Re: Consultation on EPA's Proposed Rulemaking for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Electric

Utility Steam Generating Units: Executive Order 13132, "Federalism"
Dear Intergovernmental Association Colleague: The purpose of this letter is to seek y our input on the Environmental Protection Agency 's (EPA) forthcoming proposed rule making for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel

fired electric utility

steam generating units (EGUs). Specificall y, EPA plans to propose new source performance standards (NSPS ) for GHG emissions from new and modified fossil fuel

fired EGUs and emission guidelines for GHG emissions from existing fossil fuel

- fired EGUs. To that end, we would like to invite y ou to a meeting to be held at EPA’s Ariel Rios North building in room 13 32 on April 12 , 201 1 , from 2 :00 p.m. to 4 :00 p.m . Ariel Rios North is located at 1200 Penns yl vania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, and the public entrance is located on the 12 th Street side, next to the Federal Triangle Metro escalators

. Consultation is reque sted pursuant to the terms of Executive Order 13132, entitled "Federalism," which directs Federal agencies to consult with elected State and local government officials, or their representative national organizations, when developing regulations and policie s that impose substantial compliance costs on state and local governments. We currentl y estimate that approximately 1 2 3 state/local jurisdictions own facilities that may be affected by

this action. Those state/local jurisdictions will be required to comply with the standards when finalized. Additionally , state/local jurisdictions to which EPA has delegated authority will be directly involved in implementing and enforcing the standards. Pursuant to this consultation process, EPA is contacting the Nation al Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Count y Executives of America, the National Association of Counties, the Internation al City /County Management Association, the National Association of Towns and Townships, and the Environmental Council of the States to inform them and seek their input for this rulemaking. T he National Association of Clean Air Agencies also will be invite d to participate as technical observers. The proposed NSPS would be issued under authority of Clean Air Act ( CAA ) section 111(b). In addition to the NSPS requirements established for new and modified sources, for pollutants not regulated under other parts of the CAA, EPA must establish emission guidelines under CAA section 111(d). States use the emission guidelines to develop plans for reducing emissions from existing sources. The guidelines include targets based on demonstrated controls, emission reduct ions, costs and expected timeframes for installation and compliance, and can be less stringent than the requir ements imposed on new sources. The proposed regulations would apply to EGUs capable of combusting more than 250 million British thermal units per hour (MMBtu/hr) heat input of fossil fuel. An “electric utility steam generating unit” is any steam electric generating unit that is constructed for the purpose of supplying more than one

- third of its potential electric output capacit y and more than 25 me gawatts electric (MWe) output to any utility power distribution sy stem for sale. Fossil fuel means natural gas, petroleum, coal, and an y form of solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel derived from such material for the purpose of creating useful heat. The regula tions would not apply

tostationary

combustion turbines or natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) facilities . The regulations would, however, appl y to integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC, i.e

. , “coal gasification”) units

. Under a settlement agreement announced b y EPA on December 23, 2010, the proposed regulations would be issued by July 26, 2011, and after considering any public comments received concerning the proposed regulations, final regulations would be issued by May 26, 2012. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide you with general background on this action and to answer questions you may have. We would appreciate any input y ou can provide at the meeting. In addition, it would be most helpful if you could provide y our written comments to us within forty

- five day s after the meeting, so as to inform our discussions as we develop the proposed rule. Please let us know if y ou will be able to attend by contacting Andrew Hanson in EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at hanson.andrew@epa.gov or at 202

- 564

- 3664.
If you have questions or concerns regarding the rule or the consultation process, you may contact Robert J. Wayland of EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards at wayland.robertj@epa.gov or 919

- 541

- 1045.