“Short-term exposures to peak SO2 levels can have significant health effects — especially for children and the elderly — and leave our families and taxpayers saddled with high health care costs,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We’re strengthening clean air standards, stepping up monitoring and reporting in communities most in need, and providing the American people with protections they rightly deserve.”

EPA is taking comment on a proposal to establish a new national one-hour SO2 standard, between 50 and 100 parts per billion (ppb). This standard is designed to protect against short-term exposures ranging from five minutes to 24 hours. Because the revised standards would be more protective, EPA is proposing to revoke the current 24-hour and annual SO2 health standards.

EPA also is proposing changes to monitoring and reporting requirements for SO2. Monitors would be placed in areas with high SO2 emission levels as well as in urban areas. The proposal also would change the Air Quality Index to reflect the revised SO2 standards. This change would improve states’ ability to alert the public when short-term SO2 levels may affect their health.

The proposal addresses only the SO2 primary standards, which are designed to protect public health. EPA will address the secondary standard — designed to protect the public welfare, including the environment — as part of a separate proposal in 2011.

EPA first set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for SO2 in 1971, establishing both a primary standard to protect health and a secondary standard to protect the public welfare. Annual average SO2 concentrations have decreased by more than 71 percent since 1980.

The public comment period will be open for 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. The agency will hold a public hearing on Jan. 5, 2010 in Atlanta. EPA must issue final standards by June 2, 2010.

More information about the proposal: http://www.epa.gov/air/sulfurdioxide

The hearing will be held on Nov. 19 in Rosemont, Ill. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 7 p.m. central standard time at the following location:

Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
5555 N. River Road
Rosemont, Ill  60018

For information about participating at the hearing please contact: Pamela Long long.pam@epa.gov or (919) 541-0641. The public may also register on the day of the hearing; however, they may not be given a specific time to speak.

EPA will accept written comments on the proposed rule until Dec. 28, 2009.

More information on the proposed rule and instructions for submitting written comments: http://www.epa.gov/nsr/actions.html.

Outdoor air at the schools is being monitored for 60 days, and air quality monitors will collect at least 10 daily samples during the sampling period. EPA will use this information to help determine next steps, which could include more monitoring, if needed. Results are posted at http://www.epa.gov/schoolair.

Today, EPA is posting data for Olean Middle School in Olean, New York, Mabel Homes Middle School in Elizabeth, N.J. and Paulsboro High School in Paulsboro, N.J. The fourth school, IS 143 in Manhattan, New York, had its first data posted previously and it is also available at the web site.  The Agency is monitoring the air around these schools for several contaminants associated with industrial and mobile sources such as cars, trucks and airplanes.

Early sampling at all the schools show that levels of air toxics are below levels of short-term concern. EPA scientists warn against drawing conclusions at this point since the project is designed to show if long-term, not short-term, exposure poses health risks to school children and staff. Once monitoring is complete, the full set of results from all of the schools will be evaluated for potential health concerns from long-term exposure to these pollutants. EPA will post this analysis to the Web once it is complete.

To learn more about EPA’s efforts to study outdoor air near schools, visit: http://www.epa.gov/schoolair

The Obama administration is cracking down on BP as the oil company overhauls its massive refinery in northwest Indiana, one of the largest sources of air pollution in the Chicago area.

In response to a petition from environmental groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday ordered Indiana regulators to revamp a new operating permit for the Midwest’s biggest refinery. The groups, along with elected officials in Illinois, contend Indiana had allowed the oil giant to avoid stringent requirements under the federal Clean Air Act.

Tougher pollution limits could help relieve problems with lung-damaging soot and smog in the metropolitan area that stretches around the tip of Lake Michigan.

Burning coal and oil adds up to about $120 billion a year for the United States in health costs, including those tied to thousands of premature deaths from air pollution, researchers say.

Air Pollutants From Abroad a Growing Concern, Says New Report
Source: National Research Council

Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents — from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe — and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.

