On January 31, the USEPA published its Final Rules on National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major and Area Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers in the Federal Register, triggering the start of the rules' compliance clock. Is anyone going to litigate against the new rules - environmental activists or boiler users - further prolonging legal uncertainty over the requirements that USEPA has been rewriting and defending for almost a decade? Too early to tell; both sides are still weighing whether to file legal challenges. Environmentalists are upset about several changes USEPA made to its initial rules during the reconsideration process, not the least of them being the extension of the compliance period, and a few users are still whining about cost and achievability. One user source has said, however, that the user industry is unlikely to challenge it but could intervene on USEPA's behalf if environmental groups file lawsuits to preserve USEPA flexibility.
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