The incoming chair of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is again targeting an industrial air pollution program for major changes by introducing new legislation that could get a hearing before his panel.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), who will lead the Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Materials, on Friday introduced H.R. 161. That bill seeks to revamp EPA’s gauge for deciding whether an expansion or upgrade to a paper mill, refinery or other type of industrial operation warrants preconstruction permitting under the New Source Review program.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA requires an NSR permit — possibly accompanied by stricter pollution controls — when such improvements are forecast to lead to significant growth in actual annual emissions. Griffith’s bill would instead use an approach tied to whether the project would result in a higher hourly pollution rate.
In the view of environmental groups, that approach would gut the program. In a Monday statement, Griffith said that EPA’s interpretation currently discourages factories from installing “minor or intermediate improvements which positively affect emissions for fears of jeopardizing their air permit. As a result, it forestalls innovation and new cleaner technologies from being utilized.”
