Paslode
12-27-2010, 17:47
EPA takes over Texas pollution permits
Feds decide state is unwilling to do anything on greenhouse gases
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
AUSTIN BUREAU
Dec. 24, 2010, 10:42AM
AUSTIN — The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday effectively declared Texas unfit to regulate its own greenhouse gas emissions and took over carbon dioxide permitting of any new or expanding industrial facilities starting Jan. 2.
The EPA also set up a framework for regulating greenhouse gas emissions in seven other states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon and Wyoming. In addition, the agency set a timetable on establishing regulated levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
The action will give the EPA permitting authority over refineries, power plants and cement facilities in Texas, the agency said, but will not affect small pollution source facilities, such as restaurants and farms.
Environmentalists praised the EPA for taking action to make the nation's air cleaner and to protect the ozone layer. But industry groups and Gov. Rick Perry's office said the EPA takeover will create unnecessary restrictions that could cost jobs.
About a year of threats and lawsuits preceded Thursday's actions by the national and regional EPA offices. The agency earlier this year won a lawsuit in federal court giving it the power to regulate greenhouse gases.
Texas recently lost a bid for a federal restraining order aimed at keeping the EPA from enforcing its greenhouse gas rules on the state.
EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz, in a letter to industry, said the EPA will take permitting away from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Jan. 2, 2011. Armendariz said 167 permits that are pending or are about to be filed will be affected by the order.
The order does not affect existing permits.
Texas' stance clear
Armendariz said state officials had made it clear in letters to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in news media statements and its legal challenges that Texas had "no intention of implementing this portion of the federal air permitting program."
He added, "The unwillingness of Texas state officials to implement this portion of the federal program leaves EPA no choice but to resume its role as a Clean Air Act permitting authority in the state."
Lawsuit continuing
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the state's lawsuit against the EPA is continuing in an effort to prove the agency never was given authority by Congress to regulate greenhouse gases.
"The EPAs misguided plan paints a huge target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers by implementing unnecessary, burdensome mandates on our state's energy sector, threatening hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs and imposing increased living costs on Texas families," Cesinger said.
She said the state's flexible air quality permitting system led to a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 53 percent decrease in nitric oxide emissions since 2000.
The TCEQ, which has been handling the permits, issued a statement saying the EPA has no means of measuring whether carbon dioxide emissions are reduced as a result of more stringent permit requirements. The agency said carbon dioxide levels measure about the same all over the earth so a focus should be on other pollutants.
The American Petroleum Institute called the EPA actions "coercive."
"The administration's focus should be on job creation and economic recovery, not unnecessary and burdensome regulations that will threaten jobs and create a drag on business efforts to invest, expand and put people back to work," said the institute's regulatory affairs director Howard Feldman.
A positive, maybe
Neil Carman of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club characterized the EPA's actions as a positive step toward controlling a major pollutant.
Carman said, however, that the development is unlikely to directly affect the ongoing state battle with the EPA over its flexible permitting process on other pollutants.
The EPA likely will establish carbon dioxide levels for refineries that are doing major upgrades without actually requiring the companies to install equipment to meet those guidelines, Carman suggested.
He said many companies already are planning to install more energy efficient and less polluting equipment because it saves money.
"I view this as a positive," Carman said. "But we're going to have to wait and see."
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7352160.html
Feds decide state is unwilling to do anything on greenhouse gases
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
AUSTIN BUREAU
Dec. 24, 2010, 10:42AM
AUSTIN — The federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday effectively declared Texas unfit to regulate its own greenhouse gas emissions and took over carbon dioxide permitting of any new or expanding industrial facilities starting Jan. 2.
The EPA also set up a framework for regulating greenhouse gas emissions in seven other states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon and Wyoming. In addition, the agency set a timetable on establishing regulated levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
The action will give the EPA permitting authority over refineries, power plants and cement facilities in Texas, the agency said, but will not affect small pollution source facilities, such as restaurants and farms.
Environmentalists praised the EPA for taking action to make the nation's air cleaner and to protect the ozone layer. But industry groups and Gov. Rick Perry's office said the EPA takeover will create unnecessary restrictions that could cost jobs.
About a year of threats and lawsuits preceded Thursday's actions by the national and regional EPA offices. The agency earlier this year won a lawsuit in federal court giving it the power to regulate greenhouse gases.
Texas recently lost a bid for a federal restraining order aimed at keeping the EPA from enforcing its greenhouse gas rules on the state.
EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz, in a letter to industry, said the EPA will take permitting away from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Jan. 2, 2011. Armendariz said 167 permits that are pending or are about to be filed will be affected by the order.
The order does not affect existing permits.
Texas' stance clear
Armendariz said state officials had made it clear in letters to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in news media statements and its legal challenges that Texas had "no intention of implementing this portion of the federal air permitting program."
He added, "The unwillingness of Texas state officials to implement this portion of the federal program leaves EPA no choice but to resume its role as a Clean Air Act permitting authority in the state."
Lawsuit continuing
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the state's lawsuit against the EPA is continuing in an effort to prove the agency never was given authority by Congress to regulate greenhouse gases.
"The EPAs misguided plan paints a huge target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers by implementing unnecessary, burdensome mandates on our state's energy sector, threatening hundreds of thousands of Texas jobs and imposing increased living costs on Texas families," Cesinger said.
She said the state's flexible air quality permitting system led to a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 53 percent decrease in nitric oxide emissions since 2000.
The TCEQ, which has been handling the permits, issued a statement saying the EPA has no means of measuring whether carbon dioxide emissions are reduced as a result of more stringent permit requirements. The agency said carbon dioxide levels measure about the same all over the earth so a focus should be on other pollutants.
The American Petroleum Institute called the EPA actions "coercive."
"The administration's focus should be on job creation and economic recovery, not unnecessary and burdensome regulations that will threaten jobs and create a drag on business efforts to invest, expand and put people back to work," said the institute's regulatory affairs director Howard Feldman.
A positive, maybe
Neil Carman of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club characterized the EPA's actions as a positive step toward controlling a major pollutant.
Carman said, however, that the development is unlikely to directly affect the ongoing state battle with the EPA over its flexible permitting process on other pollutants.
The EPA likely will establish carbon dioxide levels for refineries that are doing major upgrades without actually requiring the companies to install equipment to meet those guidelines, Carman suggested.
He said many companies already are planning to install more energy efficient and less polluting equipment because it saves money.
"I view this as a positive," Carman said. "But we're going to have to wait and see."
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7352160.html