Methane from Oil and Gas: Low-hanging Fruit that EPA Must Pick
December 5th, 2011 by David McCabe, Atmospheric Scientist
November 30th was the last day for public comments on EPA’s proposal to significantly update air emissions limits for most of the oil and natural gas industry. The proposal makes much-needed revisions to existing requirements, which in some cases are over 25 years old, and in expanding the coverage of these rules, recognizes the significant changes and expansion in the industry that has taken place since the rules were issued. The proposed rules make real progress in advancing cleanup for some of the biggest sources of pollution from the industry, but they do not go anywhere near far enough to curb the wholesale dumping of methane and other pollutants into the air.
Read the rest of this entry »
Natural Selection in the Energy Industry: Demise of the Dinosaurs
June 22nd, 2011 by Conrad Schneider, Advocacy Director
Last week, amid great fanfare, American Electric Power Company (AEP) announced it would close twenty-one of its coal-fired electrical units in order to comply with proposed Clean Air Act regulations on the emissions of air toxics. Such compliance, AEP asserted, would be financially prohibitive. AEP claimed in a front-page article in the Chicago Tribune that such closures would result in higher monthly electricity bills for its customers. AEP’s proposed “solution” has been to call for a bill that would weaken the Clean Air Act, by providing more time to comply with laws that have been on the books since 1990.
Read the rest of this entry »
It’s finally time to regulate air toxics
March 15th, 2011 by Ann Weeks, Senior Counsel and Legal DirectorThis posting originally appeared in the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Expert Blog.
Did you know that air emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants — the largest industry emitter of mercury, dioxins, acid gases, and arsenic and nickel and other heavy metals — are not subject to national regulations to protect human health and the environment? Moreover, this surprising lapse in federal protection of human health and the environment has existed for a decade.
Whatever EPA’s rules will say – and we won’t know that for sure until they are announced – they will provide significant environmental and public health benefits beyond today’s intolerable situation. In fact, the new rules will provide even greater public health and environmental benefits than the EPA can yet quantify.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cheering Long Awaited Rules
January 3rd, 2011 by Conrad Schneider, Advocacy DirectorThis posting originally appeared in the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Expert Blog.
On January 2, 2011, something amazing happened, or more accurately, didn’t happen. Despite the direst predictions of climate deniers and regulatory naysayers, the sky didn’t fall, or even begin to fall. Because on that day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started to roll out long-awaited Clean Air Act regulations that will eventually require major stationary greenhouse gas emitters like power plants, oil refineries and industrial facilities, to reduce their emissions. As a result, our country, and our atmosphere, will be better off, not worse.
Read the rest of this entry »
