The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that Clean Air Act permits for stationary sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) will not be required before January 2011 – or, to put it another way, EPA has put the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions on notice that permitting will commence in January 2011.
Clean Air Act construction and operating permit requirements for the facilities emitting the largest quantities of GHGs will begin when the first national GHG control rule takes effect. EPA’s target date for implementation of a rule regulating GHG emissions from cars and light trucks is January 2011, when model year 2012 vehicles meeting the standards can first be sold in the United States. Final greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles are pending.
At this point, potentially regulated sources are still waiting for EPA to formally reveal the threshold quantities of GHG emissions that will trigger the requirement for permit limitations on these emissions.
What do you think – too soon? Can we expect that regulators and regulated industries will be able to identify, engineer and implement effective control technologies and procedures in timely fashion? And how will the costs affect not only the permitted industries but also chances for an economic recovery?
More information on the EPA approach and its intended timeline can be found at www.epa.gov/nsr/guidance.html.