Tag: EPA

New EPA Rules Still Unclear to W.Va. Officials

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new carbon-emission rules Monday that aim to cut carbon dioxide releases from coal fired power plants. The overall national target is a reduction of 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.

State officials say they’re still working to understand what the 600-plus page document really means for West Virginia, but for now, many are claiming the bad outweighs the good and are pledging to do everything they can to stop it.

What state officials do understand about these draft regulations so far is that they are different than anything the EPA has proposed in the past.

In September, the agency released a proposal to reduce carbon emissions from newly constructed power plants. Monday’s proposal, however, doesn’t focus on the individual facility. Instead, it sets carbon dioxide standards for the state as a whole.

“What EPA is saying is that by 2030, overall West Virginia’s total CO2 emission rate, which is pounds of CO2 per kilowatt hour that we generate, has to be 1620 or less,” said West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman.

He explained to meet the EPA’s new standard, West Virginia would have to reduce its CO2 emissions by 15 percent compared to 2012 measurements, the latest available.

Huffman said there are some efficiencies to be found within coal fired power plants themselves, but not enough to meet the reduction standard.

“Knowing how much energy we produce by coal, knowing what the coal CO2 numbers are now,” he said, “it’s going to require a significant reduction in the combustion of coal and a replacement of that by some other energy source.”

An option is to switch from coal to natural gas, an industry that happens to be rapidly growing in the Northern Panhandle and North Central portions of the state, but Huffman said just switching to natural gas won’t do enough. West Virginia will have to go even further to reduce their emissions under the new rule.

Other options set out in the EPA’s plan include things like energy efficiency, investing in renewable energy and making power plant upgrades, but it can also include offering discounts to consumers in exchange for shifting their energy consumption to off-peak hours.
 

“We appreciate that the EPA is giving our state some flexibility to design an implementation plan,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said during a press conference Monday, “but based on the briefings we’ve had, these proposals appear to realize some of our worst fears.”

“The bottom line is the only way to comply with these rules is to use less West Virginia coal.”

Tomblin said his administration will do everything they can to block the rules, but will continue working with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to mitigate the impacts he said communities in West Virginia will feel as a result.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said his office is looking at the legalities of the rules, calling it an overreach of federal power.

The Trust for America's Health Says Yes to EPA's Proposal

The Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit, non-partisan organization in Washington D.C. working to make disease prevention a national priority, likes the EPA’s new carbon emissions rules.

The Executive Director of the Trust for American’s Health, Dr. Jeffrey Levi, says he’s pleased that the EPA is moving forward with plans to issue carbon pollution standards for existing power plants. He says, the nation is already experiencing longer allergy seasons and record temperatures due to climate change and pollution, and without urgent action to control carbon pollution, communities across the country are at-risk for further negative health effects.

Levi says the proposal also marks another critical step in President Obama’s Climate Action Plan because it comes on the heels of the recently released National Climate Assessment, which was the latest in a string of actions to address the serious effects climate change is having on the nation’s health.

Levi notes that the Trust for America’s Health is seeing more illnesses, injuries, and health problems related to extreme weather events, rising temperatures and worsening air quality all stemming from natural disasters, reduced water resources, and new insect-based infectious diseases that, previously, were only affiliated with regions with very high temperatures.

EPA Selects W.Va. for $1M in Brownfields Grants

Federal environmental regulators have picked five West Virginia projects to receive $1 million in brownfields grants.

 The Environmental Protection Agency program helps communities conduct environmental assessments of properties, review cleanup options, and start cleanup at contaminated sites.
 
The recipients include the Wayne County Economic Development Authority, city of Morgantown, city of Thomas and Wyoming County Economic Development Authority.
 
The state Department of Environmental Protection also received one grant for Nicholas, Fayette, and Raleigh counties.
 
The Wyoming project covers the Barkers Creek Industrial Park, which has been abandoned since 2000.
 
The five grants were $200,000 each. Most grants cover assessment of eight to 15 possible sites.
 
Overall, 171 communities in 44 states are receiving 264 EPA brownfields grants. EPA announced $67 million in nationwide brownfields funding Wednesday.

