US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has agreed to delay maximum achievable control technology (MACT) air compliance for cement plants by two years. As part of on-going negotiations with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) if the EPA doesn't issues a proposal to this effect by 15 June 2012 then the PCA and other cement producers will be able to resume legal action against the pollution rulings.
Under the terms of a 16 April 2012 proposed consent decree, the EPA will have to issue by 15 June 2012 a proposal addressing a ruling on 9 December 2011 from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The EPA's revisions will also have to cover separate pending industry administrative petitions. The EPA has been negotiating with the PCA over the terms of the proposed consent decree, following a ruling finding that the EPA failed to reconsider how a related incinerator emissions rule could potentially alter the cement rule's emission limits.
The EPA has also agreed under the proposed consent decree to finalise a revised MACT by 20 December 2012, but the settlement does not require that the agency finalise a two-year delay. Rather, the decree states that EPA must only include its 'final decision on whether to extend the compliance deadlines for existing sources' in the revised MACT.
The EPA and PCA also acknowledge that EPA must subject the agreement to public comment and review. The settlement further notes that, "if the federal government elects to withdraw or withhold consent to this Agreement" after considering public comments on it, "PCA shall have the right to withdraw from this Agreement and file a request to lift the abeyance requested by the Parties."
As environmentalists and states were not party to the settlement, this public comment would provide them with the first opportunity to challenge the possibility of a two-year delay for the rule's compliance deadline and changes to meet the other provisions in the settlement.