The President of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has expressed serious concerns over the recent changes to emissions regulations announced by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
In announcing the“endangerment finding", the EPA has classisfied CO2 and other greenhouse gases as "atmospheric pollutants", allowing it to regulate such emissions under the existing authority granted by the Clean Air Act.
ACC believes that this will create a significant level of uncertainty, which will stem investment in new facilities and modifications to existing facilities at a time when the industry is in a very fragile recovery period.
Under the EPA rules and regulations, any facilities making new investments would need to obtain a permit. To do this it would be necessary to demonstrate implementation of 'best available control technology', however rules for determining what is required to satisfy this crierion do not yet exist.
ACC suggests that some time out is required to "put together a comprehensive policy that reduces emissions in our country whilst ensuring that our manufacturing sector can continue to invest".
This blog fully supports the approach proposed by ACC. A clear and well defined plan is required to address questions of sustainability and a coherent approach is required to understand and deal with the issue of climate change. Serious consequences for the chemical industry could result if an ill-considered approach is taken for the sake of political expediency.
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