EPA issues guidance on GHG; Texas fights

Only TX not ready for Jan. 2

Jay Blazek Crossley, Nov 15, 10.

The US Environmental Protection Agency issued guidance giving states leeway on how to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The State of Texas continues to resist the regulation of GHG emissions, remaining the only state not prepared for the regulations to go into place on January 2, 2011, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Houston-based Calpine Corporation, which operates 93 power plants in 21 communities across the US and Canada, issued a press release in favor of the new EPA guidance, with Jack A. Fusco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Calpine saying “the EPA’s actions to date are reasonable and positive steps towards curbing GHG emissions from the electric power sector by focusing on energy efficiency improvements while retaining the existing permitting procedures of the Clean Air Act.”

The Wall Street Journal notes that the Obama administration would have preferred a market-based approach, but that bill collapsed in the Senate from opposition from Republicans and some Democrats who complained that they believed such a system would hurt the economy.

Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said “EPA’s guidance will provide industry greater certainty, quicker permitting decisions and a smoother path toward greenhouse gas implementation. This should put to rest the exaggerated claims of some stakeholders that greenhouse gas permitting will have disastrous economic consequences,” as quoted in the New York Times.

97-Page Guidance on GHG regulation issued by the EPA (pdf)