New provisions nearly eliminate the financial impacts of the rule’s ozone regulations.
Stephen T. Marron is vice president and John H. Wile is president at Economic & Management Consulting Group LLC. Contact Wile at jwile@emc-group.com.
The Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 is designed to reduce ozone transport and the atmospheric interstate transport of fine particulate matter (PM2.5).1 Beginning in 2009, CAIR will regulate ozone transport by imposing limits on the emissions of NOx during the months of May through September, called the “ozone season,” and referred to hereafter as CAIR Ozone. These rules will expand and replace the current NOx Budget Trading Program (NBP), often referred to as the NOx SIP Call. Also beginning in 2009, CAIR will impose annual caps on NOx emissions, referred to hereafter as CAIR PM2.5. Most of the power plants in states east of the Mississippi River will be regulated under both sets of regulations. Although there are plants that only will be regulated under the CAIR Ozone rule, others only will be regulated under the CAIR PM2.5 rule. Several states west of the Mississippi River also will be regulated under the CAIR rules.2