“Air pollution does not recognize national borders; the atmosphere connects distant regions of our planet,” said Charles Kolb, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research Inc. “Emissions within any one country can affect human and ecosystem health in countries far downwind. While it is difficult to quantify these influences, in some cases the impacts are significant from regulatory and public health perspectives.”

The report examines four types of air pollutants: ozone; particulate matter such as dust, sulfates, or soot; mercury; and persistent organic pollutants such as DDT. The committee found evidence, including satellite observations, that these four types of pollutants can be transported aloft across the Northern Hemisphere, delivering significant concentrations to downwind continents. Ultimately, most pollutants’ impacts depend on how they filter down to the surface.

Current limitations in modeling and observational capabilities make it difficult to determine how global sources of pollution affect air quality and ecosystems in downwind locations and distinguish the domestic and foreign components of observed pollutants. Yet, some pollutant plumes observed in the U.S. can be attributed unambiguously to sources in Asia based on meteorological and chemical analyses, the committee said. For example, one study found that a polluted airmass detected at Mt. Bachelor Observatory in central Oregon took approximately eight days to travel from East Asia.

Read full report for free online. (National Academies Press)

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules on Wednesday that would limit greenhouse gas regulations to large polluters, exempting smaller businesses and farms, as my colleague John Broder reported.

The Environmental Protection Agency plan, long anticipated and highly controversial, would regulate emissions from thousands of power plants.

More than 20 years ago, an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol phased out a group of chemicals that were destroying the Earth’s ozone layer.

But since then, scientists have discovered that some of the chemicals developed to replace those destructive compounds might be contributing to another problem: global warming.

These new chemicals are known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, and they’re used as coolants in refrigerators. HFCs have largely replaced older refrigerants, such as CFCs. These replacements are nonflammable and don’t hurt the ozone.

But when it comes to global warming, HFCs aren’t so good, says Kert Davies of Greenpeace.

“We call them the super greenhouse gases,” Davies says. “They’re the global warming threat that no one has really heard about.”

Once large enough to be mistaken for terrorist bombs, portable air pollution monitors are now being shrunk into smaller and smaller wearable devices that can be easily dispatched for environmental detective work: Is black carbon soot emitted by school buses contributing not just to warming global temperatures, but raising childhood asthma rates, too? These new pocket-size sensors could provide more practical and powerful detection of such potential public health risks.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new limits on air emissions will affect most existing hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerators (HMIWI).

This final action will reduce about 390,000 pounds of several pollutants each year including acid gases, nitrogen oxides, and metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.

The agency also is finalizing additional testing, monitoring, and inspection requirements. This final action revises the September 1997 New Source Performance Renew (NSPR) standards and emission guidelines for these incinerators and responds to the court remand of the regulations. It also satisfies the Clean Air Act requirement to conduct a review of the standards every five years.

New fuel-economy rules proposed by the federal Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency are the first major move by the U.S. toward cracking down on greenhouse-gas emissions. The proposed program includes miles-per-gallon requirements and national emissions standards under the EPA’s greenhouse-gas-emissions guidelines for model years from 2012 to 2016.

You’d think that environmental groups would be overjoyed.

Hardly. What has them worried are all the pro-industry rule tweaks and what they see as slanted calculations. “Automakers lobbied hard to include loopholes in the Administration’s proposal,” says Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign at the Center for Auto Safety.

“This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “For the first time, we begin collecting data from the largest facilities in this country, ones that account for approximately 85 percent of the total U.S. emissions. The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions.”

EPA’s new reporting system will provide a better understanding of where GHGs are coming from and will guide development of the best possible policies and programs to reduce emissions. The data will also allow businesses to track their own emissions, compare them to similar facilities, and provide assistance in identifying cost effective ways to reduce emissions in the future. This comprehensive, nationwide emissions data will help in the fight against climate change.

Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, are produced by burning fossil fuels and through industrial and biological processes. Fossil fuel and industrial GHG suppliers, motor vehicle and engine manufacturers, and facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of CO2 equivalent per year will be required to report GHG emissions data to EPA annually. This threshold is equivalent to about the annual GHG emissions from 4,600 passenger vehicles.

The first annual reports for the largest emitting facilities, covering calendar year 2010, will be submitted to EPA in 2011. Vehicle and engine manufacturers outside of the light-duty sector will begin phasing in GHG reporting with model year 2011. Some source categories included in the proposed rule are still under review.

More information on the new reporting system and reporting requirements: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html

U.S. EPA has sent a draft rule to the White House that could limit regulations on greenhouse gas emissions to cover only very large industrial sources.

The agency yesterday submitted a rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget that experts say will likely limit strict permitting requirements to industrial sources of more than 25,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The rule is aimed at shielding smaller sources of emissions from being subject to any new regulatory regime. The Clean Air Act now requires new and modified industrial sources to install “best available control technologies” when they emit 250 tons or more of a pollutant per year.

The initiative, which is monitoring 63 schools in 22 states, is designed to help EPA and the states determine whether long-term exposure to toxics in the outdoor air poses health concerns for children and staff at the schools.

EPA Region 5 also announced that first sets of air toxics monitoring data from three schools in the region have been posted on the agency’s Web site. The schools are: Lincoln Park Elementary School, Muskegon, Mich.; Minnesota International Middle Charter School, Minneapolis, Minn.; and Whitwell Elementary School, Ironton, Ohio. The data is posted at http://www.epa.gov/schoolair/schools.html.

The key pollutants of concern from each school are:

• Lincoln Park Elementary School: Hexavalent chromium, or chrome 6, a metal commonly used in manufacturing, is the pollutant most likely to be of concern based on the best available information about emissions and sources of pollution in the area.
• Minnesota International Middle Charter School: Hexavalent chromium; cobalt, an element used in industrial processes; and nickel, a metal released in combustion processes and used in industrial processes, are the pollutants most likely to be of concern based on the best available information about emissions and sources of pollution in the area.
• Whitwell Elementary School: Manganese, a metal commonly used in manufacturing; benzene, a chemical emitted by mobile sources and used in industrial processes; and benzo(a)pyrene, a chemical formed during the incomplete combustion of coal, are the pollutants most likely to be of concern based on the best available information about emissions and sources of pollution in the area.

The first results show that levels of the key hazardous air pollutants at these three schools are well below levels of short-term concern. EPA scientists warn against drawing conclusions at this point as the study is designed to determine whether long-term, not short-term, exposure poses health risks to school children and staff. Once monitoring is complete, the full set of results from all of the schools will be analyzed to evaluate the potential for health concerns related to long-term exposure to these pollutants. EPA will post this analysis to the Web once it is complete.

Outdoor air at each of the schools will be monitored for 60 days, and air quality monitors will take a minimum of 10 daily samples during the sampling period. EPA will use the information gathered in the initiative to help determine next steps, which could include additional monitoring or enforcement action where appropriate.

Other schools being monitored in EPA Region 5 are Saint Josaphat School, Chicago; Pittsboro Elementary School, Pittsboro, Ind.; Lincoln Elementary School, Warsaw, Ind.; Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, East Chicago, Ind.; efferson Elementary School, Gary, Ind.; Spain Elementary School, Detroit, Mich.; La Croft Elementary School, East Liverpool, Ohio; Elm Street Elementary School, Wauseon, Ohio; Life Skills of Trumbull County and the Academy of Arts and Humanities, Warren, Ohio; The Ohio Valley Educational Service Center and Warren Elementary School, Marietta, Ohio.

Although some countries still have lead in gasoline, an American Chemical Society presenter noted that air quality successes have been made by such megacities as Mexico City, Beijing, and Sao Paulo.

