Maine and other Northeastern states won a sweeping victory Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Southern and Midwestern states must obey clean-air standards.

In a 6-2 decision, the court said upwind states must become better neighbors by scrubbing more pollutants from the smokestacks of their coal-burning electrical plants.

Republicans from 28 coal-producing and coal-consuming states have argued that enforcing U.S. EPA regulations under the Clean Air Act amounts to a “war on coal.”

On the contrary, the situation for the past 50 years has been a war on the health and economies of downwind, Eastern states. It has been a constant aerial bombardment of toxins that have triggered disease, suffering and premature death.

It has been more than 20 years since Congress told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce our exposure to air pollutants generated by more than 600 coal and oil power plants, most of them scattered across the South and Midwest.

And for two decades, well-funded lobbyists, coal-state politicians and utility companies have fought to delay and torpedo efforts to clean up their own pollution.

The first Clean Air Act was adopted by Congress in 1964, and standards gradually have been tightened over the years. Two dozen coal-burning states, meanwhile, have used every legal and political trick in the book to avoid doing the right thing.

Meanwhile, everyone in the Northeast has been breathing dirty air produced hundreds of miles away. For young, healthy and active people, the only recognizable cost may have been labored breathing on bad ozone days or skipping outdoor exercise.

But for hundreds of thousands of children and adults with health problems, the cost has been obvious and severe, ranging from a lifetime of carrying an inhaler for asthma to heart attacks and unexpected deaths.

The American Lung Association estimates that enforcing the stricter standards will prevent 130,000 childhood asthma attacks each year and prevent 11,000 premature deaths.

Maine has long had one of the highest asthma rates in the nation.

The U.S. EPA once determined that even if Connecticut eliminated all of the pollution generated within its borders, it still could not meet clean-air standards because of pollution from other states.

The new rules will be expensive for ratepayers in 28 states, about $10 billion per year.

But that cost is far outweighed by health care savings, conservatively estimated at $37 billion per year.

The new rules will force utilities to shut down some of their oldest and dirtiest plants. Enforcement may also hasten the ongoing conversion of utilities from coal to natural gas.

Coal-related jobs will be lost in some states, while jobs will be gained producing natural gas in other states. But for the sake of our planet and the sake of our own health, we cannot continue to subsidize our dirtiest and most dangerous form of energy production.

The cost of coal must include the cost of burning it cleanly.

Cheap electric rates in coal-dependent states have also put industries in the Northeast at a competitive disadvantage.

As Gov. Paul LePage has pointed out, Maine’s electric rates may be the lowest in New England, but they are higher than those in states that use coal to produce electricity.

While the new rules won’t lower electric rates here, they will help level the competitive playing field by increasing rates slightly in other states, which LePage should be happy about.

We don’t doubt members of Congress from these coal states will launch a last-ditch effort to change the rules or further delay implementation.

But armed with this Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. EPA now must move quickly to enforce the law and clean up our air.

[email protected]

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.