Appeals Court Scraps 100-Hour 'Emergency' Exemption For Generators

摘要

A federal appeals court May I scrapped a 100-hour exemption from air emissions regulation EPA had granted to "emergency" generators that participate in demand-response programs designed to protect the electric grid, handing a major win to states and environmentalists who say the exemption causes unwarranted pollution, and to utilities who say the exemption undermined their competitiveness and grid reliability. In a unanimous opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Delaware Department of Natural Resources, et al. v. EPA, Judge A. Raymond Randolph says that the 100-hour exemption from emissions control requirements for generators "was arbitrary and capricious" on at least three separate grounds. The court vacates the exemption but otherwise leaves EPA's air rules for generators in place. See page 2 for details. (Doc. ID: 181088) The exemption is contained in EPA's 2013 rules setting air toxics limits and new source performance standards (NSPS) for other pollutants from reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE) - primarily diesel generators. First, EPA failed to properly respond to the "well-founded concerns" of utilities on efficiency and reliability of the energy grid, Randolph writes.