EPA to Louisiana: Strengthen Baton Rouge air emission rules, or we will

Louisiana must strengthen rules over the release of ozone-creating nitrogen oxide air emissions by industries in the Baton Rouge area during startups, shutdowns and malfunctions, or the federal Environmental Protection Agency will write and enforce its own rules, the agency announced this week. 

The recommended rule changes would affect nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities in five Baton Rouge-area parishes that were considered in violation of federal ground-level ozone restrictions for decades before improvements allowed ozone levels to meet acceptable levels in 2015. The parishes are Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, and Livingston and West Baton Rouge. 

The changes also would affect four nearby parishes whose own ozone levels were in attainment, but whose emissions affect air quality in the Baton Rouge-area parishes: East Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena and West Feliciana.  

In 2015, the EPA notified the state it was reducing the acceptable levels for emissions of nitrogen oxide and other ozone precursor air pollutants, and requested that Louisiana upgrade its plan for the high-ozone region to reflect the changes. 

The Clean Air Act sets up a partnership between the EPA and states where the EPA establishes requirements for reducing emissions to safe levels, but leaves it to states to create their own implementation plans. 

Louisiana submitted its plan in 2016. State officials revised it in 2017 to allow industries to either comply with the emission limits and operation standards at all times, including during startups and shutdowns — or to follow individually tailored “work practice standards” during periods of startup and shutdown, during which, EPA said, the limits could be exceeded. 

In June, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register saying it found the state’s work practice standards provisions were too lenient. In this week’s decision, the federal agency refused to accept arguments by the state Department of Environmental Quality, Louisiana Chemical Association and Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association that attempted to support the way the work practice standards were being implemented. 

The state and industry groups argue that the stringent limits followed during normal operations are either not achievable or cost too much for many utilities and industries to put in place during startups, shutdowns or malfunctions. 

In its response, EPA said there may be some instances where that’s true. But the way Louisiana’s rules are written allow state officials to approve emission increases without EPA approval, in violation of federal law.

In some cases, EPA officials said, the state was assuming, without proof, that emissions during those periods would not be more than historic emission levels. In others, they said the rules did not require industries to use proven “maximum achievable control technologies” to reduce emissions during those periods, as required by the Clean Air Act.

“This final action will require Louisiana to fix the problem with these (state implementation plan) revisions within two years from the effective date of Jan. 8, 2024,” said Joseph Robledo, a spokesperson for EPA’s Dallas regional office. “Otherwise, EPA will issue a federal air plan for the state.”

Robledo said the state “has flexibility” in how it decides to meet the EPA’s requirements.

The LDEQ, which oversees the air emissions program for the state, does not know when it will respond to the filing, said spokesperson Gregory Langley.

“At this point, LDEQ has several options: pursue litigation, craft new startup/shutdown work practice standards, or require affected sources to comply with the emission factors in (the state law) at all times during the ozone season,” Langley said. “A decision on which way to go has not been made, but the second and third options would require rulemaking.” 

“Our air people will analyze the LDEQ’s options and provide those, as well as a recommended action for management to consider,” he said. 

The EPA mandate comes amid a change in administrations. Gov.-elect Jeff Landry will be sworn in on Jan. 8, and he has already named Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto, who served as secretary of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in former President Donald Trump’s administration, to lead the LDEQ.

Both Landry and Giacometto have been critical of what they view as over-regulation of industry, saying it’s bad for the economy. And as attorney general, Landry has challenged in federal court several other EPA efforts to reduce Louisiana’s air emissions.