Article
Source: Law360
Article
11.13.13
On Nov. 8, 2013, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s proposed new greenhouse gas permitting rules were published in the Texas Register (see 38 Tex. Reg. 7845-7925). Now that these comprehensive new stationary-source greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions permitting rules have been formally proposed by the agency, the current bifurcated air permitting regime — in which major stationary sources apply to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 for their GHG permits and to TCEQ for non-GHG permits — is a major step closer to ending.
If TCEQ receives permitting authority for GHG emissions from EPA Region 6 as planned, affected Texas businesses will likely spend less time and money securing their GHG permits, and the ancillary issues that must be reviewed as part of the federal permitting process, (i.e., the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, environmental justice, and even climate change issues) will not loom as large at the state level.
If TCEQ receives permitting authority for GHG emissions from EPA Region 6 as planned, affected Texas businesses will likely spend less time and money securing their GHG permits, and the ancillary issues that must be reviewed as part of the federal permitting process,(i.e., the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, environmental justice, and even climate change issues) will not loom as large at the state level.
The path to TCEQ’s newfound GHG permitting authority has been tumultuous, arising from an ongoing dispute about whether the EPA has the expansive GHG permitting authority it has claimed. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Massachusetts v. EPA that greenhouse gases can be regulated as an “air pollutant” under the Clean Air Act. This ruling initially empowered the EPA to regulate GHG from motor vehicles if the agency made the requisite “Endangerment Finding”, which it did on Dec. 15, 2009.
Download: Texas One Major Step Closer To Efficient GHG Permitting