EPA Issues Final Three-Year Deferral for CO2 Emissions from Bioenergy

On July 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the “Final Deferral for CO2 Emissions from Bioenergy and Other Biogenic Sources under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Programs.” According to the EPA , “this final rule defers, for a period of three years, greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting requirements for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from biomass-fired and other biogenic sources.” During the next three years, the EPA will conduct a “detailed examination of the science associated with biogenic CO2 emissions from stationary sources. This study will consider technical issues that the Agency must resolve in order to account for biogenic CO2 emissions in ways that are scientifically sound and also manageable in practice.” EPA will also develop “a final rule by the conclusion of the three year deferral period regarding how biogenic CO2 emissions should be treated and accounted for in PSD and Title V permitting based on the feedback from the scientific and technical review. “

On May 5, EESI submitted comments to the EPA concerning the agency's proposed three-year deferral. EESI supports the EPA’s efforts to regulate CO2 and other GHG emissions from the burning of fossil fuels , but also welcomes the EPA’s decision to delay the regulation of bioenergy facilities in order to further study the life cycle GHG emissions from bioenergy systems. “We do not believe that greenhouse gas emissions from bioenergy producers should be regulated in the same manner as major emitters that use fossil fuels,” wrote EESI executive director, Carol Werner, explaining that emissions from sustainable bioenergy production are “part of a continuously renewable, natural carbon cycle.”

EESI observed that there are many types of biomass for which the climate benefits are clear and there is little scientific debate. EESI recommended that “major bioenergy producers who use these types of biomass should be exempted from the tailoring rule regulations and thus be released from the threat of future regulatory action under the tailoring rule – a threat which now creates uncertainty for farmers, forest owners, bioenergy producers, investors, workers, and communities.”