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  4. EPA to Update Landfill Methane Rules

EPA to Update Landfill Methane Rules

Date: May 21, 2016

Source: US EPA

EPA expects to update emissions rules aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) methane from landfills by July 14, a legally binding deadline. The agency is revising its existing landfill emission guidelines, last set in 2000, alongside updated standards for new and modified landfills, which were last set in 1996. It is doing so in response to a 2011 lawsuit brought by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) that asked EPA to update new source performance standards (NSPS) for new and modified sources. Both the proposed emissions guidelines from 2014 and a supplement to the NSPS in 2015 would set an emissions threshold of 34 metric tons of methane, a level at which landfills would be required to begin capturing emissions of landfill gas, which contains methane and other pollutants. This is significantly lower than the 40-ton threshold that EPA floated in the earlier version of the proposed NSPS, and the existing 50-ton threshold. Industry opponents of the landfill rules such as the Utility Air Regulatory Group in comments on the proposals say EPA lacks legal authority to update existing source standards issued under Clean Air Act section 111(d), the same provision the agency is using for its sweeping GHG regulations for power plants. Industry also points to economic factors such as low energy prices and an uncertain future for tax credits that makes it harder to capture and recover for energy landfill gas (LFG). Moreover, increased diversion, especially of organic wastes, has resulted in lower levels of LFG content per ton of waste landfilled.

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