1. Whatis a Title V permit, what are the applicable regulations, who must obtain one, who issues and enforces the permit, and what rights do citizens have in theissuance process? The Clean Air Act (CAA)is a federal law within the United States, that is designed to control airpollution on a national level. This law was first passed in 1963. In 1990amendments were added that included Title V.
Title V authorizes theEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) to oversee a national operating permitprogram which covers industries that produce air pollutants. Title V requires large businesses to not only addresspollutants released into the air, but measure their quantity, and have a planto control and minimize them. Not every industry or business needs aTitle V permit to operate, even if they emit some type of Hazardous AirPollutants (HAPs.) A company or facility must meet one or more of the followingrequirements in order to be obliged to obtain a Title V permit:· It must be determined ifa facility is a major source of air pollutants and to determine thePotential-to-Emit (PTE) from all operations. The PTE demonstrates the maximumair pollutants, including HAPs, a facility may emit. The facility PTE shouldthen be compared to the following Major Source Thresholds (MSTs.) A Title Vpermit will be required if your facility emits over: Ø 100 tons per year of any air pollutant; Ø 10 tons per year of a single HAP; andØ 25 tons per year of any combination of HAPs.· The facility emits over50 tons per year of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) or Nitrogen Oxides.
· If any of the emittedsources (of any size) are subject to federal Acid Rain regulations.· If the facility uses a solidwaste incinerator that is subject to Section 129(e) of the CAA. This type of incinerator has the capacity to burn over 35 Mg per day ofresidential or commercial waste.
· If the facility emitsmore than 100, 000 tons of Carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases peryear.· Any Non-major sourcesthat are subject to National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants(NESHAP)If afacility is required to obtain a Title V permit, the process must start with astate or local air pollution control agency. Once a facility has applied forthe permit, the EPA has 45 days to review the permit proposal and submit anychanges to the standard Title V conditions that pertain to the facility’slocation, the potential to emit, types ofprocesses, and other environmental aspects which could impact the facility’sability to comply with the overall requirements of the CAA. During the nextstep, the facility’s Title V permit enters the public domain and is availablefor public and governmental scrutiny. Comments from the public and localgoverning bodies are collected for 30 days and arelater used during the EPA’s evaluation of the Title V permit application. Once theEPA has reviewed the permit proposal and the public commentary, it will eitherreject or accept the Title V permit. If the EPA rejects the permit application, the facility will have 90 days to revise the permitproposal to comply with the EPA’s recommendations that are designed to keep thefacility’s emissions compliant with the CAA. If thefacility’s permit is accepted, the public will be given 60additional days to submit any complaints they may have, ifthe complaint is based on comments collected during the public review period.
If the public did not raise any issuespreviously, they cannot block your permit now. However, the public can issue a complaint based on a situation that occurredwithin the last 30 days, as this would have happened outside the publiccommentary period. Once approved the permit is good for a period of fiveyears. 2. Describe the EPA’s market cap andtrade system, and do you believe it has been an effective method to reduce SO2and NOx emissions in the United States. Withinthe United States the EPA regulates emissions trading, sometimes referred to as” cap and trade” or “ allowance trading, “ to reduce air pollution emissions andhas been used successfully to protect human health and the environment. Twopopular programs that use this system is the Clean Air InterstateRule (CAIR) and the Acid Rain Program (ARP.
) Theemissions trading program has two key components: a limit (cap) on certainemissions, and tradable allowances equal to the limit that authorized allowanceholders “ own” to emit a specific quantity of a specific pollutant. This limitensures that the environmental goal is met and the tradable allowances provideflexibility for individual facilities or companies to set their own in-house compliance goal or limit. Sinceallowances can be bought and sold on the free market, these programs are oftenreferred to as “ market-based.” Theemissions trading programs provide:· Environmental certainty, established bythe EPA to ensure a national pollution limit.
