For Immediate Release
Wednesday
September 30, 2009
Contact Information:
Steve Higley 202-552-8455
NPRA Believes EPA Lacks Legal Authority to Raise GHG Permitting Threshold
“Today’s proposal highlights the perils of forcing greenhouse gas regulations into the Clean Air Act.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Charles T. Drevna, President of NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, today commented on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule to “require use of best technologies to reduce greenhouse gases from large facilities.”
“This proposal incorrectly assumes that one industry’s greenhouse gas emissions are worse than another’s,” Drevna said. “Greenhouse gas emissions are global in nature, and are not isolated to a few select industries. The Clean Air Act stipulates unequivocally that the threshold to permit major sources is 250 tons for criteria pollutants. EPA lacks the legal authority to categorically exempt sources that exceed the Clean Air Act’s major source threshold from permitting requirements, and this creates a troubling precedent for any agency actions in the future.
“Today’s proposal highlights the perils of forcing greenhouse gas regulations into the Clean Air Act.”
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NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all American refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as “building blocks” in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.