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TRENTON
-- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Department
of Environmental Protection Commissioner
Lisa P. Jackson announced today that New
Jersey has petitioned a federal appeals
court to review an Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) record-keeping rule that, the
state contends, makes it difficult for state
regulators to determine if factories and
coal-fired plants should be required to
install new pollution controls.
Filed
today with the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit, New Jersey’s
petition challenges a final EPA rule that
in certain circumstances exempts plants
from having to keep emissions records. Such
records can document emissions increases
that, under the Clean Air Act’s New
Source Review program, would require installation
of state-of-the-art pollution control equipment.
Under
New Source Review, the installation of state-of-the-art
pollution controls is required for any new
source of emissions, and for any source
that has been modified. The Clean Air Act
defines “modification” as any
physical change or any change in method
of operation which increases the amount
of any pollutant emitted.
According to Milgram, in order for state
regulators to determine that emissions at
a given facility have increased -- thereby
triggering the New Source Review requirement
that state-of-the-art pollution controls
be installed – the type of change
at and the emissions from the facility must
be known. However, the EPA rule being challenged
essentially works against regulators knowing
the nature and quantity of plant emissions,
Milgram said. Under the rule, plant operators
can determine whether there is a “reasonable
possibility” that their emissions
will not exceed 50 percent of a specified
level. If a plant operator determines no
such “reasonable possibility”
exists, the plant is exempted from having
to maintain records.
“This rule undermines a vital accountability
mechanism – a mechanism by which it
can be determined whether a plant’s
emissions have increased to the point where
New Source Review requirements are triggered,”
said Milgram. “What this rule does,
essentially, is leave plant operators to
determine for themselves whether their emissions
call for installation of new pollution controls.
The quality of our air is too important
a consideration to be left to the discretion
of those who are polluting it. ”
“New
Jersey refuses to play roulette with public
health and the right to breathe clean air,
said DEP
Commissioner Jackson.” We
vigorously oppose the federal government's
latest attempt to weaken our ability to
closely track increases in emissions.”
In
addition to filing its challenge with the
Court of Appeals, the state today filed
a Petition for Reconsideration of the record-keeping
rule with the EPA.
The
record-keeping rule challenge is being handled
on behalf of the state by Deputy Attorneys
General Maurice Griffin, Ruth Carter and
Kevin Auerbacher, who are assigned to the
Division of Law’s Environmental Enforcement
Section.
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