EPA Proposes 3-Year Deferral For Biomass Clean Air Requirements

Following through on a January 2011 commitment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to defer, for three years, Clean Air Act permitting requirements for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from bioenergy and other biogenic sources.

This additional time will allow the agency to conduct a detailed examination of the science on this issue, EPA said.

Seeking advice of federal partners, states, a diverse group of expert scientists including industry and other stakeholders, and an independent scientific panel, will help to determine how these emissions should be treated under the EPA’s air permitting program. In July 2010, EPA issued a call for information seeking public comment.

New EPA guidance is also being provided to help permitting authorities determine that using biomass as a fuel can be considered the best available control technology for CO2 emissions from the large sources needing permits. The guidance can be used until EPA takes final action on the deferral.

Sources covered by this proposal would include facilities that emit CO2 from burning forest or agricultural products for energy, wastewater treatment, waste management (landfills), and fermentation processes for ethanol production. Facilities meeting the requirements under the agency’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting program will still need to report their CO2 emissions.

EPA will accept comments on the proposed deferral for 45 days following publication in the Federal Register.

In 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition urging the Environmental Protection Agency to "correct scientific errors" in how it calculates greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that burn biomass from trees and other wood products.

The petition, filed under the federal Data Quality Act, challenges EPA’s designation that burning trees for energy is “carbon neutral”–a term that generally implies zero effect on climate change.

The petition asks EPA to correct statements about the “carbon neutrality” of biomass in its annual inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in light of increasing scientific information showing that assumption is incorrect. 

“Burning America’s forests for energy isn’t clean, isn’t green and certainly isn’t carbon neutral,” Center attorney Kevin Bundy said at the time. “Biomass emits as much or more carbon dioxide than coal, and forests can take decades or even centuries to pull that carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere after being logged. In the short term–the period most critical to averting the worst impacts of climate change–converting the carbon stored in trees into global warming pollution makes no scientific or policy sense.”