Trihydro's Air Permitting Team has experience preparing air permit applications, including air dispersion modeling analyses and control technology evaluations for major sources.

 

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January 2011

Clean Air Act Permitting for Greenhouse Gases

As a result of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgating the Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Standards, stationary sources of GHGs are subject to Clean Air Act (CAA) permitting requirements as of January 2, 2011.  Based on a facility’s greenhouse gas emissions, this EPA rule limits the amount of facilities that would be required to obtain a New Source Review and Title V operating permits.  EPA finalized the Tailoring Rule on May 13, 2010, to address concerns about the regulatory burden of the millions of permits that would have been submitted without the Tailoring Rule in place. Without the Tailoring Rule, any facility emitting more than 100 tons per year (tpy) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) would be required to obtain a Title V major source permit, and each facility emitting more than 250 tpy of CO2e would be subject to prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) provisions. While the 100 tpy and 250 tpy thresholds are appropriate for criteria pollutants, the EPA believes these thresholds are not appropriate for GHGs that are emitted in much higher quantities.


The Tailoring Rule establishes higher permitting thresholds for GHGs and a schedule to phase in the CAA permitting requirements for GHGs.  Stationary sources subject to the Title V operating permit and/or Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) programs for other criteria pollutants who are filing a permit application in the first half of 2011 for construction modification or renewal are required to address GHG emissions. 
Beginning July 1, 2011, any source with the potential to emit 100,000 tpy of CO2e would be subject to Title V operating permit requirements.  New sources with emissions of 100,000 tpy of CO2e or any modification to an existing source that results in a GHG emission increase of 75,000 tpy of CO2e or greater would be subject to PSD permitting requirements.  Sources that trigger PSD permitting provisions would be required to evaluate emission controls through a top-down Best Available Control Technology (BACT) evaluation.   


State Implementation
Approximately 80 percent of the state and local air quality regulatory agencies in the United States have notified the EPA that their air permitting programs currently allow or will allow permitting of GHGs.  EPA proposed a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that will apply in any state unable to submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision.  The FIP ensures that the states have authority to issue PSD permits for GHGs by the January 2, 2011, deadline.  This action would allow EPA to issue PSD permits in states without authority to regulate GHGs.  Wyoming is one of several states that currently do not have the authority to permit GHG emissions.  Facilities may be required to submit more than one air permit application to address GHG emissions in states without permitting authority.

For more information regarding the Tailoring Rule and how Trihydro can help you with your permitting and compliance needs, please contact Calvin Niss, cniss@trihydro.com or Stephen Walls, swalls@trihydro.com.

In addition to our GHG inventory and regulatory knowledge, our air permitting and compliance experts assist clients with developing strategies that lead to regulatory compliance.