January 18, 2011
BY Lisa Gibson
The Jan. 16 deadline for the final boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule release has been extended for five days, allowing the District Court more time to review the U.S. EPA’s motion for either a six-month or 15-month extension on the rulemaking.
“EPA has a court-ordered deadline of Jan. 16, 2011 to complete its obligations to establish emission standards for large and small boilers and solid waste and sewage sludge incinerators under certain provisions of the Clean Air Act,” the agency said in a statement. “The Court has informed the agency that it is moving the deadline to Jan. 21, 2011 to allow the Court more time to review the submitted documents and rule on EPA's motion to extend the deadline to issue these rulemakings.”
The MACT rules include standards for area source and major source polluters, as well as commercial and institutional solid waste incinerators. The EPA promulgated a rule in 2004 that was later vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Now, in re-issuing the rules, the EPA has asked the District Court for the District of Columbia for an extension of its final release deadline until either June 2011 or April 2012. The latter is the preferred option and would allow a completely new proposal and comment period.
In its request, the EPA cited an overwhelming number of comments on the rules proposed in April. “Because of the unanticipated number and complexity of the comments received, EPA is concerned that it may not be able to adequately complete this duty by Jan. 16, 2011,” the request states.
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The proposed rule would be detrimental to the biomass industry, according to countless biomass proponents and studies, requiring standard compliance at many facilities that weren’t subject to standards before. The EPA’s extension request has raised the hopes of the biomass industry that the agency has listened to its concerns and will come out with a better and less harmful rule.
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