The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued several final greenhouse gas (GHG) permits. With the recent approvals for the month of April, EPA has finalized 35 GHG permits in Texas, proposed an additional 9 permits, and currently has over 30 additional GHG permit applications under development in Texas.
On February 18, 2014, EPA Region 6 proposed approval of the Texas SIP revision to adopt and implement the permitting of GHGs in the Texas PSD program. In this same action, EPA is also proposing to rescind the GHG FIP in Texas. EPA’s proposed approval is open for comment for 30 days from the date of publication. The rulemaking docket is EPA-R06-OAR-2013-0808. EPA Region 6 has developed a process for transitioning pending permit applications and EPA issued permits to the TCEQ following the rescission of the FIP. The transition process, titled “Transition Process for Pending GHG PSD Permit Applications and Issued GHG PSD Permits Upon Rescission of the GHG PSD FIP” is available in the docket for this rulemaking.
EPA Region 6 is the agency responsible for issuing PSD permits for major sources of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) under Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs) in the state of Texas. The State of Texas still retains approval of their plans and PSD programs for pollutants that were subject to regulation before January 2, 2011, i.e., regulated NSR pollutants other than GHGs. Additional information describing the permitting authorities in Texas: TCEQ Letter, EPA Response Letter
For all of the latest information on GHG permits in Texas please visit: http://yosemite.epa.gov/r6/Apermit.nsf/AirP