Council Backs Up EPA Plan to Regulate Greenhouse Gases

 October 18, 2012  - Last week the Clean Air Council submitted a motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to intervene in American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, on behalf of the EPA. Industry seeks to weaken or eliminate EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases and has petitioned for review of the Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule Step 3, which EPA finalized on July 12, 2012.

The Council submitted comments on the Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule in April of this year. Additional background on the Tailoring Rule can be found here. While the Council encouraged EPA to lower the threshold at which a source of air pollution could become a major source (subject to strict pollution control, modeling and public participation requirements) by virtue of their emissions of greenhouse gases, the EPA went forward with their original plan to leave the the thresholds at the same level as they were under Step 2. However, industry petitioners are seeking to undermine the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases at all.

The Court issued a notice on October 9, 2012, that this case would be stayed until matters are resolved under Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA. The Court issued their opinion in June on that case, however industry is seeking rehearing.