On Friday, EPA proposed certain revisions to its rule on
air emissions from boilers and commercial and industrial solid
waste incinerators (CISWI). As with other major rules under
development in the past few years, EPA has taken fairly substantial
steps to limit the reach of the rule to those boilers and CISWI
that are of greatest concern. Without engaging in formal
cost-effectiveness analysis, EPA has sought to make the rule as
cost-effective as possible.
As with most of EPA's big rules, it is too complex to be
summarized in a blog post. EPA's summary fact sheet is here. Very briefly, the rule exempts 86%
of industrial boilers and subjects most other boilers to work
practice standards rather than emission limits. For those
boilers subject to the emission limits, the new rules relaxed
limits for CO, PM, and most metals, but increased the stringency
for mercury and acid gases.
