The Environmental Protection Agency has failed to satisfy either side of the debate about its tailoring rule that would regulate greenhouse gases from only the largest industrial sources, like power plants. "The Center for Biological Diversity is joining a number of industry groups in challenging EPA's tailoring rule," Robin Bravender of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. "But while industry groups argue that EPA climate rules will hurt businesses, CBD says the agency is not going far enough." Tuesday marked the deadline for groups to file challenges to the rule with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
"We want to make sure that there are some lines in the sand that are drawn and that truly the large industrial sources of greenhouse gases are actually regulated," CBD senior counsel Bill Snape said. EPA says without the tailoring rule, "even small sources would need to get permits for their greenhouse gas emissions when the agency's emission limits for tailpipes will trigger Clean Air Act permitting rules for industrial facilities," Bravender writes. Snape echoed previous promises that CBD is not trying to force EPA into regulating greenhouse gas emissions from smaller sources, but said the agency can do better than the tailoring rule.
"Starting in January, only sources that already have to apply for permits for other pollutants and emit more than 75,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year would be affected," Bravender writes. "And starting next July, new and modified plants that emit more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year would be affected." EPA initially proposed to regulate emitters of over 25,000 tons, but air chief Gina McCarthy said in May agency officials realized that threshold would include sources it didn't intend to regulate. "You've already seen EPA pushed back so the final rule is significantly weaker," Snape said. "Our take was: That jump from the proposed rule from the final rule was pure fear politics." (Read more)
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