(RALEIGH) -- Folks in North Carolina living downwind from power plants could be breathing cleaner air starting in 2014 with a new rule from the EPA. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule reduces the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution that power plants in 27 eastern states are allowed to emit.

Michael Regan with the Environmental Defense Fund in Raleigh said the law targets eastern states because of their size and close proximity. "There's an exorbitant amount of pollution that comes from neighboring states.  When an individual state attempts to achieve its air quality goals it can only do so much," said Regan.

He added that it is estimated that the new, tougher standards will save the lives of more than 1,900 North Carolinians annually, by easing the health complications of power plant pollutants.  The benefits of cleaner air to the state are worth about $16 billion, according to The Environmental Defense Fund.

Western North Carolina has long been at the mercy of plants in eastern Tennessee operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.