New Lessened Air Rules Take Effect

[Timber Loftis]

Note that even the old violations will get the perks of the new rules. EPA has not been enforcing air hardly any at all this last year. Why? Well, they waited until these new rules came into effect. Now, my daily reporting newsletters will start showing a *ton* of new Clean Air Act settlement. You see, with the new rules, there will be a push to settle out everything as quickly as possible under the new (polluter friendly) rules. EPA waited so it could give all the big dirties this new discount, and now it will push to get them all settled for pennies before a possible administration change.

Of course, this offends the hell out of me as an environmentalist who actually knows what sort of stuff comes out of the stack. But, as an environmental lawyer, this shit's also putting me out of work. [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img] (Not that that is any reason to require New Source Review -- I'm just complaining.)
______________________________

BNA Reporter No. 219
Thursday, November 13, 2003 Page A-1
ISSN 1521-9402
News

Air Pollution
EPA Air Official Confirms Past Actions
To Be Measured Against New Pollution Rule

Existing investigations into possible past new source review violations by electric power plants and other industrial sources will be evaluated according to new, less stringent rules, an EPA air official confirmed Nov. 12.
"New enforcement against past conduct" will be undertaken only if the actions were "inconsistent with the new rule," Bill Wehrum, counsel in EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said at a briefing sponsored by the Washington Legal Foundation.

"The new rule is the yardstick to measure the cases," Wehrum said.

EPA's enforcement chief John Peter Suarez first announced the policy to EPA enforcement staff at a meeting Nov. 4. The policy applies a rule published Oct. 27 to pending enforcement actions against power plants and other industrial facilities that may have violated new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act. New source review requires plants to install modern pollution controls whenever they make plant modifications that increase emissions (215 DEN A-1, 11/6/03). [And only applies to the biggest, dirties, facilities -- having usually at least one pollutant emission that tops the 100 or 200 tons per year mark -- TL]

The Oct. 27 rule expanded an exemption to new source review requirements for routine repair and replacement projects by excluding equipment replacement projects costing 20 percent or less of the replacement cost of the process unit (68 Fed. Reg. 61,247; 207 DEN A-1, 10/27/03).

EPA former enforcement official Eric Schaeffer said at the Washington Legal Foundation briefing that the rule "eliminates new source review at power plants." [Which means no controls on the polluters we *know* cause acid rain, ozone depletion, and smog, and also tend to release tons of wonderful substances like gaseous formaldehyde and mercury compounds into the air. -- TL]

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is seeking the files from these investigations with the intention of pursuing lawsuits against alleged new source review violations without EPA participation. Several other states also have expressed interest in pursuing new source review litigation (216 DEN A-11, 11/7/03). [Bless their hearts. Oh, it's a selfish thing to do, as well. Watch your weather station at night and it will become abundantly clear that New England states suffer the acid rain caused by power plants in Illinois and Ohio. -- TL]

Wehrum said new source review would continue, and that the Oct. 27 rule made the program clearer and made it easier for plants to install efficiency upgrades. [Yeah, they'll be polluting more efficiently than ever. -- TL]

By Steve Cook

Copyright © 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.

[LordKathen]

I did'nt relise you were an environmental lawyer. Cool. Very interesting report. It just figures. Whats next, ya know.
Good luck with your job search. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]