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EPA Finalizes Stationary Source Greenhouse Gas Rules Starting in July 2011, newly planned facilities releasing 100,000 or more tons of CO2 per year will require greenhouse gas emissions permits, according to finalized rules from the EPA.
Facilities undertaking modifications that would result in emissions increases of 75,000 tons or more will be subject to permitting requirements beginning in January 2011. Applications currently in progress will be subject to the new regulations if they don’t receive final approval from state permitting authorities before January 2, 2011.
Legal challenges charge that the EPA does not have the authority to create regulatory distinctions between small and large emitters of CO2. The EPA was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007 to evaluate whether CO2 presented a danger to the public and regulate it appropriately.
The public danger found by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was the link between increased CO2 concentrations and heavier rains, frequent flooding, more intense heat spells and rising sea levels.
The EPA plans to release guidance regarding the “best available control technology.” However, that guidance has been delayed by debate over whether natural gas should be treated as a control technology or whether costlier renewables projects are a more appropriate control. The agency has said it hopes to phase in rules that would apply to entities emitting as little as 50,000 tons of greenhouse gas per year. A study of the implications of regulating even smaller sources is expected to be completed by late 2015, as support for regulations that could take effect in 2016. |
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