AF&PA: More Work Needed on Boiler MACT Rules

WASHINGTON—American Forest & Paper Association President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules on the Maximum Achievable Control Technology for Industrial Boilers (Boiler MACT).

“The Boiler MACT rules released today are an improvement from where we started last year, but our initial review indicates these rules fall short of what is ultimately needed to support jobs and the economy in the communities where our facilities operate.

“Businesses and other facilities across the country have invested hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years to upgrade and improve their boilers to meet the previous EPA Boiler MACT requirements. Forcing billions more in investments to retrofit already environmentally good-performing boilers fails to allow targeting of scarce capital toward creating jobs and growing the economy in local communities supported by those facilities.

“With additional time, we believe EPA could develop a proposal that would be even less costly and less harmful to job creation and economic growth. Unfortunately, the important work EPA was doing to improve the rules was cut short when the U.S. District Court rejected EPA’s request for time to re-propose the rules and allow for additional public comment.

“We engaged with the Administration and Members of Congress throughout the rulemaking process to provide substantive information for a regulation that meets the goal of achieving good environmental performance in facilities that support thousands of manufacturing jobs. Boiler MACT brought together 260 federal and state-wide elected officials from both parties, including 21 governors, 62 U.S. Senators and 177 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, who expressed their concern for the impact on jobs. I believe those efforts have led to the improvements that were made to the rule, but more changes are needed.

“An affordable regulation that protects health and the environment is still possible. We will participate fully in EPA’s reconsideration process. We also plan to review the rules carefully to determine whether other administrative, legal or legislative options may be necessary to achieve additional changes.”