The Environmental Protection Agency released the first-ever guidelines for states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources, primarily through energy efficiency measures. The permitting process in Texas will not be affected, however, by new federal requirements in January for industry to institute Best Available Control Technologies, or BACT.

The Associated Press reports (via the Austin American-Statesman): “And while most states have signed on with EPA’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, Texas, which is the leading greenhouse gas producer in the nation, has refused to meet the new federal guidelines.”

Reporter Andrew Restuccia from our sister publication The Washington Independent writes, “Industry has been critical of the upcoming BACT requirements, arguing that they will impose prohibitive costs on building new facilities. On a conference call with reporters today, [the EPA's Gina] McCarthy said the requirements “will not significantly add to the burden or the timeline or the cost.”

Restuccia also reported oil-and-gas trade group American Petroleum Institute responded that the EPA guidelines are coming out too close to the implementation of the new rules in January. API official Howard Feldman said the “EPA is railroading job killing regulations onto states, localities and America’s businesses…”

As Texas Independent contributor Molly Davis previously reported, Texas is among a handful of states and industry groups challenging the EPA’s new “tailoring” rule in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. In addition to the state’s fight against new greenhouse gas rules, Texas is also fighting the federal government over the state’s rewarding of “flexible permits” for industrial sources of traditional air pollution.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesperson Terry Clawson told AP, “We are reviewing this new EPA guidance. However, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will not be modifying its permit processes to include greenhouse gas emissions.”