The U.S. Senate rejected an effort to repeal the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) on Nov. 10.
Lawmakers voted 56-41 against a resolution from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) intended to overturn the rule, according to news reports. Critics have said the January 2012 start date is not enough time for companies to comply, and it could result in plant closures, job losses and reliability issues. Texas and Kansas are among several states that have sued the EPA since the rule was finalized in July.
The rule is aimed at limiting the amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions levels in 27 states. On Oct. 6, the EPA announced several proposed changes to the rule after taking into consideration additional data from states and companies. The proposed changes include budget increases in 10 states and unit level allocations in six states.
In the effort to repeal CSAPR, Senate Republicans released a document saying that EPA’s recent proposed changes are “insufficient to address the underlying problems with the rule.” The document also said that the Jan. 1, 2012 deadline for CSAPR is “too soon for power providers to comply without taking substantial amounts of needed electric capacity off line.”
Kathleen Bassi, an attorney with Schiff Hardin, said that while Jan. 1, 2012 is technically the compliance date, power generators will have all of 2012 to internally monitor operations. “The time they have to have official allowances to equal emissions is not until 2013,” she said.
However, Bassi said, states that have not been included in a trading program in the past will face a “big challenge” to come into compliance. “For states that have had a budget, it will also be challenging.”
Earlier the week of Nov. 7, President Barack Obama had threatened to veto Paul’s measure if it had passed through Senate. The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying that Paul’s measure “would cause substantial harm to public health and undermine our nation's longstanding commitment to clean up pollution from power plants.”
Despite the repeal’s rejection, some power industry groups continue to fight the EPA to delay the ruling. Critics argue that CSAPR implementation will be particularly difficult since it is scheduled to go into effect during the same period as EPA’s Utility MACT rule, which will limit mercury emissions from power plants for the first time in U.S. history.
Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, suggested that in order to “fix” CSAPR, “the Agency should stay its implementation, retain the protections of the Clean Air Interstate Rule in the meantime, and then re-propose the rule when it is fixed.”
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