EPA, still grappling with one of the Trump administration’s last Clean Air Act rollbacks, has opted for now against fully reinstating requirements for factories and other industrial plants to permanently abide by the strictest hazardous pollutant standards regardless of their regulatory status.
Instead, in a final rule unveiled Wednesday, agency officials reimposed those requirements only for a narrower subset of industries collectively responsible for at least 90 percent of emissions of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and five other hazardous pollutants that the act deems environmentally long-lasting and bioaccumulative.
The final rule stops well short of what EPA proposed last September, which would have uniformly required plants to stick with “maximum achievable control technology” standards even after they moved out of the category of “major” pollution sources that triggered those standards in the first place.
“Because the issue requires more study, the EPA is leaving the 2023 proposal open,” the final rule said. While still concerned about the possibility of “emissions backsliding,” the agency added that the new rule will assure that reductions of those seven pollutants, and the accompanying public health and environmental benefits, “are maintained for all populations,” including people of color and low-income communities.
