Tag Archives: New Source Performance Standards

Last week, EPA finalized its rollback of Obama administration regulations governing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.  The move is not exactly a surprise.  Regarding the purpose of the rollback, I stand by my take on the proposed regulations.  This regulation was promulgated for two purposes.  First, it provides generic red meat to those who think government regulation is inherently a bad thing. … More

Last week, EPA proposed to eliminate regulation of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.  The most noteworthy response to the proposal came from the large producers.  ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP all oppose the rollback.  In fact, Shell went on record not that long ago requesting the EPA increase the stringency of oil and gas methane regulation.  Anyone else hear an echo of the large automakers’ response to the Administration’s efforts to relax fuel efficiency standards?… More

Earlier this week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals handed environmentalists at least a temporary win in what I think was the first case to reach judicial decision in Scott Pruitt’s great environmental roll-back tour of 2017.  The Court rejected EPA’s effort to stay the effective date of the New Source Performance Standards for fugitive emissions from oil and natural gas operations, pending EPA’s reconsideration of certain aspects of the Obama-era rule.… More

Dylan Thomas said “Do not go gentle into that good night.”  Obama’s EPA is taking that advice to heart, pushing forward aggressively on its climate change agenda, even as January 2017 approaches.  On Thursday, EPA issued its final rule promulgating New Source Performance Standards for methane emissions from oil and gas facilities.  The lengthy and complex rule is too long to summarize here, but you can find the Cliff Notes version in EPA’s fact sheet.… More

Having gotten the Clean Power Plan out the door, EPA has moved on to another target of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan:  landfill methane emissions.  Late last week, EPA proposed both new emission guidelines for existing landfills and a supplemental proposal to modify the new source performance standards for new or modified landfills.  The landfill rule is a somewhat easier lift than the Clean Power Plan.… More

Last week, in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed EPA’s 2012 New Source Performance Standards for particulate matter emissions from fossil-fuel-fired steam electric generating units.  The opinion is largely a plain vanilla administrative law decision, but does provide some useful guidance on the appeal of CAA regulations.  It is also a useful reminder of the extent of deference to EPA in an ordinary case.… More

As I have previously noted, the government’s record in NSR enforcement cases has been going downhill, particularly with important defeats before the 3rd and 7th Circuits’ Courts of Appeals.  The latest governmental defeat came late last week, in Pennsylvania v. Allegheny Energy, when Chief Judge Conti granted judgment for the defendants on claims alleging both NSR and NSPS violations.… More

EPA’s Proposed New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new sources was finally published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.  At least fundamentally, it seems unchanged from the proposal released last September.  It is still based on the conclusion that carbon capture and storage is feasible and represents BSER – the best system of emission reduction – for fossil fuel-fired electric steam generating units.… More

Last Friday, EPA reissued its draft NSPS addressing carbon emissions from new power plants.  It’s not actually that different from the prior proposal, which would have required all new fossil-fuel plants to meet a 1,000 lbs CO2/MWh standard.  The new proposal would require new large gas plants to meet the 1,000 lbs/MWh standard, but would relax the standard to 1,100 lbs/MWh for small gas plants and for coal plants. … More

President Obama yesterday released his Climate Action Plan, together with a Memorandum concerning EPA’s issuance of rules governing carbon emissions from new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act.  At a certain level, there is not much new here.  The mere existence of the Plan and the commitment to address climate issues is presumably the point.

The Plan does not provide many specifics. … More

On Tuesday, EPA announced release of its proposed New Source Performance Standards for carbon pollution from new power plants. I’m feeling like a broken record here. Everyone’s acting on rational motives (if not rationally), but the result remains, to put it mildly, suboptimal. On the paramount environmental issue of the day, we’re going about it all wrong, when we know that there is a better way.

I cannot really blame EPA or the environmentalists. … More

Today, EPA announced settlements of litigation with states and environmental groups which will require EPA to promulgate New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from electric generating units and refineries. EPA will thus give those of us who practice in this area an opportunity to decide which program we find more cumbersome and ill-suited to regulate GHGs, the PSD/NSR program or the NSPS program.… More

Two seemingly unrelated reports last week serve as a reminder that coal remains very much under siege. First, Earthjustice, on behalf of a number of environmental organizations, filed a petition with EPA under § 111 of the Clean Air Act requesting that EPA identify coal mines as an emissions source and, consequently, establish new source performance standards for coal mine emissions of methane and several other categories of pollutants. 

Second,… More

Harking back to legislative efforts of a few years ago, Representative John McHugh (R-NY) yesterday introduced legislation that would require significant reductions in emissions of SO2 and NOx, and mercury from power plants. The highlights of the bill include the following:

• No later than two years from enactment, EPA must promulgate regulations requiring that powerplants:
  • reduce SO2 emissions by 75% over the Phase II levels contained in the current CAA acid rain program
  • reduce NOx emissions by 75% over 1997 levels
• Even aside from the above-described reductions,…

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Opening yet another front in the effort to force EPA to take more aggressive action to combat global warming, the Environmental Defense Fund recently announced its intent to sue EPA for its failure to update emissions standards with respect to emissions of methane from landfills. As EDF has alleged, Section 111 of the Clean Air Act requires that EPA update its New Source Performance Standards every eight years.… More