EPA Biomass Accounting Rule May Set Precedent On Scope Of Air Permits

摘要

EPA s plan to issue a rule discounting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biomass sources could set a precedent for whether regulators must base air permit limits solely on emissions from facility smokestacks or can, for the first time, consider factors that occur outside a facility fenceline, such as sequestration of GHGs when biomass regrows. One industry source says that while EPA has authority to discount emissions at a single facility, it has never before based a rulemaking on emissions beyond a fenceline, such as subtracting actual emissions from a smokestack based on the materials regrowth elsewhere in the country. "That's new ground," the source says.