NPRA praises court ruling in air pollution control rule

27 June 2005 18:01  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (CNI)--The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) Monday praised a US appeals court ruling that largely upheld the New Source Review (NSR) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

 

The US District of Columbia Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued the decision in the case of New York vs. EPA. New York was the lead plaintiff for 12 states challenging the rule.

 

Under the 2002 NSR revisions, plants don't necessarily have to install best available pollution control equipment when facilities are modernised. The appeals court agreed that companies that expand existing plants don't have to meet tougher rules when they modernise facilities.

 

NPRA said the court affirmed the use of the past actual-to-projected actual emissions test, the use of a 10-year look back for selecting a two-year baseline and the use of plant-wide applicability limits.

 

The association said the NSR rules will allow plants to proceed with pollution-preventing activities, and installation of technology that helps reduce emissions. It said the NSR reforms also consider emissions from a plant's operations as a whole, which it said was a more efficient approach.

 

NPRA said: “The refining and petrochemical sectors have made substantial investments in pollution control and in clean product development. As a result, air emissions have been on a 30-year decline."

 

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said the appeals court upheld several of the states' key concerns about the rule, including the right of states to adopt more protective air pollution programmes than the federal government.

 

He noted that the court rejected arguments by the attorneys general that industries (other than power plants) should not be able to compare pollution emissions after an upgrade with their highest emissions in the past decade in order to determine if state-of-the-art pollution controls are necessary.

By: Patrick Crow
+1 713 525 2653

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