Heavy Impact of Recent Regulation on Generation Permitting

摘要

The Obama EPA has been busy, and electric utilities have been among the hardest hit. The Obama EPA has been busy, and electric utilities have been among the hardest hit. The EPA has issued a blizzard of new rules in the last four years that have made it far more difficult and expensive to obtain an air permit for emissions from a new or modified electric generation unit (EGU). The list includes first-time rules governing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs); new National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrous oxides (NO_x); New Source Performance Standards (NSPS); new standards for emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs); a new program for controlling interstate transport of pollutants; and a new and more restrictive policy for addressing upset emissions start-up, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM).