Environmental Protection Agency April 13, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is taking final action on two of six technical amendments that were withdrawn in a June 4, 2010, Federal Register partial withdrawal notice. The two amendments that are the subject of today's final rule are: A correction of the typographical error in the entry ``K107'' in a table listing hazardous wastes from specific sources; and a conforming change to alert certain recycling facilities that they have existing certification and notification requirements under the Land Disposal Restrictions regulations. The other four amendments that were withdrawn in the June 2010 partial withdrawal notice will remain withdrawn unless and until EPA determines action is warranted in the future.

EPA is providing notice of a final determination to deny an administrative petition submitted by Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The petition requested EPA to review the final rule, ``Regulation of Oil-Bearing Hazardous Secondary Materials From the Petroleum Refining Industry Processed in a Gasification System To Produce Synthesis Gas,'' published in the Federal Register on January 2, 2008.

The United States EPA is proposing new source performance standards for emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) for new affected fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units (EGUs). The EPA is proposing these requirements because CO2 is a greenhouse gas (GHG) and fossil fuel-fired power plants are the country's largest stationary source emitters of GHGs. The EPA in 2009 found that by causing or contributing to climate change, GHGs endanger both the public health and the public welfare of current and future generations. The proposed requirements, which are strictly limited to new sources, would require new fossil fuel-fired EGUs greater than 25 megawatt electric (MWe) to meet an output-based standard of 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour (lb CO2/MWh), based on the performance of widely used natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) technology. Because of the economics of the energy sector, the EPA and others project that NGCC will be the predominant choice for new fossil fuel-fired generation even absent this rule. In its base case analysis, the EPA does not project any new coal-fired EGUs without CCS to be built in the absence of this proposal through 2030. New coal- fired or pet coke-fired units could meet the standard either by employing carbon capture and storage (CCS) \1\ of approximately 50% of the CO2 in the exhaust gas at startup, or through later application of more effective CCS to meet the standard on average over a 30-year period. The 30-year averaging option could also provide flexibility for owners and operators of coal or pet coke units implementing CCS at the outset of the unit's operation that were designed and operated to emit at less than 1,000 lb CO2/MWh to address startup concerns or short term interruptions in their ability to sequester captured carbon dioxide. The EPA is not proposing standards of performance for existing EGUs whose CO2 emissions increase as a result of installation of pollution controls for conventional pollutants, or for proposed EGUs, which are referred to here as transitional sources, that have acquired a complete preconstruction permit by the time of this proposal and that commence construction within 12 months of this proposal. As a result, those sources would not be subject to the standards of performance proposed in today's rule.