EPA’s Year Ahead 2016

Clean Power Plan
• The supreme court stayed the implementation of this rule until the D.C. court rules on the pending litigation
• This means states are not obligated to take action to meet the deadlines in the plan
• States can voluntarily work towards these deadlines and goals
• If the D.C. court rules in the EPA’s favor, only the Supreme Court can lift the stay on the rule, so it can be expected this will not happen until 2017 at the earliest.

EPA’s proposed Federal Plan under the Clean Power Plan
• For any state that does not submit an approvable state plan
• Contains three main parts:
o Rate-based model trading rule
o Mass-based model trading rule
o Rate-based OR mass-based federal plan (TBD)
• Has not yet been finalized

2008 Ozone NAAQS
• On April 11th 2016, EPA determined which marginal areas reached attainment by the July 2015 deadline, and which did not.
• For the list of those areas, follow this link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-04/documents/20160411factsheet.pdf
• States that have been re-classified as “moderate” will need to resubmit a SIP for compliance by 2018.

2015 Ozone NAAQS
• Standard is now 70ppb
• Air Quality Index has also been updated-may look like air quality is getting worse but that is not the case.
• States will have to submit their recommendations for designations by October 2016
• EPA will issue final designations by October 2017

CSAPR Update
• EPA issued an update to CSAPR in fall 2015 order to help moderate areas achieve compliance with the 2008 ozone NAAQS
• This identified short term measures the power sector could make that would result in meaningful NOX reductions
o Optimizing operation of existing control technology
o Turning on controls that were idled
o Upgrading to state-of-the-art low NOX combustion controls
o Shifting generation to lower-emitting plants