· Flexibility for individual emissionsgenerators to tailor their compliance path to their individual needs.· Incentives for efficiency and innovationthat lower implementation costs.· The incentivefor early pollution reductions because of the ability to save and sell surplusallowances.· Low administrative costs.· Accountability for reducing, tracking andreporting emissions. Allowancescan be bought directly from a company or individual who owns them.
They canalso be bought through a special emissions broker. Many environmental groupsbuy the allowances and “ retire” them, to reduce air pollution. Additionally, SO2 allowances for the ARP can be bought at EPA’s Annual SO2 Allowance Auction. The Auction is held online, annually, on the last Monday ofMarch.
Auctions are divided into two sections: 1. Aspot allowance auction, in which allowances are sold that can be used in thatsame year for compliance purposes. 2. Anadvance auction for the sale of allowances that will become usable forcompliance 7 years after the transaction date. These allowances may be tradedbefore that date. The author believes thatthe emissions trading program is an effective method of helping reduce both SO2and NOx emissions. The laws, restrictions, and programs set forth by Congressand the EPA can be seen as an infringement on the economic market and thefreedom to operate one’s business in a free manner. Programs such as emissions tradingprograms, while restrictive allow the businesses to have a great deal ofcontrol over the government restrictions.
All allowance trades and ortransactions must be reported to the EPA. By allowing business tomake their own decisions on upgrading to technology that prevents or controlspollutant emissions, set in-house limitson emissions, or set a limit on the production and release of said emissions, the government has given the business the freedom to conduct their business inthe way they see fit, while at the same time control and lower air pollution. The author believes that only business shouldbe allowed to buy and trade the allowances.
If environmental groups buy toomany allowances, it may upset the productive balance between the EPA and business. 3. Whatis global climate change? What is theproblem, what do we know and what has been done? Provide your thoughts onglobal climate change and the role of the United States on the global stage. Climate change refers to a broad range of changes that are happening tothe planet Earth.
These include rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, accelerating ice melt in Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland as well as shiftsin flower/plant blooming times. These are all consequences of global warming, which is caused mainly by the combustion of fossil fuels which emitheat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The terms “ global warming” and “ climate change” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they refer to, twodifferent things. Global warming is the first step of climate change. Global warming iscaused by CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, which traps heat, and creates warmer temperatures.
The release ofthese and other pollutants also break down the Ozone layer, which protectsEarth from the sun’s radiation. The climate change process starts when glacialice begins to melt due to the increased temperature. This ice reflectsradiation from the Sun into space, which helps keep the earth the correcttemperature. When the glacial ice is completely melted the radiation isabsorbed into the ocean water.
This changes the water temperature, whichaffects current movements and speed. The warmer air also collects more moisturefrom evaporation. When the warm water saturated air, changing watertemperatures, and currents collide with normal weather patterns, strong stormsare created. These storms cause massive amounts of damage to manmade objects, sometimes releasing more pollutants into the environment.
Climate change does not end with air pollution, many scientists andresearch groups include earthquakes and tsunamis into climate change. It isbelieved that the more recent and frequent earthquake events around the worldhave been caused by fracking for oil and gas. Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at highpressure into subterranean rocks, as to force open existing fissures andextract oil or gas. This process releases copious amounts of methane into the atmosphere, contributing tothe global warming.
If an earthquake happens in or near the ocean a Tsunami is created which can wreak havoc uponcommunities and industries along the shorelines, releasing, even more, pollutants into the environment. The author believes that the United States and other First Worldcountries need to lead by example, on the subject of climate change. The FirstWorld countries have already had industrial revolutions that boosted andchanged their economies. Second and Third world countries do not have thewealth or technology to install and enforce the same type of pollutionprevention and control technologies that the First World countries have. The author also believes that individual states or the United Nations(UN) should not require or force sovereign states to follow the environmentalpolicies and practices that they want to be enacted. While it would be nice ifthe entire world came to the same conclusion on the practice of climate changeprevention, it is just not feasible.
