Comments for Small Sources of Nox, Cement Kilns & Large Internal Combustion Engines
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January 2004 Comments For General comments: This regulatory action is necessary to achieve, complete, and maintain the current one hour ozone standard which the Philadelphia five county ozone nonattainment area must meet by May 15, 2005 as required by the Clean Air Act (CAA). At no time should emissions averaging be permitted, and at no time should netting or a bubble be allowed to be created, endangering further our ability to make ozone smog attainment controls on time. PA DEP should expand the regulatory language of section 129.204 (g)(4) to all Pennsylvania counties, and include renewable solar and wind generation within the NOx allocation budget as is already accomplished in other states such as Maryland.
Comments Chapter 121: General Provisions: Section 121.1 Definitions: All definitions should be included in one section where they can be easily accessed. Accordingly, definitions for “stationary combustion engine” on pages 13 and 32 should be moved to this section. The definition for “tradable renewable credit” (TRC) should clearly include a prohibition on the inclusion of biomass, incineration or hydro as renewable sources. Other issues surrounding TRC include the ability to measure, verify and quantify any renewable energy production, verify location within the five county Philadelphia ozone nonattainment area, and ensure methods to prevent double counting. Comments Chapter 129: Standards for Sources; Additional
NOx Requirements: 1. Make this regulation a year round requirement. Since the Philadelphia five county area is dependent upon meeting it's current one hour ozone smog reductions requirement by 2005, and that pollution limit will be so difficult to achieve, it is appropriate that the emissions limitation be a year-round limitation, and not limited to the legal ozone season of May 1 through September 30. Section 129.202 (c)(1)(i)(A & B) and 129.202 (c)(1)(ii)(A & B): The Sierra Club supports inclusion of an output based standards program. Only output based emission limitations can encourage both significant energy efficiency and air pollution emission reduction. The Sierra Club believes that output-based emissions standards are a proven program methodology; it should already be in use as it is in Massachusetts & New Hampshire. PA DEP/BAQ should require output based pollution limits as the requirement for this program, not as a voluntary choice. Section 129.203 Standards for Stationary Internal Combustion
engines Section 129.204 Emission Accountability Requirements Section 129.204 (b): Regulated pollution sources will use the emissions monitoring methodology most advantageous to them. PADEP should require the method that is most protective of public health, and provides reliable, verifiable, measurable emissions data. Section 129.204 (b)(2)(i): PA DEP should use actual data here; “… most recent permit emission limits …” should be BACT or BAT limits. Section 129.204 (d) should be deleted and no averaging should be permitted. It will again, be a provision that will enhance our difficulty in meeting the one hour ozone standard on time. The Sierra Club supports regulatory language in 129.204(f) to surrender and retire three NOx allowances from the Philadelphia 5 county ozone nonattainment area set-aside for every one ton of NOx emitted in violation. We support language that allows only current & future year allowances to be retired. Current year allowances should always be required to be surrendered first, in order to apply the best enforcement to NOx emission violations. The Sierra Club supports regulatory language in 129.204(g) to apply zero emission renewable energy production against pounds of NOx produced per MWH electricity. There should be a correspondence of one pound emitted NOx emitted per MWH electricity or thermal power against each one MWH of zero emission renewable energy in calculating actual emissions. This should be renewable energy generated within the five county Philadelphia ozone nonattainment area. PA DEP should encourage all renewable energy sources to help displace the use of any diesel small distributed generation. At no time should mobile source emissions reductions be considered in exchange for reductions in stationary source emissions. Chapter 145.42 NOx Allowance Allocations Section 145.42 (d): The Sierra Club supports this section. Additionally, PA DEP should go further and include language within this regulation that will allocate allowances for true renewable energy production with this Commonwealth. Wind energy (and solar) production is an established and successful energy production industry and should be legitimized by assigning equivalent NOx allowances. The 5% growth set-aside within the NOx allowance program allows a maximum of a 15% allocation of these NOx allowances to renewable energy. The maximum 15% should be available for allocation. This could act as true incentive for more renewable energy production. Pumped hydro storage is not a renewable energy. Chapter 145.143 Standard Requirements Section 145.143 (b) allows a change from 5 to 6 pounds per ton clinker. This change should be deleted and return to a requirement of allowable emissions calculated using a level more protective of human health. BACT/BAT emissions levels of 2-3 pounds per ton clinker are recognized for pre-calcined operations. Thanks you for the opportunity to comment. Sincerely,
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