EPA Misses Another Greenhouse Gas Deadline

EPA has announced that it will not meet its mid-December deadline for proposing regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum refineries. The agency said it needs more time to complete work on the regulation and is trying to set up a new deadline date. The deadline for the new emissions rule was mandated under a settlement reached with environmental groups last year. Howard Feldman, director of regulatory and scientific affairs with the American Petroleum Institute, the main refining industry association, said in a statement, “We welcome the news that EPA will allow itself more time to analyze industry data before proposing the unprecedented and enormously complex rule for refineries.” The agency previously failed to propose greenhouse gas emissions standards for large power plants by a September deadline. The agency’s controversial move to restrict industrial carbon dioxide emissions is based on the 2007 Supreme Court decision that greenhouse gases pose a hazard to public health.