EPA Amends Stationary Engine Emissions Rules

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new rule amending National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Stationary, Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines (RICE), the agency has announced.

The amendments, made under the Clean Air Act, are in response to lawsuits brought after the EPA changed federal pollution regulations in 2010.

"After promulgation of the 2010 RICE NESHAP amendments, the EPA received several petitions for reconsideration, legal challenges, other communications raising issues related to the practical implementation and certain factual information that had not been brought to the EPA's attention during rulemaking," the EPA said.

Included in the new rule is an alternative in the compliance demonstration process for achieving at least a 30 percent reduction in total hydrocarbons in 4-stroke, rich-burn spark ignition engines that are subject to a 76 percent or more formaldehyde reduction requirement. The alternative process is cheaper, less complex, yet still effective in demonstrating compliance, the EPA says.

The EPA's new rule also limits the operation of emergency engines used for emergency demand response programs to 100 hours per year and establishes fuel and reporting requirements for emergency engines larger than 100 horsepower meant for more than 15 hours of emergency demand use per year. There are also amendments regarding the management of engines based on their location, separating 4-stroke SI engines with 500 horsepower or more into remote or non-remote subcategories.

Finally, the new rule established time periods for regular oil and filter changes and other items in engines used in offshore oil drilling operations.

"The final amendments will reduce the capital and annual costs of the original 2010 amendments by $287 million and $139 million, respectively," the EPA said. "The EPA estimates that with these final amendments, the capital cost of compliance with the 2010 amendments to the RICE NESHAP in 2013 is $840 million and the annual cost is $490 million."

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