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EPA to Issue New Rules for Boilers After Court Rejects Timeline
2011-01-21 16:33:49.367 GMT
By Kim Chipman and Tom Schoenberg
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency said it will work to meet a new court-ordered deadline to
issue emission standards for boilers and incinerators next
month, ahead of the April 2012 date sought by the agency.
A federal judge in Washington yesterday gave the agency a
one-month extension to issue the regulations, putting the
deadline at Feb. 21. The EPA asked U.S. District Judge Paul
Friedman in December for a 15-month extension to issue the final
rules to cut emissions from boilers and incinerators through
"maximum achievable control technology," known as MACT.
"EPA is disappointed that the extension wasn't longer,"
the agency said in a statement yesterday. "However, the agency
will work diligently to issue these standards by this new
deadline."
The EPA argued it needed more time to rethink the rules
proposed in April after receiving industry reaction and almost
5,000 public comments. Companies such as Weyerhaeuser Co., the
largest publicly traded U.S. timberland company by sales, said
the standards were too stringent and the Council of Industrial
Boiler Owners, a Burke, Virginia-based trade group, said the
rules could put more than 300,000 jobs at risk.
"The EPA will now have only a very small window to issue
the final rule," Alicia Oman, director of energy and resources
policy at the National Association of Manufactures in
Washington, said in a statement. "If implemented, the boiler
MACT rule will have a harmful impact on manufacturers of all
sizes and significantly hurt job creation."
Number of Extensions
In his order, Friedman noted that the case was filed more
than nine years ago and since 2006, he has issued the EPA "a
number" of extensions.
"The policy arguments EPA raises have no place in a case
where Congress has mandated expedition, and its statutorily
mandated deadlines have long since passed," Friedman wrote in
his opinion.
The EPA's final rules will be "significantly different"
from those proposed last year, according to the agency's
statement.
"EPA intends to ensure that the rules will be practical to
implement and will protect all Americans from dangerous
pollutants such as mercury and soot, which can damage children's
developing brains, aggravate asthma and cause heart attacks,"
the agency said.
Proposed rule on boiler emissions in Federal Register: 75
FR 32006. The case is Sierra Club v. Jackson, 01-cv-01537, U.S.
District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
For Related News and Information:
Top EPA Stories: TNI TOP EPA <GO>
North American environmental markets: EMUS <GO>
A menu of world energy statistics: ENST <GO>
To chart the performance of the Bloomberg Americas Electric
Index: BUSELEC US <Index> GPO D <GO>
Top legal stories: TLAW <GO>
Bloomberg legal resources: BLAW <GO>
--Editors: Mary Romano, Charles Carter
To contact the reporters on this story:
Kim Chipman in Washington at +1-202-624-1927 or
kchipman@bloomberg.net;
Tom Schoenberg in Washington at +1-202-654-7367 or
tschoenberg@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Larry Liebert at +1-202-624-1936 or
lliebert@bloomberg.net
