Hey it's July... That means More Facilities Need CO2 Permits

Six months after U.S. EPA's first round of climate change regulations kicked in, the rules requiring new power plants and factories to get permits for their greenhouse gas emissions are being expanded to more facilities today. 

The program has now entered "Phase 2," meaning that any new or modified facility will need an air pollution permit if it would release more than 75,000 or 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Up until today, the CO2 limits only applied to facilities that would have needed a permit anyway because they would release large amounts of "criteria" pollutants that lead to soot and smog.

"While there still remain daunting challenges for some agencies, especially those that are strapped in their resources, by and large it is working well throughout most of the states," Becker said today. "We're not hearing many complaints."

Most of the new permits are expected to go to landfills, which allow greenhouse gases such as methane to escape into the air as trash decomposes, or manufacturing plants. Factories could trigger the new requirements if they use natural gas-fired boilers, which release carbon dioxide but release very little soot or smog-forming gases, Becker said.

Read full at NY Times