Federal lawmakers have entered the fray regarding the EPA’s efforts to tighten regulations affecting a host of energy-related issues, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate the disposal of coal ash.
Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) last month added language to a House spending bill, saying they’re concerned about lost jobs and other consequences that would come from new regulations that could designate coal ash as hazardous waste.
House members also recently moved to block funding for the EPA’s efforts to tighten water quality regulations on Appalachian coal mining projects, an effort led by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.).
Several amendments to the spending bill passed by the House in February dealt with energy issues, including blocking EPA funding for the agency’s implementation of greenhouse gas regulations, and not allowing the Interior Department to use fiscal year 2011 funds for rules designed to protect streams from mountaintop mining waste.
The coal ash rulemaking has held particular interest across the country. The EPA last May released a 563-page document that outlined two scenarios for coal ash. One would designate the material as hazardous waste, subject to strict controls on disposal. The second option, basically labeling coal ash as non-hazardous, would call on individual states to present guidelines for ash use and disposal.
The EPA held a series of public hearings on the coal ash issue across the country last summer and fall. The issue is at the core of an upcoming EUCI conference on coal combustion products and a workshop on the EPA’s rulemaking, set for March 14-15 in Denver.
Manufacturers of drywall, concrete, asphalt and other products that use ash are concerned a “hazardous” designation will hurt their business and the economy in general. Environmentalists want more regulation of coal ash, which they see as a threat to human health.
The CCP conference will feature presentations from industry experts such as Jim Roewer, executive director of the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), and Dave Goss, a CCP consultant with DCGoss LLC and the former executive director of the American Coal Ash Association.
Susan Thorneloe, a senior environmental engineer with EPA, will discuss beneficial use applications for coal ash, an issue at the heart of the rulemaking debate.
Members of the Senate committee on environment and public works blasted the House measure. Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the moves were “an irresponsible attack on the nation’s landmark environmental and public health laws.”
McKinley’s amendment to the spending bill said: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Environmental Protection Agency to develop, propose, finalize, implement, administer, or enforce any regulation that identifies or lists fossil fuel combustion waste as hazardous waste subject to regulation.”
Stearns and 30 other members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee last July sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking her to stop action on coal ash regulation. A spokesman for the committee said the government must recognize “the many beneficial uses of coal ash … and prevent the loss of jobs and an increase in energy costs.”
McKinley called coal ash “a great recyclable material,” and said regulation “would send jobs overseas, put us at an economic disadvantage (and) hinder job growth.”
Jackson last week said an EPA decision on how to regulate coal ash disposal would not occur this year. She said the agency needs to sort through nearly a half-million public comments on the issue.
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