Maine has joined a third lawsuit against the Bush administration in an attempt to force the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the nation’s air quality and to fight global warming.

Thursday, Attorney General Steven Rowe joined the states of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington in announcing a lawsuit charging EPA administrator Christine Whitman with failing to ensure that air pollution standards for power plants keep pace with technological advances.

“This is one of the agency’s basic functions, and it will alleviate environmental public health problems such as acid rain and asthma as well as the threats presented by global warming,” said Rowe in a statement released Thursday.

The suit will likely be filed after a mandated 60-day notification period.

The attorneys general are demanding three actions they believe are required by the section of the Clean Air Act that regulates stationary sources of air pollution. The lawsuit will specifically cite power plants, which are estimated to be responsible for more than a third of total greenhouse gas emissions.

. First, they want the Bush administration to develop standards for carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is believed to be a major cause of global warming. American power plants, particularly those that burn coal, are responsible for a quarter of the worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

Not regulating carbon dioxide is a violation of the Clean Air Act because the act requires the EPA to add new pollutants to its regulatory list when scientists have shown they have a detrimental effect on human health and the environment. A 1999 report to the United Nations discussing global climate change removes all ambiguity on the carbon dioxide impact, the attorneys general said.

. Second, they want the EPA to conduct legally mandated reviews of the standards for sulfur dioxide, a pollutant caused by burning fossil fuels that is the primary cause of acid rain.

. Third, they want the department to conduct a similar review for particulates, a category that includes any large particle in the air that can be inhaled. Particulate matter in the atmosphere exacerbates respiratory diseases and is suspected of causing asthma.

Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants have never been regulated, and the standards for sulfur dioxide and particulates, which the attorneys general called “woefully outdated,” have not been reviewed or updated since the early 1980s. The Clean Air Act requires that reviews take place every eight years.

During a Thursday telephone conference call in which Rowe did not participate, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the lawsuit is “absolutely vital.”

“It stands as a searing indictment of this administration that it is relying on voluntary [compliance] measure, so clearly inadequate,” he said. “Global warming and climate change are a threat to civilization on this planet.”

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused the administration of choosing the energy industry over the American people.

“The EPA has been eaten alive by the companies that it’s supposed to be regulating,” Spitzer said.

Industry spokesman Scott Segal with the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council on Thursday called the New England attorneys general “serial lawsuit filers,” and said that “undermining” domestic energy sources like coal is not in the interest of national security.

Environmentalists applauded the announcement; Susan Sargent, Maine spokeswoman for the National Environmental Trust, said that lawsuits may be the only option left. Legislative efforts to improve air pollution rules, supported by the full Maine congressional delegation, have failed, she said.

“You’ve got a president with his head in the sand – this might be the only way to make the Bush administration move forward on global warming,” Sargent said.

The attorneys general Thursday revealed how the new suit differs from two previous announcements.

In November, eight attorneys general announced their intention to sue the federal government over Bush administration changes to the Clean Air Act that would exempt some older power plants from updating their equipment.

Last month, Maine joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in threatening to sue the EPA to force the regulation of carbon dioxide, under a different part of the Clean Air Act. The portion of the act cited in this suit addresses all pollution sources.

This third suit addresses the regulation of carbon dioxide and other pollutants just at power plants.

None of the suits is dependent on any of the others, but the three work in tandem, said Blumenthal.

“They aim at a common goal, which is to require the federal government to do its legal duty,” he said.