Industry Fears Briefing, EPA Review Could Upend Boiler MACT Compliance

摘要

Industry officials are concerned that a recently announced court schedule for litigation over EPA's combustion emission rules for boilers and incinerators, along with the agency's pending reconsideration process, will leave plant owners with less time to know if they should spend millions upgrading units ahead of a key 2016 compliance deadline. "It's getting to the point that we're starting to fear Groundhog Day 3 where the final litigation results and reconsideration results all end just prior to the [January 2016] compliance date" for meeting more stringent emission limits for boilers, says one industry official. The source adds that if the boiler litigation ends with the court remanding the rules to EPA, as an appellate court recently did with EPA's air toxics rule governing sewage sludge incinerators, "then we're starting all over again."