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Washington Policy Report: September 2011
Bipartisan Boiler MACT Bill Introduced in Senate
Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) have introduced a bipartisan bill that would permit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have an additional 15 months to prepare a new boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule.
On February 21, 2011, the EPA established Clean Air Act emissions standards for large and small boilers and incinerators that burn solid waste and sewage sludge. The standards cover more than 200,000 boilers and incinerators that emit air pollutants, including mercury, cadmium, dioxins and particle pollution.
The final rules, published on March 21, 2011, called for an effective date of May 20, 2011 with compliance deadlines beginning three years later. That date was pushed back after the EPA reopened the comment period and extended the deadline to July 15.
Specifically, this bill would:
- Provide the EPA with 15 months from the bill's date of enactment to re-propose and finalize the Boiler MACT regulations;
- Extend compliance deadlines from three years to at least five years which would allow facilities adequate time to comply with the new standards and install necessary equipment;
- Clarify that renewable and carbon-neutral materials remain classified as fuel and not solid waste; and,
- Direct EPA to ensure that the new rules are achievable by real-world boilers, process heaters, and incinerators, and impose the least burdensome regulator alternatives consistent with the President's Executive Order.
A recent New York Times piece points out that the bill “would also specify that certain materials burned in industrial boilers are to be listed as "nonhazardous secondary materials" if they are burned in a way that produces energy.”
These materials, which are effectively classified as fuel rather than waste for the purposes of regulation, include certain petroleum and chemical products and residues, plastics, tires and other substances that clean air advocates say could harm public health if they are burned. The list also includes biomass and other materials related to the timber industry, including turpentine.
Staff for Sen. Wyden have described the bill as a list of materials that would no longer be precluded from being used as boiler fuels, but would still be subject to the MACT rules. Otherwise, these fuels would be used for incinerators, and not boilers.
According to the EPA, the boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule, when implemented, will cover about 13,555 boilers and process heaters at about 1,600 major source facilities. Although this is mostly industrial facilities, it will also include “small entities,” universities, municipalities, and military installations. These rules would seek to significantly cut emissions of different air pollutants including cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid.
President Obama Announces First Greenhouse Gas Standards
On August 9th, President Obama met with industry officials to discuss fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas pollution standards for work trucks, buses, and other heavy duty vehicles. This meeting marked the Administration’s announcement of the standards, which are projected to save American businesses that operate and own these commercial vehicles approximately $50 billion in fuel costs over the life of the program.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the standards in close coordination with key stakeholders. Under the comprehensive new national program, trucks and buses built in 2014 through 2018 will reduce oil consumption by a projected 530 million barrels and greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by approximately 270 million metric tons.
The joint DOT/EPA program will include a range of targets, which are specific to the diverse vehicle types and purposes. The vehicles will be divided into three major categories: combination tractors (semi-trucks); heavy-duty pickup trucks; and, vans, and vocational vehicles (like transit buses and refuse trucks). Within each of those categories, even more specific targets are laid out based on the design and purpose of the vehicle. This flexible structure allows serious but achievable fuel efficiency improvement goals charted for each year and for each vehicle category and type.
By the 2018 model year, the program is expected to achieve significant savings relative to current levels, across vehicle types. Some examples include:
- Certain combination tractors – commonly known as big-rigs or semi-trucks – will be required to achieve up to approximately 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2018, saving up to four gallons of fuel for every 100 miles traveled;
- For heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, separate standards are required for gasoline-powered and diesel trucks. These vehicles will be required to achieve up to approximately 15 percent reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2018. Under the finalized standards, a typical gasoline or diesel powered heavy-duty pickup truck or van could save one gallon of fuel for every 100 miles traveled; and,
- Vocational vehicles – including delivery trucks, buses, and garbage trucks – will be required to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 10 percent by model year 2018. These trucks could save an average of one gallon of fuel for every 100 miles traveled.
For additional information, go to: http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/08/cafe-trucks.html
National Research Council calls for Update of EPA Decision Making Process
Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making.
This framework, “Sustainability and the U.S. EPA,” provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management.
The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.
The framework may be read on-line at: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13152&page=1
ASME Position Statements
Letter from ASME EED and Power Division Urging EPA to Adopt Technically Neutral Stance in Power Plant Rulemaking
ID: PS11-20 Letter urging EPA to adopt technologically neutral position. To reduce fish casualties from water cooling towers. Issued By: ASME Materials Division
Position Statement of the ASME EPA Task Force on the FY 2012 Budget Proposal For The Environmental Protection Agency
ID: PS11-14 Statement recognizes budget constraints, but urges additional funding for the Homeland Security programs funded within the EPA budget request, as well as additional security enhancements to our water supply
Letter from ASME MER urging Tennessee Valley Authority to Recognize WTE as a resource for electricity moving forward
ID: PS10-33 Letter from ASME MER urging Tennessee Valley Authority to revise Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) report to include WTE. Includes copy of NYT article as well as PS08-22.
Coalition Letter Supporting the Gas Turbine Efficiency Act, S. 2900
ID: PS10-22 Letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman and Ranking Member to ask for their support for The Gas Turbine Efficiency Act or S. 2900
Letter from ASME SWPD urging lawmakers to support Waste-to-Energy as part of any renewable energy standard.
ID: PS10-17 Letter to members of U.S. Senate requesting that WTE be added to the list of acceptable technologies for any renewable energy standard.
Position statement of the ASME EPA Task force on the FY 2011 budget proposal for the Environmental Protection Agency
ID: PS10-11 Statement recognizes budget constraints, but urges addt'l funding for Homeland Security programs funded within the EPA budget request, and addt'l security enhancements to our water supply
IGTI Letter Supporting the Gas Turbine Efficiency Act, S. 2900
ID: PS10-01 Letter requesting that the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee Support the Administration's Request for the Advanced Turbine Research program
Current Environmental Legislation
H.R. 910 - The Energy Tax Prevention Act.
A bill that would seek to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act.
H.R. 2021 - The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011.
Directs the Department of the Interior to accelerate licensing for energy exploration off the coast of Alaska.
H.R. 2250 - The EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011.
This bill extends compliance time for commercial and industrial boilers, and requires EPA to take another 15 months to "re-propose" four rules affecting boilers known together as the "Boiler MACT" rules.
H.R. 2401 - The Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts to the Nation (TRAIN) Act.
The TRAIN Act would mandate economic impact evaluations of pending Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that may raise electricity and fuel rates.
H.R. 2584/S. ___, The “House Interior and Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act”
The Act would provide funding to support the Department of Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
For more detailed legislative bill information from the Library of Congress, please visit THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov .
House and Senate Committees
Federal Agencies
Reports
EPA Office of the Inspector General (OIG), “Procedural Review of EPA's Greenhouse Gases Endangerment Finding Data Quality Processes,” http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2011/20110926-11-P-0702.pdf
America’s Climate Choices http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12781
Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act: Second Prospective Study 1990 to 2020 http://www.epa.gov/air/sect812/feb11/fullreport.pdf
The Economic Impact of Proposed EPA Boiler/Process Heater MACT Rule on Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boiler and Process Heater Operators, from the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners http://www.cibo.org/pubs/boilermact_jobsstudy.pdf
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climate Center, State of the Climate National Overview http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2011/8
Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/news/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf