States Pushing Back on U.S. EPA’s Initiative to Regulate Greenhouse Gases for Economic Reasons

States’ comments on U.S. EPA’s proposed rule “Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule” give one reason to believe that states are beginning to push back on U.S. EPA’s initiatives to regulate greenhouse gases based on administrative and economic concerns. While states continue to support U.S. EPA’s efforts, many states are asking for: 

• additional legislation to regulate greenhouse gases,
• more time for state to increase their statutory and regulatory thresholds, and
• U.S. EPA to help provide states with the funding needed to implement the program. 

The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) represents air pollution control agencies in 53 states and territories and over 165 major metropolitan areas across the United States. NACAA shares the states concerns over the need for additional greenhouse gas regulation, in addition to the high administrative burden of the proposed rule, insufficient time to revise state regulations, and U.S. EPA’s failure to ensure that “sufficient administrative resources are available at the time of the anticipated increase in workload.” Similarly, NESCAUM (representing the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont) objects to the proposed rule because, it does not provide sufficient time and asks U.S. EPA to develop mechanisms that will create revenue streams to support permitting agencies. 

The state of West Virginia provided U.S. EPA with some particularly pointed comments including: “EPA has embarked on an unprecedented, and risky, attempt to regulate greenhouse gases under the federal Clean Air Act. The CAA was never designed nor intended to address this kind of air pollutant…one with no direct health impacts, that is emitted in quantities which are orders of magnitude greater than conventional pollutants.” It appears that many states, and West Virginia, in particular seek a fiscally responsible regulatory program for greenhouse gas and are concerned that U.S. EPA’s proposed rule “Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule” is not the answer. 

This article was authored by Laura G. Swingle, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.