A scientific trend to view the world’s biggest cities as analogous to living, breathing organisms is fostering a deep new understanding of how poor air quality in megacities can harm residents, people living far downwind, and also play a major role in global climate change. That’s the conclusion of a report by Charles Kolb, Ph.D., on the “urban metabolism” model of megacities presented at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

U.S. EPA’s planned toughening of health standards for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions is not tough enough for some advocacy groups.

The EPA proposal would set a new one-hour maximum NO2 limit to prevent spikes in air pollution. The proposal also involves setting up new monitors in locations with the highest concentrations, like major roads in urban areas. The agency is proposing to retain the current annual average standard of 53 parts per billion (ppb).

The proposal’s range — between 80 and 100 ppb — falls within EPA’s scientific advisers’ recommendations, but some environmentalists and public-health advocates want more.

In the agreement, filed in federal court in Columbus, Ohio and joined by the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Ohio Edison will repower the R.E. Burger Units 4 and 5 near Shadyside, Ohio with biomass fuel.  The consent decree modifies a 2005 consent decree requiring Ohio Edison to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) at several of its coal-fired plants.

The modified consent decree will substantially reduce emissions of SO2 and NOx from Burger’s current levels and also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from current levels by more than 1.3 million tons a year.  Burger will be the largest coal-fired electric utility plant in the country to repower with renewable biomass fuels and the first such plant at which greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced under a Clean Air Act consent decree.

The original 2005 consent decree resolved a lawsuit filed in 1999 under the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act regarding Ohio Edison’s W. H. Sammis plant and required that the company reduce SO2 emissions not only at Sammis but also at several of its smaller plants, including Burger.  That agreement gave Ohio Edison three options to reduce Burger’s SO2 emissions:  shut down the plant, install a scrubber, or repower with natural gas.  Under the modified agreement, Ohio Edison will repower Burger beginning in 2012 with mostly biomass fuels, co-firing with not more than 20 percent low sulfur coal, including natural wood from waste tree trimmings and dedicated sustainable nurseries, agricultural crops, grasses and vegetation waste or products.

Following a year of initial operation and optimization, the Burger plant will be subject to enforceable emissions rates for SO2, NOx and particulate matter (PM).  Reductions from current levels of SO 2  emissions are expected to be as much as 14,000 tons a year; for NOx, as much as 1300 tons a year; and for PM, as much as 700 tons a year.

As a result of this agreement, conversion to biomass fuel combustion is expected to approach “carbon neutrality,” meaning that CO2 emissions released by burning biomass fuel will be offset by the amount of CO 2  absorbed from the atmosphere by the wood and vegetation grown to produce the fuel.  After offset, Burger is expected to emit approximately 400,000 tons of CO 2  emissions a year, based on 20 percent coal co-firing, versus more than 1.7 million tons from coal-fired combustion prior to repowering with biomass fuel.

The adverse effects on the environment of CO2 emissions, particularly from coal-fired power plants, are well-documented.  Last April, EPA issued the “Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under the Clean Air Act,” which identified the dangers of the current and projected concentrations of the six key greenhouse gases, the most significant being carbon dioxide.  In addition, sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter cause severe respiratory problems and contribute to childhood asthma.  They are also significant contributors to acid rain, smog and haze, which impair visibility in national parks.

“This is a great result for the health and the environment of the nation,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “We are pleased that Ohio Edison has chosen to significantly reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants from the Burger plant and hope that Ohio Edison will become the standard-bearer for other companies considering conversion to renewable biomass fuels under the auspices of the EPA and state environmental agencies.”

“Today’s settlement improves air quality for the local community and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by requiring the use of a renewable, carbon-neutral fuel to generate electricity,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “EPA will seek similar commitments from companies to replace coal-fired electric generation with cleaner, renewable energy in future Clean Air Act settlements.”

The consent decree, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.  A copy of the consent decree is available on the Department of Justice Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html .

