GREAT FALLS – The Montana Board of Environmental Review has voted to start developing the state’s first greenhouse gas rule in response to pending federal Environmental Protection Agency mandates.
The board approved the plan on a 5-2 vote Friday in a move officials call preparing the state for federal rules expected to be put in place in March.
But industry groups say the vote is premature and asked the board to delay the rule-making process for a month.
“It’s a very technically complicated and legally complicated predicament that the state and the nation is in,” said Montana Petroleum Association Executive Director Dave Galt. “And we want the benefit of having technical and legal people to sit down and work with the department.”
Industry officials were also concerned the greenhouse gas rule could cause confusion.
“This rule could create more uncertainty than it eliminates if the EPA ultimately develops a different threshold, for example,” said David Hoffman of PPL Montana, which operates coal-fired power plants at Colstrip. “It makes more sense to wait to see what they do so our (rule) is consistent.”
Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center called the rule a “housekeeping matter.”
“It’s just trying to be prepared for EPA action,” she said.
Richard Opper, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, said the EPA rules will require facilities such as coal-fired power plants that emit more than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
He said if state regulations aren’t modified before the EPA acts, the state could be forced to regulate thousands of smaller facilities.
“Including individual homes if they want to put a new furnace in,” he said.