EPA sends ‘plantwide’ NSR permit guidance to OMB

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review its final guidance recommending that industry air permit applicants consider using “plantwide applicability limits” (PALs) to ease their Clean Air Act compliance obligations and avoid strict new source review (NSR) requirements. PALs are plant-wide emissions caps that allow industrial facilities to increase emissions from one source without triggering onerous NSR permit review, so long as the plant’s emissions remain within the overall cap. NSR is expensive...