EPA blinks on refinery emission standards

Houston Chronicle:

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will delay its first-ever standards for greenhouse-gas emissions from oil refineries, the latest in a string of rules the agency has had to put off.

In a statement Monday, the agency said it wouldn’t issue its proposed rule in mid-December, the timetable set in a court agreement with environmental groups and states.

“EPA expects to need more time to complete work on greenhouse gas pollution standards for oil refineries, and is working with the litigants to develop a new schedule to replace the current date of mid-December for a rule proposal,” the agency said in a statement.

Environmentalists are already upset that President Obama decided in September to withdraw stronger ozone standards until 2013. Obama made the decision under pressure from business groups and Republicans who were concerned about the economic costs.

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil-and-gas trade group, hailed the decision to delay the oil refinery greenhouse-gas standards.

“We welcome the news that EPA will allow itself more time to analyze industry data before proposing the unprecedented and enormously complex greenhouse gas rules for refineries,” Howard Feldman, API director of regulatory and scientific affairs, said in a statement.

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They can't just shut down and industry that is critical to transportation and for which there is no alternative.  They are probably looking at the stark choices they would impose on the industry and the political realities of the consequences of their decision.  It appears that part of their problem is an unrealistic settlement of a suit they should have contested vigorously.   I think these settlements are part of a corrupt bargain with environmental zealots at the expense of the country as a whole.