EPA Climate Change Regulatory Initiatives
EPA has a broad regulatory agenda with respect to GHGs. The EPA Climate Change materials below highlight EPA’s major climate change regulatory initiavitves and contains links to more details about each initiative. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s 2/22/2010 letter to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D. – W.Va.) outlines the current status and priorities of EPA’s climate change regulatory program. Since then EPA has acted on motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
Regulatory Initiatives
On April 1, 2010, EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a new national program that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for new cars and trucks sold in the United States. The EPA and NHTSA finalized a joint rule that establishes a national program consisting of new standards for model year 2012 through 2016 light-duty vehicles that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy. EPA finalized the first-ever national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards under the Clean Air Act, and NHTSA finalized Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. This national program will allow automobile manufacturers to build a single light-duty national fleet that satisfies all requirements under both Federal programs and the standards of California and other states.n April 1, 2010, EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a new national program that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for new cars and trucks sold in the United States. The EPA and NHTSA finalized a joint rule that establishes a national program consisting of new standards for model year 2012 through 2016 light-duty vehicles that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy. EPA finalized the first-ever national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards under the Clean Air Act, and NHTSA finalized Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. This national program will allow automobile manufacturers to build a single light-duty national fleet that satisfies all requirements under both Federal programs and the standards of California and other states.
Click here for link to the regulations and background documents
Proposed Rule: Proposal to Repeal the NSR Grandfathering Provision
- February 4, 2010 – EPA proposed to repeal a portion of the rule implementing the New Source Review (NSR) permitting program for fine particle pollution. This part of the rule is known as “the grandfathering provision for PM2.5”.
Click for Full Text PDF of Proposed Rule
Proposal to Stay Fugitive Emissions Rule for 18 Months
- February 4, 2010 – EPA proposed to stay, for 18 additional months, the rule establishing how fugitive emissions should be treated for New Source Review permitting. The current stay will expire on March 30, 2010.
Click for Full Text PDF of Proposed Rule
In Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Supreme Court held that the U.S. E.P.A. has the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. In response EPA has taken and initiated a range of regulatory actions under the Clean Air Act and other statutes to address climate change and greenhouse gases. Here is EPA’s list as posted on its Climate Change – Regulatory Initiatives website page:
Greenhouse Gas Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings
On December 7, 2009, Administrator Lisa Jackson signed a final action, under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act, finding that six key well-mixed greenhouse gases constitute a threat to public health and welfare, and that the combined emissions from motor vehicles cause and contribute to the climate change problem.
Proposed Greenhouse Gas Permitting Requirements on Large Industrial Facilities
On September 30, 2009 EPA proposed new thresholds for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that define when Clean Air Act permits under the New Source Review and title V operating permits programs would be required. The proposed thresholds would tailor these permit programs to limit which facilities would be required to obtain permits and would cover nearly 70 percent of the nation’s largest stationary source GHG emitters—including power plants, refineries, and cement production facilities, while shielding small businesses and farms from permitting requirements.
Comment Requested on Greenhouse Gas Permitting Guidance under Reconsideration
On September 30, 2009, EPA released a request for public comment as the agency reconsiders the December 18, 2008 memorandum entitled “EPA’s Interpretation of Regulations that Determine Pollutants Covered by Federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Permit Program.” This interpretive memo, from then-EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson to the EPA Regional Administrators addressed when the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program applies to carbon dioxide, a chief greenhouse gas, and other GHGs.
Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule
In response to the FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2764; Public Law 110–161), EPA has issued the Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule. Signed by the Administrator on September 22, 2009, the rule requires in general that suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial greenhouse gases (GHGs), manufacturers of vehicles and engines outside of the light duty sector, and facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of GHGs per year to submit annual reports to EPA. The rule is intended to collect accurate and timely emissions data to guide future policy decisions on climate change.
On September 15, 2009, EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed a new national program that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. EPA proposed the first-ever national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards under the Clean Air Act, and NHTSA proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. This proposed national program would allow automobile manufacturers to build a single light-duty national fleet that satisfies all requirements under both Federal programs and the standards of California and other states.
Waste Energy Recovery Registry
On July 23, 2009, EPA published a rule which proposes to establish the criteria for including sources or sites in a Registry of Recoverable Waste Energy Sources (Registry), as required by Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The agency is also proposing the Survey processes by which EPA will collect data and populate the Registry. The proposed rule would apply to major industrial and large commercial sources as defined by EPA in the rulemaking.
California Greenhouse Gas Waiver Request
On June 30, 2009, EPA granted a waiver of Clean Air Act preemption to California for the State’s GHG emission standards for motor vehicles beginning with the 2009 model year.
Renewable Fuel Standard 2 (RFS)
Published May 26, 2009, EPA, under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is responsible for revising and implementing regulations to ensure that gasoline sold in the United States contains a minimum volume of renewable fuel. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program will increase the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The new RFS program regulations are being developed in collaboration with refiners, renewable fuel producers, and many other stakeholders.
Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide
Geologic sequestration (GS) is the process of injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) from a source, such as a coal-fired electric generating power plant, through a well thousands of feet underground. With proper site selection and management, geologic sequestration could play a major role in reducing emissions of CO2. In July 2008, EPA published the Federal Requirements under the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Geologic Sequestration (GS) Wells Proposed Rule for public review and comment.
Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act
Published July 11, 2008, the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) was one of the steps EPA has taken in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. The Court found that the Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions if EPA determines they cause or contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.