Trinity Consultants to Provide Training on EPA’s Greenhouse Gas “Tailoring Rule” for Air Quality Permitting

Trinity Consultants, an environmental consulting firm with offices nationwide, will present two Webinars on June 4 and June 10 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm CDT on the recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final PSD and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule. The training will be delivered by John E. (Jay) Hofmann, President/CEO of Trinity Consultants, and Katherine Blue, Principal Consultant for Trinity’s Climate Change practice. Mr. Hofmann is a noted authority on air quality permit requirements for major industrial sources in the U.S. and Ms. Blue is the firm’s senior technical resource on greenhouse gas emissions management and associated regulatory developments.

The new rule, released May 13, 2010, will be phased in over the next several years with the first phase commencing on January 2, 2011, when new or modified industrial air emissions sources that are subject to the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program due to non-greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and that emit at least 75,000 tons per year (tpy) of GHGs (measured as CO2e) will become subject to the complex PSD permitting program for GHG. On July 1, 2011, new major source thresholds of 100,000 tpy CO2e and 75,000 tpy CO2e will be effective for new sources and modifications, respectively. By July 1, 2010 EPA may propose reductions to the GHG permitting thresholds but not below 50,000 tpy. The purpose of this rule is to address GHGs in the permitting process while “tailoring” the permitting requirements to shield small sources from extensive burden. The Webinars will address the detailed rule requirements and time line, forthcoming control requirement guidance, scenario planning, operational implications, and how this rule relates to proposed cap-and-trade legislation.

According to Hofmann, “Although the GHG Tailoring Rule is intended to take a common sense approach to controlling GHG emissions, the applicability provisions can be confusing. It is important to companies to fully understand the implications so that they can proceed in a strategic fashion, for example, potentially expediting planned modifications prior to the July 2001 rule implementation date.” For more information on these upcoming Webinars, visit http://www.trinityconsultants.com/webinars.

Founded in 1974, Trinity Consultants has offices in 28 U.S. cities and China and performs over 2,000 environmental consulting projects annually, primarily focusing on air quality regulatory issues affecting industrial facilities. Trinity also markets BREEZE(r) environmental modeling software, implements technology solutions for EH&S information management, and provides EH&S staffing services.