ENV-04-180 New Source Review Reform - One Year Later: Refinery Industy Impacts

Description:

This paper presents an overview of the latest issues involved in NSR Reform and frames the issues in the context of the refining industry. Part one of the paper summarizes the issues EPA has already resolved through the prior promulgations and includes a brief discussion of each of the six promulgated changes and the STAPPA/ALAPCO recommended response. In the opinion of the authors, the new NSR provisions are of only modest utility to the industry and adoption of most of the STAPPA/ALAPCO recommendations really only serves to reverse most of the benefits of the EPA recommended reforms. Part two of the paper addresses the recent court controversy resulting from the conflicting decisions in Duke Power and First Energy. The conflict strikes to the heart of the NSR Reform program and its ultimate resolution assuredly will impact all refiners. The paper concludes with a brief description of those items the Agency has committed to resolve through future rulemakings. In addition to resolving through the courts those actions that qualify as a routine, repair, maintenance, or replacement (RMRR) project, these issues include the remaining two issues the authors consider to be of most use to the industry: • Clear guidance on the aggregation of projects, and • A firm approach concerning the inclusion or exclusion of debottlenecked emissions units in NSR applicability tests. Timing issues associated with both the promulgated reforms and those reforms yet to come are an additional concern to the industry. Those areas of the country with the largest concentration of petroleum refineries will not be able to take advantage of the promulgated changes until sometime in 2006 at the earliest, assuming the states meet their mandated schedule. The remaining important reform provisions related to project aggregation and debottlenecking are not yet proposed. Thus, it may be 2008 or 2009 before refineries in the Southwest can expect a more common sense set of NSR requirements.