EPA & Clean Air Act Compliance Flashcards

Under EPA's Clean Power Plan framework and its successor rules, which legal authority under the Clean Air Act does EPA use to regulate CO2 from existing power plants?

Answer: Section 111(d) (existing source performance standards)

Section 111(d) allows EPA to direct states to establish performance standards for existing sources of pollutants not regulated under other CAA sections.

A company's facility is located in a PM2.5 nonattainment area. Which Clean Air Act requirement most directly affects its ability to build a new major emission source?

Answer: It must obtain Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER) and emission offsets

In nonattainment areas, new major sources must achieve LAER (the most stringent technology) and provide offsets that exceed new emissions to ensure net air quality improvement.

What is the role of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) under the Clean Air Act?

Answer: State-developed plans showing how they will attain and maintain NAAQS

SIPs are state-developed plans, approved by EPA, that demonstrate how each state will achieve and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Under the CAA's mobile source provisions, EPA's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are jointly administered with which other agency?

Answer: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

CAFE standards are jointly developed by EPA and NHTSA, with EPA setting GHG emission standards and NHTSA setting fuel economy standards for the same vehicles.

What defines a 'criteria pollutant' under the Clean Air Act?

Answer: A pollutant for which EPA has established NAAQS based on health and welfare criteria

Criteria pollutants are those for which EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) based on health (primary) and welfare (secondary) criteria documents.

California's unique authority to set its own vehicle emission standards stricter than federal standards stems from which provision?

Answer: A waiver of federal preemption that EPA grants under CAA Section 209

CAA Section 209(b) allows California to seek a waiver from EPA to enforce its own motor vehicle emission standards, which are often more stringent than federal standards.

What does the term 'fugitive emissions' mean in the context of Clean Air Act permitting?

Answer: Emissions that cannot reasonably pass through a stack or vent and are released directly to the atmosphere

Fugitive emissions are uncontrolled releases that escape through leaks, seams, or open surfaces rather than through a designed exhaust point like a stack or vent.