Refiners have more pressing regulatory issues with the US Environmental Protection Agency. But they still paid attention to its Mar. 30 proposal to revoke its January 2009 rule that aimed to simplify its New Source Review permitting program.
The program is designed to ensure air quality is maintained when factories, power plants, and industrial boilers are built or modified with preconstruction permits requiring state-of-the-art emissions control technology at plants undergoing a major modification.
EPA said the 2009 rule changed NSR's aggregation policy by directing facilities and permitting authorities to combine construction project emissions only when the changes are "substantially related," such as having more in common than the timing of construction.
It's now concerned that the changes would make the entire program less effective, letting facilities increase emissions, which may affect air quality without a thorough review, the agency said. It proposed returning to its original policy, which required combining projects based on a broader range of factors.
The proposal came in response to a Natural Resources Defense Council petition. EPA, which is taking comments on the matter through the end of April, said it will extend the 2009 rule's effective date by 6 months so it will have time to complete the reconsideration.
It basically would affect refineries as large industrial facilities, according to Ted Steichen, a policy advisor on regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Petroleum Institute.
Potential impact
"It could have an impact on how refiners determine the scope of changes and whether they need to be aggregated to determine if there's an emissions increase in a manner similar to an electric generating facility," he explained.
The 2009 rule was developed after numerous consent decrees and NSR enforcement issues raised certainty issues about when projects' potential emissions need to be aggregated, Steichen said.
"This rule's loss would maintain the degree of uncertainty that existed in the past. It just makes it harder for a plant's owners and operators to be comfortable that they're not going to be second-guessed about how they see the NSR policies will be applied," he said. "It's not the most pressing issue at this point, but it's important."
Bigger concerns
Steichen said refiners are more concerned about possible changes to the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards ozone reconsideration, which would impose additional controls and create more nonattainment areas.
"There also are maximum achievable control technology standards under for boilers the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments which have some real concerns for gas-fired operations in refineries," he added.
The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association hosted a workshop Apr. 14-15 in Arlington, Va., on new renewable fuel standard rules that EPA announced on Feb. 3 to implement the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act's RFS provisions.
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