EPA Proposes to Halt Plans to Expand Greenhouse Gas Permitting Requirements to Smaller Sources

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing not to change the greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting thresholds for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Operating Permit programs to include smaller sources of GHGs, as it had originally planned.  

EPA's "tailoring rule" administratively altered the GHG applicability thresholds for the PSD and Title V programs of the Clean Air Act.  The rule was designed to initially subject only the largest facilities that emit GHGs to the regulations, then subsequently expand to phase in smaller sources by lowering the applicability levels.  The next phase was to begin in July 2013, with EPA conducting a rulemaking in 2011 to determine the new, lower threshold levels.  But EPA is now proposing to leave the program as is rather than expanding it.   

While EPA claims that the decision not to expand the program is because "the current approach is working well . . . [and] state permitting authorities are currently managing PSD permitting requests," it is unclear why the plans for the program are being altered if it is working so well.  According to EPA, as of December 1, 2011, EPA and state permitting authorities have issued 18 PSD permits addressing GHG emissions.

It is possible that EPA is waiting to see what happens in the legal challenges to the four key pieces of the EPA's suite of GHG regulations--the oral arguments for which are taking place in the Circuit Court for the D.C. Circuit this week--before pushing ahead to expand the program.   

EPA will accept comments on this proposal for 45 days after it is published in the Federal Register. A public hearing will be held on March 20, 2012, in Arlington, Virginia.