Air Pollution:  Air Quality, Visibility, and the Potential Impacts of Coal-Fired Power Plants on Great Basin National Park, Nevada.  GAO-09-788R, July 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-788R

The world’s vegetation soaked up carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than it would have under a pristine atmosphere, a new analysis in the April 23 Nature suggests. The trend hints that relying on forests and other vegetation to sequester carbon may not be effective if skies continue to clear, researchers say.

The Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recognize ASHRAE guidance as a means for creating healthy homes.

Earlier this month, Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson released The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes, calling for Americans to prevent disease and promote healthy environments in homes. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2007, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, was recommended as an effective way to reduce indoor air pollution through ventilation in the CDC’s and HUD’s supporting guidance for builders and homeowners.

The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air suggests new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO2 “catchers,” a scientist from Maryland reports.

An article on this subject is scheduled for the August 3 issue of the American Chemical Society’s Inorganic Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal. To access the article, visit http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/ic802454w J. A. Tossell notes in the new study that another scientist discovered the molecule while doing research unrelated to climate change. Carbon dioxide was collecting in the molecule, and the scientist realized that it was coming from air in the lab. Tossell recognized that these qualities might make it useful as an industrial absorbent for removing carbon dioxide.

Researcher Eric Johnson recently revealed that charcoal grills leave a much larger carbon footprint than their gas-powered counterparts. On what may be the busiest grilling day of the year, Guy Raz speaks with Johnson about his study.

Despite being a centerpiece of celebrations the world over, fireworks displays often release toxic chemicals into the environment, from heavy metals to perchlorate…

But researchers are developing a new generation of fireworks that can shine just as brightly without having the same impact on the environment or human health. In an article in Chemical & Engineering News, a publication of the American Chemical Society, Bethany Halford says these nitrogen-rich formulas also use fewer color-producing chemicals, dramatically cutting down on the amount of heavy metals used and lowering their potentially toxic effects.

U.S. EPA is working to issue replacement rules for Bush-era regulations aimed at slashing power plant emissions of soot, smog and mercury as quickly as possible, the agency’s top air official told a Senate panel yesterday.

Clean Air Act:  Preliminary Observations on the Effectiveness and Costs of Mercury Control Technologies at Coal-Fired Power Plants, by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.  GAO-09-860T, July 9
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-860T
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09860thigh.pdf

A day after granting California the authority to regulate vehicle tailpipe emissions as part of its efforts to address climate change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to create tougher rules to reduce air pollution from U.S.-flagged large ships.

The government’s latest snapshot of air pollution across the nation shows residents of New York, Oregon and California faced the highest risk of developing cancer from breathing toxic chemicals.

The results, compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, represent the most sweeping analysis to date of the state of the nation’s air. The analysis is based on emissions from 2002, the latest year for which the EPA had detailed estimates of pollution from across the nation.

See also The Smokestack Effect, a USA Today special report on air pollution.

Top 20 U.S. Counties by Annual Carbon Emissions
Source: Clean Tech Law & Business

The residents of Camden County, Alabama spend a larger share of their paycheck on gasoline than residents of any other county in the United States. The average household in Camden County earns $26,000 every year, or roughly half the national average. Combined with long daily commutes for most residents, Camden County has placed first for the second year in a row, spent a higher portion of their income on gas than anyone else in the country, according to a new study from the Oil Price Information Service, a research firm that tracks data for AAA. In Camden, drivers put 13% of every paycheck right into the gas tank. In wealthy towns around New York City, people spend less than 2% of their income on gas. Ironically, despite the high gas prices, the state of Alabama has the highest carbon emissions from power plants in the country, producing over 28 million tons of CO2 each year. And yet, not even Alabama can compete with the insanely high emissions in Wyoming, which has the highest per capita emissions at the state level.

Now, for the first time, a new study by the Vulcan Project has pinned down carbon emissions at the county level, providing a far more granular view of carbon emissions at the local level.

