EPA STRUGGLING TO CRAFT CRITERIA FOR LISTING ENERGY-INEFFICIENT PLANTS

摘要

EPA is struggling to meet a congressionally-mandated deadline under the 2007 energy law to create criteria for determining when activities such as flaring and venting of gases at industrial facilities are inefficient enough to merit installation of energy recovery systems, known as combined heat and power (CHP) systems. The agency must create first-time criteria for facilities that waste heat by September 19, according the energy law. The criteria will in turn be used to create an inventory by the end of December that determines which specific facilities waste enough energy to benefit from CHP systems. The inventory is the first rule to be crafted out of EPA's CHP office, which runs a voluntary program encouraging use of CHP systems that allow facilities to use the heat and electricity generated by their normal operations. While the law does not allow EPA to require installation of CHP systems, an EPA official said recently that a facility's listing on the inventory is intended to encourage installation of the energy recovery systems. The facilities will be "on the list but nothing will force them to take action," EPA's Leslie Cordes told the U.S. Energy Association last month, adding that, "we expect facilities will be made to act given their status of being on the report."