On Monday, EPA announced it was delaying its proposed rules that would apply greenhouse gas emission standards to power plants. EPA said it would push the proposal back from July to September to allow more time to consider comments. EPA still expects to finalize the rule by May 2012.
Its no secret that EPA regulations have been the focus
Back on January 18th President Obama issued Executive Order 13563 requiring federal agencies to consider the impacts of new regulations and to perform a self assessment of existing regulations. For existing regulations, the President requested the agencies perform an analysis to determine whether rules are "outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome."
After performing self-examinations, each
As discussed in the Wall Street Journal, it didn’t take long before a flurry of bills were introduced in Congress to stop EPA from moving forward with its controversial greenhouse gas (GHGs) regulations. After passage of the deal to extend Bush era tax cuts, halting EPA efforts is seen as the next major action needed to continue the
As Congress failed to pass climate change legislation, U.S. EPA will begin regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) using its existing authority under the Clean Air Act. Beginning 2011, major sources of GHGs will be required to analyze methods for reducing emissions when seeking federal permits for expansion or construction of new sources.
When is a federal review of GHGs
On August 12th, the U.S .EPA released two proposed rules to address the potential gap that exists while States adopt rules to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large stationary sources. What U.S. EPA is really doing is making sure all fifty states will be regulating GHGs beginning January 2011.
On May 12, 2010, U.S. EPA finalized its controversial
On March 31st, a Federal District Court in Tennessee (6th Circuit) issued the latest decision in relation to litigation stemming from New Source Review (NSR) enforcement actions against electric coal fired utilities. The TVA Bull Run decision is another example of the inconsistent application of the test for determining when projects trigger NSR.
The NSR regulatory program continues to
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I was giving a speech to a trade association last night regarding Cap and Trade legislation in Congress. The sentiment of most participants in this manufacturing group was that they had dodged a major bullet because passage of a bill looks very unlikely. While that is true, I told the audience don’t lose sight of
Today, a day that will likely live in environmental law infamy….the EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson finalized the "endangerment finding" in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in EPA v. Massachusetts which was issued way back in April 2, 2007. While the Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases were air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act, it
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U.S. EPA has initiated the process for determining what controls it will require should it finalize its proposal to regulate large industrial sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). As discussed in a prior post, the first phase of the program would cover sources emitting more than 25,000 tons of CO2 or equivalent emissions. In subsequent phases of the program smaller sources would likely be covered.
Under EPA’s proposal GHGs would become a pollutant covered under its New Source Review (NSR) program. NSR requires new or modified sources that emit over established thresholds to install Best Available Control Technology (BACT). The question is…what are the "best available" controls for reducing GHG emissions?
I was interviewed for a story appearing in Climatewire that discussed the complexities involving in determining BACT for GHGs. Unlike many mainstream media newspaper articles, the Climatewire article does an excellent job of providing an analysis of the issues related to implementation of this complex regulatory program.
Two major issues:
Efficiency improvements co-firing biomass are the two most likely candidates for utility sources. But less analysis is known regarding potential methods to reduce GHGs emissions from other potentially covered sources like cement and steel production facilities.
The preamble to U.S. EPA’s proposed NSR GHG regulations makes clear the Agency believe the rules must be finalized by March 2010 because they must coincide with the rule regulating GHGs from light duty vehicles. It seems like an impossible task to determine BACT for the range of sources that will be potentially covered in less than six (6) months. Without established BACT standards, there is likely to be massive uncertainty and delays in permitting.
[A complete re-printing of the Climatewire article is available in the extended entry with their permission]
photo: everystockphoto- cjohnson7
Continue Reading EPA Begins Process of Determining BACT for CO2
On September 30th, U.S. EPA announced the release of its proposed rule regulating emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large industrial sources. The proposal represents a risky move by U.S. EPA in the event climate change legislative efforts fail and U.S. EPA is forced to move forward with the rules. The risk is two fold: 1)