EPA gives timeline for GHG regulation

In a letter dated Feb. 22 to eight U.S. senators, in response to a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from the senators, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson set out a broad timeline for implementing the EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Clean Air Act permitting of new construction or the modification of existing structures will not need to address greenhouse gas emissions until 2011, Jackson said. Then, during the first half of 2011, only those facilities that would already have to apply for Clean Air Act permits will need to address their greenhouse gas emissions in their permit applications. The Clean Air Act permitting of large stationary sources with the potential to generate greenhouse gas emissions will then be phased in from the middle of 2011.

In response to public comments, EPA is considering raising “substantially” the threshold of 25,000 tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions that would trigger Clean Air Act permitting requirements for large facilities, with that increased threshold continuing until 2013, Jackson said.

And EPA does not plan to require greenhouse gas emissions permitting for smaller facilities before 2016, she said.

—Alan Bailey