EPA Seeks Public Comments on President’s Executive Order “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review”

On January 18, President Obama signed Executive Order (EO) 13563 that instructs each federal agency to consider practical approaches to promoting retrospective analysis of rules “that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.” The EO also encourages taking a more pragmatic approach to achieving regulatory objectives while reviewing rules and regulations and identifying those that should be “modified, streamlined, expanded or repealed.”

EPA is accepting public input at its website. EPA is working toward publishing its retrospective review plan by late May along with a preliminary list of regulations it intends to review.

> Visit EPA’s Retrospective Review Website
> Learn more about Environmental Laws and Regulations

EPA Requests Comments for NSPS and NESHAP for Petroleum Sector RTR

On February 2, 2011, EPA issued an Information Collection Request (ICR) to assist in re-evaluating emissions standards within the Petroleum Sector. The ICR contains four components, with the first three being submitted to all facilities listed in the Energy Information Administration’s Refinery Capacity Report. The components include:

• Soliciting information from all potentially affected units at all 152 refineries via electronic survey to establish individual emissions sources accompanied by cost data and copies of recent emissions reports as well as CEMS and CMS data;
• Requesting owners and operators to establish and submit an emissions inventory;
• Requesting owners/operators to conduct sampling and analysis of the feed to distillation columns at their refinery over a specific time period; and
• Requiring emissions testing pursuant to the authority of section 114 of the Clean Air Act.

EPA has clear goals on how it will use this information. Download the rule to learn more.

> Download Rule