A new ozone standard, combined with greenhouse gas reductions mandated by a rule limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants, “will extend the trajectory of the last 40 years when we’ve cut air pollution 70 percent – all while our economy has tripled”, McCabe said Tuesday at a Senate hearing.
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While the EPA has made substantial improvements since proposing the new standards past year, the API said, the regulations could cost up to $1 billion. The manufacturers have taken to calling the rule the most expensive regulation in history, a talking point picked up by Republicans.
They’ve been part of the Houston landscape for decades: giant flares that burn off explosive gases from refineries and petrochemical plants.
“I’m looking at the refinery flaring right now”, Lockridge said.
“Communities should finally start to see reductions in the pollution that refinery flares are releasing around the clock into our air”, said Jesse Marquez, who heads the group Coalition for a Safe Environment in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington, where three major refineries operate.
The so-called fence-line monitoring devices will not provide real-time air quality readings, but if benzene concentrations over time exceed the EPA’s limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter, refiners will have to find the pollution source and fix it.
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Gregory Langley said staff needs to review the 745-page final rule before anyone could comment on what it might mean for the state or the agency. Long-term exposure mainly affects the blood by causing a decrease in red blood cells and can have bad effects on bone marrow, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It’ll be challenged by environmental groups, it’ll be challenged by industrial groups”, said Rentz.
The EPA is expected to meet a Thursday court deadline and set a new ozone limit of 70 parts per billion or less in the atmosphere, down from the existing standard of 75.
Greg Bertelsen, NAM’s director of energy and regulatory policy, said his group was one of dozens to talk with the White House over the last few weeks about the rule. The rule requires first-of-its-kind fenceline monitoring to better protect and inform nearby communities, while also strengthening emission controls for flares, pressure relief devices, storage tanks, and delayed coker operations that will reduce thousands of tons of hazardous air pollutants. Green groups and health organizations say a tighter standard will help the environment and improve public health, but they too feel they could be left disappointed in the long-awaited rule.
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Environmentalists widely praised the rule, which the EPA estimates will reduce toxic air pollutants by 5,200 tons per year and volatile organic compounds by an estimated 50,000 tons annually, once it is fully implemented in 2018.
