Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its partial rejection of Texas’ regional haze plan. EPA is proposing to approve the part of Texas’ plan as meeting the Clean Air Act requirement that shows certain older, industrial sources meet existing requirements for best-available retrofit technology to reduce harmful emissions but also under the proposed plan, 15 coal-burning generating units at 8 Texas power plants will be required to install or improve controls that limit emissions of sulfur dioxide. They include Luminant’s Big Brown, Monticello and Martin Lake plants.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued a response arguing the proposed EPA Regional Haze FIP would target Texas coal-fired power plant units, at a cost of more than $2 billion, for a negligible increase in visibility in Class One areas, such as national parks and wildlife areas. The TCEQ further stared these costs would invariably be passed on to consumers, either directly or indirectly, and could have consequential impacts on the state’s power grid.
The TCEQ maintains that its 2009 SIP meets all EPA’s criteria for approval. The TCEQ will evaluate EPA’s proposal and will provide additional comments to EPA during the upcoming formal comment period.
After being published in the Federal Register, the proposed plan will be open to a 60-day public comment period. EPA will also hold a public hearing in Austin on January 13, 2015. A final decision is expected next year.
More details on EPA's proposed plan: http://www.epa.gov/region6/newsevents/index.html