Hat tip: RE

A new study indicates inhalation of certain particulates can actually cause some genes to become reprogrammed, affecting both the development and the outcome of cancers and other diseases.

The research was presented on May 17 at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego, Calif.

“Each year, our Clean Air Excellence Award winners offer amazing new examples of how we keep our air safe and clean,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “This year’s winners have built on that tradition of innovation to show what is possible in protecting human health and the environment.”

This year’s award recipients were selected from 125 applicants and represent achievements in five categories: clean air technology, community action, education/outreach, regulatory policy innovations, and outstanding individual achievement.

The awards program, established in 2000 at the recommendation of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, annually recognizes and honors outstanding innovative efforts to help make progress in achieving cleaner air. Award-winning entries must directly or indirectly reduce pollutant emissions, demonstrate innovation, offer sustainable outcomes, and provide a model for others to follow.

Information on all award winners: http://www.epa.gov/air/caaac/clean_award.html

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified petitioners of its intent to reconsider portions of three rules under its New Source Review (NSR) permitting program. The rules under review determine when and how facilities are required to:

• Account for air emissions that are not released through a stack, vent, or other confined air stream;
• Keep records on emissions; and
• Account for air emissions associated with fine particle pollution when obtaining a permit.

These reconsiderations are the most recent in a series of actions EPA has taken to ensure the NSR program protects clean air.

Clearing the Air? The Effects of Gasoline Content Regulation on Air Quality
Source: Center for the Study of Energy Markets (via University of California eScholarship Repository)

This paper examines the effects of U.S. gasoline content regulations on groundlevel ozone pollution. These regulations are costly and have been shown to fragment gasoline markets and raise prices paid by consumers. We provide the first comprehensive empirical estimates of the regulations’ air quality benefits. We exploit the fact that gasoline regulations vary by time and place of introduction, using both difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity designs. We show that federal regulations targeting the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), one of the two main precursors to ozone, do not substantially improve air quality. This outcome is driven by the response of refiners to the regulation: minimizing the cost of abatement involves removing a type of VOC from gasoline that is not an important determinant of ozone pollution. In California, however, we show that precisely targeted regulations requiring the removal of VOCs particularly prone to forming ozone caused a significant improvement in air quality.

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday officially adopted the position that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public’s health and welfare, a move that could trigger a series of federal regulations affecting polluters from vehicles to coal-fired power plants.

Report: U.S. Power Plant Carbon Dioxide Emissions Eased Slightly in 2008, But Much More Progress Needed to Meet CO2 Reduction Goals
Source: Environmental Integrity Project

Due in part to the recent economic slowdown and milder-than-usual weather, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from U.S. power plants dropped 3.1 percent in 2008, tempering a steady increasing trend in the preceding years, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). EIP officials cautioned that the one-year dip is a departure from the recent trends in power plant carbon dioxide emissions, which have risen 0.9 percent since 2003, and 4.5 percent since 1998, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Despite the slight overall national improvement in CO2 emissions, six states had increases in power plant emissions of 1 million tons or more from 2007 to 2008: Oklahoma (3.1 million); Iowa (1.8 million); Texas (1.7 million); Nebraska (1.3 million); Illinois (1.1 million) and Washington (1.1 million).

+ Full Report (PDF; 502 KB)

EPA Announces Results of 17th Annual Acid Rain Auction
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

EPA has posted the results of its annual acid rain auction, held on March 24. The annual auction gives power plants, brokers, and private citizens the opportunity to buy and sell sulfur dioxide (SO2) allowances as part of EPA’s successful cap and trade program to reduce emissions contributing to acid rain.

The 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments established this program to cap national SO2 emissions at 50 percent of 1980 levels. Each year, EPA issues allowances to existing sources within that cap. In addition, the CAA mandates that a limited number of those allowances are withheld and auctioned. The auctions help ensure that new electric generating plants have a source of allowances beyond those allocated initially to existing units. Proceeds from the auctions are returned to sources in proportion to the allowances withheld. In addition to allowances offered by EPA, private parties may offer allowances for sale in the auction.

