State’s haze plan gets EPA support

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to accept changes the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has suggested for the state’s implementation of a federal rule governing visibility at national wilderness areas.

The Regional Haze Rule requires Arkansas to take measures to improve visibility at national wilderness areas, typically by reducing nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from coalfired power plants. The state submitted a draft plan for nitrogen oxide emissions, which can only be considered for implementation if the EPA withdraws the current federal plan.

The difference between the state plan and the federal one is that the federal one requires emissions controls on specific power plants, while the state plan allows utilities in Arkansas to trade emissions allowances and credits during the summer, when air quality tends to be worse.

Utilities favored the state’s changes to its plan, citing the flexibility the changes would offer. Environmental advocates opposed them, arguing that the changes would allow higher-emitting plants to continue emitting at the same levels so long as utilities cut emissions elsewhere.

The federal plan uses the EPA’s Best Available Retrofit Technology analyses to determine caps for each plant. The state’s method would drop those analyses in favor of the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which calls for lower future caps on emissions. The state is already subject to that rule during the summer months.

In its decision posted in the Federal Register, the EPA agreed with the department’s argument that it could accomplish its requirements for haze by using the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. But it noted that the rule can only be used in Arkansas’ plan if the EPA finalizes its findings that the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule is a better tool than Best Available Retrofit Technology.