API statement on EPA's proposal to use Clean Air Act to regulate GHG emission from refineries, other plants

WASHINGTON—The American Petroleum Institute made the following statement on EPA’s proposed “tailoring rule” for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program that would set limits on carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks (including refineries). The regulation, which falls under the Clean Air Act, would place limits on any GHG source emitting more than 25,000 metric tons a year:

“API, along with many other groups, does not believe that the Clean Air Act was designed to address the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs).  We also question whether EPA has the legal authority to modify the threshold established by Congress in the Act to regulate pollutants, such as GHG emissions.”  

Updated: September 30, 2009