The auction includes two “vintages” of allowances. Vintage describes the earliest year an allowance may be applied against SO2 emissions. In addition to year 2009 allowances, the Clean Air Act mandated that EPA auction additional allowances seven years in advance to help provide stability in planning for capital investment. These advance allowances will be usable first in 2016. No offers from private parties to sell their allowances were received.

+ Annual Auction

Flexibility in the Timing of Emission Reductions Under a Cap-and-Trade Program
Source: Congressional Budget Office

Chairman Rangel, Ranking Member Camp, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to discuss ways to reduce the economic cost of a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse-gas emissions. That cost would depend importantly on firms’ flexibility in the timing of their emission reductions. Analysts have developed a num­ber of options for increasing timing flexibility, and this testimony reviews the advan­tages and disadvantages of leading options.

Accumulating evidence about the pace and potential extent of global warming has heightened policymakers’ interest in cost-effective ways to achieve substantial reduc­tions in emissions of greenhouse gases. Although the potential damage from climate change is large, the potential cost of avoiding change is large as well. Meaningfully reducing the risk of damage would require that the United States and other nations make fundamental changes in the way that energy is produced and used. Those changes could include replacing carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels with appropriate renewable fuels or nuclear power; reducing energy use, perhaps through major gains in energy efficiency; and capturing and storing greenhouse gases on a large scale.

Many analysts agree that the most cost-effective way to spur significant changes in the production and use of energy is to put a price on carbon emissions. By establishing such a price—rather than by dictating specific technologies or changes in behav­ior—the government would encourage households and firms to reduce emissions in the least costly ways. Either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program would effectively put a price on carbon emissions and lead to emission reductions where and how it was least costly to achieve them.

Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, CBO Director, before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives

A University of Maryland-led team has compiled the first decades-long database of aerosol measurements over land, making possible new research into how air pollution affects climate change.

On July 23, 2008, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a new regulation that regulates air emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from nine metal fabrication and finishing source categories. This rule, promulgated as 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 63, Subpart XXXXXX (’6X”), is another in a series of regulations that addresses emissions of HAPs from “area sources.” Unlike many other subparts to 40 CFR Part 63 that regulate the entire list of HAPs, 6X specifically regulates only emissions of compounds of cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel from nine specific source categories.

For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to set emission limits for formaldehyde, benzene, acrolein, and other air toxics from certain stationary diesel and gas-fired engines, according to a Feb. 27 press release.

Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth’s future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on Jan. 16.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final rule under the New Source Review (NSR) program that revises the agency’s policy on “aggregation,” according to a Jan. 12 press release.

For the purpose of determining whether NSR applies, a facility should group together, or aggregate, emissions from multiple related changes into one single project, only if those activities are substantially related.

Warnings about biofuels contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) production are based on a set of assumptions that may not be correct, according to a paper recently published by researchers at Michigan State University. “Biofuels, Land Use Change, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Some Unexplored Variables” by Hyungtae Kim, Seungdo Kim and Bruce Dale, was published online by the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for EPA administrator, said Wednesday she would immediately revisit the Bush administration’s decision to block California and 18 other states from setting tough limits on greenhouse gases from vehicles, and she hinted strongly that she will overturn it.

A new way of pinpointing where zinc pollution in the atmosphere comes from could improve pollution monitoring and regulation, says research in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Imperial College London researchers say their work is a major breakthrough as current methods for analyzing zinc pollution only measure pollution in the atmosphere; they do not trace it back to its source.

Toxic gases may be rising into homes in Brooklyn, a legacy of dry-cleaning plants and manufacturers.

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday abandoned its push to revise two air-pollution rules in ways that environmentalists had long opposed, abruptly dropping measures that the Bush administration had spent years preparing.