EPA Issues 60-Day Comment Period

EPA has opened a 60-day comment period on its proposal to require thousands of large industry plants, including coal-based power plants, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by applying the existing prevention-of-significant-deterioration (PSD) permit review program to greenhouse gases. PSD requires new and modified sources of conventional pollutants to apply Best Available Control Technology to limit emissions of these pollutants.  EPA would customize the rule by raising the threshold to sources emitting 25,000 tons per year, in order to avoid the possibility of regulating “cows and Dunkin’ Donuts,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy! What about producing coal mines?  Maybe!  We need to identify mines that have fewer than 500 employees on the payroll and emit more than 1,190 tons of methane each year.  With a metric multiplier of 21, that amount of methane exceeds the 25,000 ton threshold.  In its Technical Support Document for this rule, EPA indicates that there are 103 existing underground coal mines that emit in excess of the proposed threshold.  If you meet those thresholds (methane and employees), please let us know immediately.