Boiler MACT: Now What?

In the latest chapter of a story that has more twists than a Hitchcock movie, on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated EPA's administrative stay of the industrial boiler MACT and solid waste incinerator NSPS rules, making them effective immediately. (Sierra Club v. Jackson, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2457) While the court's decision is grounded in standard principles of administrative law, the outcome of requiring expensive steps to comply with rules that are both simultaneously under agency reconsideration and judicial review presents complex compliance questions. While the final compliance date is more than two years away, the implications for companies and public entities that need to plan and construct complex control systems are significant.