Opinion ID: 722370
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Background Specific to IMPA's and Wyandotte's Claims

Text: 50 Section 405(g)(3) of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act permits the EPA to allocate allowances to utility units that commence operation between October 1, 1990, and December 31, 1992 (1992 units). 42 U.S.C. § 7651d(g)(3). Because these units did not have an actual or allowable 1985 emission rate used to calculate allowances for units operating in 1985, however, the section instructed the EPA to determine the unit's allowances based on the unit's annual fuel consumption and allowable sulfur dioxide emission rate. Id. Of course, as these units had not previously existed, the EPA was largely unaware of the proper number of allowances they should receive. 51 In a notice published along with the second version of the NADB (July 1991 Notice), the EPA established guidelines by which utilities could seek allowances for any units that were not included in the EPA's second version of that database. See Acid Rain Provisions, 56 Fed.Reg. 33,278, 33,279 (July 19, 1991). This July 1991 Notice warned all applicants that: 52 In order to finalize the database in a timely manner, EPA will not accept requests for data corrections following the comment period [which ended September 3, 1991], except when the utility can demonstrate that the correct data were unavailable during the comment period. No data will be changed or added after publication of the final database in December, 1991.... Units eligible for allowances will not be allocated allowances if the final database does not include the information necessary. 53 Id. at 33,283. The Notice also stated that any unit seeking to add data must submit a data change request form and necessary supporting documentation. See id. The form itself listed 36 items of information that a utility had to supply, ranging from the name and location of the plant, general design specifications of the plant, to the allowable emission rate of the plant. See id. at 33,283-86. The Notice, however, did not explicitly state that it intended to govern allocation requests for 1992 units, though a number of such units were absent from the second version of the database. 54 On May 13, 1992, IMPA first contacted the EPA about four utility units that were to become imminently operational. Though none of the units were in the second version of the NADB, IMPA had not previously notified the EPA about these units. IMPA explained that it had not submitted information earlier, despite the July 1991 Notice's statement that the EPA would not make corrections after the end of that year, because IMPA did not think the July 1991 Notice applied to 1992 units, as some data required by the Notice may not have been available until a unit commenced operations. IMPA thus had not submitted any data about these units, even though IMPA's own correspondence made clear that IMPA had known much basic information about the units prior to the end of 1991. 55 Another utility that was constructing a new unit slated to become operational in 1992, the Wyandotte Municipal Services Commission (Wyandotte), also notified the EPA later than any deadline named in the July Notice, in August 1992. Like IMPA, Wyandotte did not show that the data on its 1992 unit was unavailable in 1991. In fact, Wyandotte's own late submission, like IMPA's, indicated that much information was known before the close of the July 1991 Notice's comment period. Wyandotte, however, explained that the utility had not sent information on its new boiler earlier because it had interpreted the local instructions for data correction as not allowing submissions for units under construction. 56 In a document published in March 1993, the EPA denied both IMPA's and Wyandotte's requests for allowances for these 1992 units because they did not comply with the submission deadlines in the July 1991 Notice. Neither IMPA nor Wyandotte had submitted information clearly available to each utility on their respective 1992 units prior to September 3, 1991, as, according to the EPA, the July Notice required, and neither had submitted all necessary data by the end of December 1991. IMPA and Wyandotte now protest their exclusions.