Council Submits Comments to EPA on Air Standards Review

 The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish and periodically revise industry categories and adopt standards of performance reflecting the emission of reduction achievable through application of the best system of emission reduction. These standards are called New Source Performance Standards or NSPS. The purpose of NSPS is to prevent deterioration of air quality from the construction of new sources or modification of existing sources and reduce control costs by building pollution controls into the initial design of plants.

Under the CAA, EPA must, at least every eight years, review and, if appropriate, revise the NSPS. However, the EPA need not review any standard if they determine that such review is not appropriate in light of readily available information on the efficacy of such standards. 

On October 24, 2011, the EPA proposed rules which would formalize the process by which they would make the determination whether to review an NSPS. The EPA strates in the rule that in most cases, if an NSPS meets any of the following criteria it will not need to be reviewed:

1. Information on pollution control technology indicates that review of the standard would not result in more stringent emission limits;
2. The industry is not projected to grow; or
3. Existence of regulatory programs that are applicable to the same pollutants as would be addressed by the NSPS.

The Clean Air Council generally supports streamlining and formalizing the review of NSPS, especially because many NSPS are seriously outdated and overdue for review. However the Council encouraged the EPA to consider addressing greenhouse gases in NSPS review and to ensure that the existence of regulatory programs that would cover the same pollutants are applicable to both major and minor sources in order for it to be considered as a criteria to allow for no review.

Attached below find the Council's comments.