EPA Issues Guidelines for States' GHG Permitting of Large Emitters

Date: November 10, 2010

Source: News Room

The US EPA has released a guidance document that instructs state and local officials how to issue permits for power plants, refineries and other large stationary sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) once new climate rules take effect next year. The 97-page document is designed to help regulators identify cost-effective options for controlling GHGs under the Clean Air Act's tailoring rule that applies to large industrial sources announced last spring. "EPA is working closely with its partners at the state and local levels to ensure permitting for greenhouse gases runs smoothly," said Gina McCarthy, the agency's assistant administrator for air and radiation. "To identify GHG options, EPA and the states are now ready to apply the same time-tested process they have used for other pollutants." Industry groups had worried that the agency would require facilities to use costly carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology to trap carbon dioxide and store it underground, but EPA's guidance suggests otherwise. "While CCS is a promising technology, EPA does not believe that at this time CCS will be a technically feasible [best available control technology, or BACT] option in certain cases," EPA writes.

"Federal and state policies, along with a number of state and regional efforts, are currently under way to foster the expansion of renewable resources and promote biomass as a way of addressing climate change and enhancing forest management," the guidance document says. "Based on these considerations, permitting authorities might determine that, with respect to the biomass component of a facility's fuel stream, certain types of biomass by themselves are BACT for GHGs."

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