States Say EPA Should Roll Out Emissions Rules Slowly

Although generally supportive of the EPA’s move to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions, many state regulators have urged the agency to slow the rollout of its proposed rules to avoid administrative gridlock.

One major concern is the potential burden of new permitting and oversight responsibilities at a time when states are already having trouble making ends meet, reported the Wall Street Journal.

An overwhelmed system could cause delays to the measures some states are already taking to curb greenhouse emissions. California, for example, is planning new gas-fired plants to provide backup power as new but intermittent renewables projects come online. Under the EPA’s proposal, all those new plants would require permitting.

Elsewhere, regulators have cautioned that non-power industry sources, such as feedlots and municipal landfills, may require permits under the proposed rules.

While the earliest parts of the EPA’s proposals are designed to apply to facilities emitting a minimum of 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year, many state and local air-quality agencies believe the agency is underestimating the number of sources that will be subject to regulation under its new rules. In light of this, the National Association of Clean Air Agencies has proposed that the regulation of major stationary sources not take effect until 2011.

Business groups have suggested the EPA does not have the authority to choose only to impose permitting requirements on major emitters, saying the agency will be forced by federal statutes to regulate facilities emitting much lower levels of greenhouse gas.

Permitting would entail facilities demonstrating to state and local regulators that they are minimizing greenhouse emissions using “best practices,” a standard that will be based on EPA guidelines but ultimately left to the states. Those EPA guidelines are set to be published in the next several months.

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