In Major Policy Shift, EPA Defers To Industry On Key NSR Permitting Test

In a major policy shift, EPA is dropping its long-running position that the agency can use its own projections of a facility's potential future emissions to trigger Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting requirements and will now adopt industry's approach that will defer to companies to assess whether they believe NSR applies. The change, outlined in an eight-page memo that EPA quietly posted to its website Dec. 7, will have major regulatory and legal ramifications. Environmentalists have long...