EAB Rejects Sierra Club Challenge To Gas Plant Permit Over GHG Limit

摘要

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has rejected what could have been a precedent-setting challenge from environmentalists to an Arizona-issued permit for a facility to build simple-cycle natural gas turbines to back up renewable power, instead upholding a permit that the advocates say allows greenhouse gas emissions at levels above what EPA allows for new coal plants in its GHG rule for new plants. EAB in a Sept. 1 opinion and order in In re: Arizona Public Service Company (APS) Ocotillo Power Plant denied review of a Sierra Club petition that charged that regulators had to consider energy storage, rather than natural gas, in the best available control technology (BACT) review. The opinion is available on InsideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 194426) The board agreed with EPA and county air regulators that adopting the group's preferred approach would unlawfully "redefine the source."