The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will decide in the next year whether South Carolina should cut power plant pollution North Carolina claims is fouling its air.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said he has struck a deal with the EPA to resolve the increasingly contentious issue. The consent decree, filed Thursday in federal court, is a significant victory for North Carolina in the debate over air pollution from neighboring states.

North Carolina claims it cannot clean up its own air unless 13 nearby states, including South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee, do the same.

The main concern is soot and ozone-forming pollutants from coal-fired power plants. North Carolina claims the pollution hurts people’s health and causes haze that obstructs mountain views.

According to the agreement, which needs approval from a federal court, the EPA would decide by Aug. 1 whether power plants from other states are fouling North Carolina’s air.

If the EPA agrees that surrounding states are polluting the air in North Carolina, it would establish a way to force cleanups for ozone and particulate matter in other states, according to the N.C. attorney general’s office. Tighter pollution-control standards would be finalized and established by March 15, 2006.

“This is a win for all of us who want to stop these out-of-state polluters from damaging the air we breathe,’’ Cooper said.

Trey Walker, a spokesman for S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, said the controls are an unnecessary intrusion.

“We are in compliance’’ with state and federal pollution control laws, Walker said. “There is a concern that this could have a chilling effect on economic development, as well as raising consumer (power) rates.’’

South Carolina has about a dozen coal-fired power plants, which produce roughly half the state’s electricity. SCE&G, which serves the Columbia and Charleston areas, has criticized tougher pollution controls on its plants, saying it has already installed multimillion dollar equipment to reduce air pollution.

Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group for utilities, called North Carolina’s move “unnecessary and premature.’’

It’s unknown whether the EPA will side with North Carolina and force tougher controls, but the N.C. agreement puts pressure on the federal government to address the issue of interstate air pollution nationally, environmentalists said.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.