SB 404

The federal Clean Air Act allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

to authorize a state to administer the act if the state's air pollution control program

is at least as stringent as the act. Currently, EPA delegates the authority to

administer the federal Clean Air Act in this state to the Department of Natural

Resources (DNR).

Current federal law and state law require construction permits and operation

permits for certain stationary sources of air pollution, based on the amount of

specified air contaminants emitted by the sources. Current law also requires certain

stationary sources for which an air pollution permit is required to use what is called

best available control technology (BACT) to control emissions of certain air

pollutants. BACT requires the maximum degree of emission reduction achievable

as specified by the permitting agency on a case-by-case basis, considering energy,

economic, and environmental impacts.

EPA promulgated regulations, effective in 2011, requiring stationary sources

that emit over threshold amounts of greenhouse gases to obtain construction and

operation permits and requiring those sources to use BACT for greenhouse gas

emissions. Greenhouse gases are gases, including carbon dioxide, that trap heat in

the atmosphere. DNR promulgated corresponding rules. More recently, EPA

modified its regulations by providing that, before July 21, 2014, carbon dioxide

emissions from the burning or decomposition of organic material, other than fossil

fuels, will not be counted toward the threshold for permitting because of greenhouse

gas emissions or toward the requirement to use BACT. The modified federal

regulation excludes from counting toward the threshold, for example, carbon dioxide

emissions resulting from the decomposition of waste in a landfill, from burning gas

derived from a landfill or manure digester, and from burning wood, wood waste, and

other biomass.

This bill prohibits DNR from considering carbon dioxide emissions from the

burning or decomposition of organic material, other than fossil fuels, in determining

whether an air pollution construction permit or operation permit is required because

of greenhouse gas emissions and in determining whether a stationary source is

required to use BACT for greenhouse gas emissions, as long as this prohibition is

consistent with federal law.