EPA Delay with MACT Rules is Holding Up Renewables Projects

Date: January 22, 2010

Source: News Room

EPA's delays in proposing maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rules for boilers and incinerators, and in defining what materials are considered boiler fuel rather than incinerator waste, are causing companies to postpone major investments in renewable fuel plants including those that use wood waste. Facilities are more seriously considering switching to renewable energy sources, particularly in the face of looming first-time EPA climate change rules expected to be unfriendly to coal. Earlier this month, Georgia Power said that it was putting off the conversion of its coal-fueled Plant Mitchell in Albany, GA, to biomass until the EPA rules are better defined in April 2010. The power industry argues that the rule uncertainty is delaying investments during poor economic times when they are needed most while foregoing the related air quality improvements.

Some projects could become unviable if EPA imposes a stringent waste definition that captures many renewables or if the upcoming MACT rules are too onerous. Current projects are faced with uncertainty over the pending EPA waste definition and whether converted facilities will be regulated under Clean Air Act section 112 as a boiler, or under the more stringent section 129 of the air act as an incinerator, as well as uncertainty about the stringency of EPA's pending boiler MACT. The industry does not know whether EPA will define materials such as tree waste, wood chips, corn husks, peanut shells, switch grass and tires as fuel or as waste.

EPA says it will likely propose its Clean Air Act definition of nonhazardous materials that are solid waste April 15, alongside proposals for the boiler MACT and commercial and industrial solid waste incinerator (CISWI) rules that face legal deadlines for issuance.

See also: "Georgia Power Delays Biomass Plant, Citing EPA Rule Uncertainty," (www.wasteinfo.com/news/wbj20100112C.htm).

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