from the mill, located on the western shore of Lake Champlain across from Addison County, Vt., will blow into the Green Mountain State, carrying toxic heavy metals and other pollutants.

Douglas has demanded that the Tennessee-based IP install updated anti-pollution devices before being allowed to test the tire fuel. IP has said determining what type of pollution controls might be needed is one of the purposes of the planned test.

“We have committed to staying the course with the regulatory agencies,” IP spokeswoman Donna Wadsworth said Tuesday. She said the company wants to “gather the data that will help us determine if this project merits moving forward, if it makes economic sense, if it makes environmental sense and if any additional pollution control devices are needed. The data that we gather will help us determine and engineer those.”

Sorrell said the EPA had taken up to two years in some cases in the past to respond to requests, similar to Vermont’s that it formally object to the tire burn.

“This is an unusual legal proceeding,” the attorney general said. “We’re saying we want to maintain the status quo until the EPA responds to our pending petition.”

EPA already allowed one 60-day period when it could have objected to lapse. Agency spokesman Elias Rodriguez confirmed Tuesday that Vermont had filed a new request that it object. He said the matter was under review.

“The EPA is confident that the permit (issued by New York) meets the requirements needed to protect people’s health,” Rodriguez said. “We will monitor conditions during the test burn to ensure that it is done in accordance with approved test methods.”

Sorrell said the state had asked the court for an extra 30 days’ delay after the EPA responds to Vermont’s most recent request so the state would have time to react if the agency’s ruling is adverse.

“We don’t want to have them say on November 5 that they’re not going to object and then literally have tires burning the next morning,” he said.

He said the state’s request for extraordinary relief is “unusual but not unprecedented,” adding that such requests in the federal system automatically go to an appeals court, rather than stopping at the District Court level first, as most cases do.