A drastically proposed new rule published in the Federal Registerr by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 6 establishes new nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions budgets that will require fossil fuel-fired power plants in 25 states to participate in a quota-based ozone season trading program beginning in 2023.
The proposalwhich is based on the agency’s existing The Interstate Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) seeks to implement the EPA’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone of 70 parts per billion by mandating Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs) to these states using its “good neighbor” authority. » Clean Air Act requirements. The States concerned are: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The Existing EPA CSAPR Ozone Season NOPEX program limits NOPEX emissions from fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs) in 22 states during the ozone season, which runs from May 1 to September 30. If finalized, the rule would require power plants using coal, natural gas and oil in all 25 states to participate in a revised version of CSPAR NOPEX Ozone Season Group 3 Trading Program, which was previously established in the EPA’s March 2021-Revised CSPAR Update.
So far, only 12 states are currently participating in the Group 3 Trading Program (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia). The EPA will allow these states to remain in the group but proposes to replace their existing emissions budgets with new emissions budgets. For eight States currently covered by the CSAPR established in 2016 NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program that are already covered by state implementation plans or FIPs, the EPA is proposing to issue new FIPs for two states (Alabama and Missouri) and amend existing FIPs for six states ( Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin) to move power plants in those states from the Tier 2 program to the revised Tier 3 trading program, beginning with the 2023 ozone season. EPA is also proposing to issue new FIPs for five states that are not currently covered by any CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Exchange Program: Delaware, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
EPA’s First Proposed Emissions Budgets for Industrial Stationary Sources
The sweeping, 181-page proposed rule stems from a finding the EPA will make if the rule is finalized that interstate transport of ozone precursor emissions from 26 downwind states — which include the 25 states listed above plus California – “contributes significantly to the downwind”. non-compliance or interfering with maintenance of NAAQS 2015 for ozone in other states, based on projections NOPEX emissions during the 2023 ozone season.”
The proposal also establishes in particular NOPEX emission limits from 2026 for other industrial stationary sources (called “non-EGU” in the proposal) – marking the first times the agency has offered to impose emissions budgets on sources other than EGUs pursuant to its authority under the good neighbor provision. These industrial sources include reciprocating internal combustion engines in natural gas pipeline transportation; kilns in the manufacture of cement and cement products; boilers and furnaces in steelworks and the manufacture of ferroalloys; furnaces in the manufacture of glass and glass products; and high-emitting equipment and large boilers in basic chemical manufacturing, petroleum and coal product manufacturing, and pulp, paper and paperboard mills. “Taken together, these strategies will completely eliminate the significant contribution of covered states to ozone-related downwind air quality issues in other states,” the EPA said.
A “revolutionary” proposal
According to the law firm Hunter Andrews and Kurthwhile the EPA applies the same basic four-step process it developed and used in previous CSAPR regulations, the proposed rule departs from previous EPA methodology in some important ways. The law firm said the action amounted to “a groundbreaking proposal”.
“First, the proposed rule would limit NOX emissions from certain industrial stationary sources (referred to as “non-EGUs” in the proposed rule), whereas previous CSAPR rules only regulated emissions from EGUs,” the company said. “Second, the proposed rule would include western states, including California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, that were outside the modeling domain used in previous CSAPR rules.”
Finally, the proposed rule would include key features for the EGU portion of the program that were not included in previous EPA transportation rules, the company noted. “These features include dynamic adjustments to emissions budgets starting with the 2025 ozone season and supporting daily emission rates for most EGUs. The proposed rule would impose ozone emissions budgets for the season to EGUs in covered states from 2023 and to non-EGUs from 2026.”
The timing is important because the proposal assumes that emission reductions are achievable through readily available measures. While the EPA said it evaluated a range of measures, including Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Controls, Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) Controls, and Generation Changeover, he determined that at the “regional and multi-state scale of this regulation, only the operation and l optimization of existing SCRs and existing SNCRs are possible for the 2023 ozone season. However, he added: “Based on EPA’s assessment of the shortest possible time frame for the installation of new SNCRs and SCRs, EPA proposes to require emission reductions commensurate with these controls. by the start of the 2026 ozone season.”
—Sonal Patel is associate editor of POWER (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).