Facilities with boilers or process heaters subject to the March 21, 2011 final Major Source or Area Source boiler and process heater rules are faced with some tough decisions on how to proceed down the 3 year road to compliance.  Later this month EPA will publish its proposed list of items that they will reconsider, followed by an approximately 6 month period of evaluating comments and finally publishing a final rule in April 2012.  At this point, unless EPA extends the compliance date in this process, facilities will only have two years to comply.  That’s not a lot of time for facilities that will need to add air pollution control equipment and/or take advantage of emission credits by implementing energy conservation measures from the required energy assessment.  Knowing how the current rule impacts a facility’s affected sources, staying current on the rule changes, and possibly proceeding with the required energy assessment seems a prudent course of action.

How can we take more steps to ensure cleaner air now and for future generations?