Environmentalists offer details of coal ash ruling

A federal judge issued a memorandum Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to finalize federal coal ash…

A federal judge issued a memorandum Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to finalize federal coal ash regulations.

United States District Judge Reggie B. Walton issued a ruling giving the Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to name how long it will take to review and revise coal ash regulations. 

Coal ash, also referred to as fly ash, is a byproduct of burning coal.  Anything that doesn’t burn up, usually inorganic matter in the coal like shale, is left behind in boilers and is usually disposed of in landfills and settlement ponds.

Power plants in the U.S. produce about 140 million tons of the ash each year and according to the EPA, about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites exist across the nation. West Virginia is home to more than twenty sites.

Judge Walton’s ruling is the outcome of the lawsuit filed in early 2012 by nearly a dozen environmental groups challenging the EPA’s inaction to revise coal ash regulations.

In a conference call senior administrative counsel at Earthjustice, Lisa Evans, spoke about the court’s decision. She referred to the coal ash disaster that occurred in late 2008 when over a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge burst through the dam of a waste pond, located 60 feet above the Emory River at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee. The waste covered 300 acres below the plant, destroying homes, poisoning watersheds. The event provided impetus for many groups to demand new regulations for the disposal of the power plant waste.

“EPA is now required to come forward with a proposed schedule for completion of the ongoing coal ash rule making within 60 days,” Evans said. “Consequently on or shortly after the 5th anniversary of the Kingston Coal Ash disaster, EPA must finally announce its schedule for new coal ash rules. Once approved by this court the schedule will be enforceable against the agency should it delay again. Thus today’s order creates a clear path to obtaining a binding deadline for the much delayed and critically needed coal ash rule.”

But the ruling flies in the face of the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, passed in the House this past summer.  West Virginia’s Republican Congressman David McKinley introduced the bill in an attempt to revise coal ash regulations, but leaves individual states in charge of mandating rules. The act which hasn’t yet come up for a vote in the Senate limits the EPA’s authority to regulate the waste and, most importantly, disallows the EPA from labeling the waste a hazard.

“The bill that passed through the house would take away EPA’s authority to issue this rule that is the subject of the opinion,” Evans said. “What the house bill was attempting to do was prevent the EPA from issuing this rule. So in 60 days we will see the proposed schedule for EPA’s issuance of the rule. And we hope that EPA will be able to proceed to issue that rule without interference by Congress.”

During a press conference environmentalists speculated the EPA will project a date within 2014 to issue their final ruling on any new regulations.

Federal court orders EPA-revised coal ash regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency will soon be expected to move forward revising coal ash regulations, according to a federal court ruling.In April…

The Environmental Protection Agency will soon be expected to move forward revising coal ash regulations, according to a federal court ruling.

In April 2012, nearly a dozen environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s inaction to revise coal ash regulations.

Coal ash, often referred to as fly ash, is a byproduct of burning coal.  Anything that doesn’t burn up, usually inorganic matter in the coal like shale, is left behind in boilers and is usually disposed of in landfills and settlement ponds.

Power plants in the U.S. produce about 140 million tons of the ash each year and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites exist. West Virginia is home to more than twenty sites.

In their lawsuit, environmentalists said the EPA is in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because they haven’t revised coal ash regulations in over a decade.

But coal ash has been an active subject of concern because of recent slurry spills and research into the chemical makeup of the waste product.

West Virginia’s Republican Congressman David McKinley saw a bill he introduced pass through the House this past summer. The Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act limits the EPA’s authority to regulate coal ash and instead transfers that authority to individual states.

McKinely issued a statement in response to the court’s ruling saying the decision should motivate action from Congress. He says he’s concerned that his bill continues to be stalled in the Senate despite the Democratic support for the bill in the House.

The order of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia offered few details about the timing or substance of the EPA’s rulemaking.  It should be noted the court did deny one of the environmentalists claims regarding testing procedures for coal ash contamination. The order says th court will issue a Memorandum Opinion within the next 30 days.

The EPA isn’t able to comment on these developments because the EPA is currently closed.

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