EPA said to admit pollution rule unlikely this yr
Date: 12-Nov-01
Country: USA
Author: Chris Baltimore
The Bush administration's proposal is awaited by the head of the Senate Environment Committee, who has pledged to push ahead with legislation requiring drastic cuts of at least 75 percent in four pollutants spewed by U.S. utilities.
Utility executives and a recent EPA study claim limits on all four pollutants - carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury - would be too costly and force some coal-burning plants to close at a time when the nation needs more energy. Green groups and some Democrats say tough limits are needed to protect public health.
Natural Resources Defense Council attorney John Walke said a senior EPA official acknowledged last week that the agency would submit its pollution plan "by year-end at the earliest but realistically it would be early next year."
Walke said the official, Bill Harnett, a division director of EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, made the remarks at a meeting of the National Coal Council, a federal advisory panel. Harnett could not be reached for comment.
An EPA spokesman last week would not elaborate on or clarify Harnett's comments. The spokesman said the EPA expects to release its utility pollution proposal "in the relatively near future."
DELAY IN NEW SOURCE REVIEW
The statement by Harnett marks a departure from earlier promises by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman that the proposal would come by year-end.
A delay would also push back the EPA's promised ruling on the so-called New Source Review standards for utilities, Walke said. The new source review standards would require U.S. utilities to install expensive pollution-removal equipment on newly constructed or expanded plants.
The Bush administration in May gave EPA 90 days to study new source review rule changes, after ordering a rethink of Clean Air Act regulations. That August deadline was later pushed into September to allow EPA to work with Congress on emission-reduction legislation.
Harnett's comments at the coal meeting included a discussion of changing new source review rules to redefine the definition of "routine maintenance," which does not trigger mandatory upgrades, Walke said.
Harnett indicated electric utilities' requested EPA to give new source review exemptions for upgrades that fall beneath a set dollar amount, based on price per kilowatt of power produced at the plant, Walke said.
That cutoff level, described by utility officials at about $120 per kilowatt, could release many utilities from enforcement actions and lawsuits, Walke said.
"Most if not all of the NSR cases the EPA is currently pursuing would be exempted under that test," Walke said.
BILL TARGETS 4 POLLUTANTS
Democratic lawmakers want to require U.S. utilities to begin making steep cuts in 2002 emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide.
Sen. Jim Jeffords, the Vermont independent who heads the Senate environment panel, wants hard-line emission cuts beginning in 2002.
The Bush administration last week vowed to oppose Jefford's bill. It also released a study which claims Jeffords' proposal would boost consumers' electricity rates by up to 50 percent, and force some plants to shut down.
Jeffords' bill would require a 75 percent to 90 percent reduction in the four pollutants with full compliance by 2007.
The Senate panel has scheduled another hearing on Nov. 15 to discuss utility pollution.
The administration favors replacing current Clean Air Act rules with a cap-and-trade regime for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury - and no mandatory cuts for carbon dioxide. That kind of market-based approach would allow dirty U.S. power plants to buy emission rights from cleaner plants.
