EPA’s offer for companies to simply email a request for exemptions from toxic air emission limits under the Clean Air Act has at least one taker: one of the nation’s top-polluting power plants.
Operators of the coal-fired Colstrip power plant in Montana are seeking a two-year exemption from compliance with an update to EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, rule — and the state’s Republican leadership is backing their request.
NorthWestern Energy, which is set to take a majority stake in the plant next year, is among what’s likely to be a growing list of companies lining up to take advantage of the offer EPA made last month for companies to secure exemptions from hazardous air pollutant regulations.
Environmental groups have blasted the offer — which affects toxic emissions from a range of pollution sources, including iron ore processing and tire manufacturing facilities to coal-fired power plants and coke ovens — as an illegal attempt to set up an “inbox from hell.”
