Controlling Power Plant Emissions
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EPA received over 680,000 letters, emails and postcards, including about
4,200 unique messages, commenting on the Proposed Clean Air Mercury Rule
and the Supplemental Clean Air Mercury Rule by the time the public comment
period ended on June 29, 2004.
The proposed Clean Air Mercury Rule was signed on December 15, 2003,
and published in the Federal Register on January 30, 2004. Simultaneously,
a 60-day public comment period began. During that time, EPA held three
public hearings in Chicago, IL, Philadelphia, PA and Research Triangle
Park, NC to provide the public a venue to voice their comments.
On February 24, 2004, Administrator Leavitt signed a supplemental proposal
to the Clean Air Mercury Rule that proposed specific aspects for a cap-and-trade
program to reduce mercury emissions. When this proposal was published
in the Federal Register on March 16, 2004, a 45-day public comment period
began. EPA also convened an additional public hearing in Denver, Colorado.
During the public comment period, EPA received numerous requests from
stakeholders, State and local governments, environmental groups, and
the public to extend the comment period in order to provide them adequate
time to review the proposals. In response to these requests, EPA in April
extended the public comment period an additional 60 days to June 29,
2004. In order to provide sufficient time to thoroughly consider all
of the comments received and incorporate any changes, EPA is now committed
to taking final action by March 2005 rather than December 2004.
EPA staff are in the process of reviewing comments submitted to the
docket. Key issues submitted in the comments have included: maximum achievable
control technology (MACT) versus cap and trade, allocation levels, regional
equity, readiness and availability of technology, and health concerns.
Comments will be reviewed, considered and responded to before the rule
becomes final. These responses will be included in a Response to Comment
document that will be available to the public on this website when the
final rule is issued.
Availability of Submitted Comments
The comments EPA received on the proposals are available for public
review online, as explained below. While EPA received over 680,000 comments,
the vast majority of those comments were duplicates. There were approximately
4,200 unique comments submitted, and all those comments are available.
To use EPA's electronic
docket (EDOCKET) (http://docket.epa.gov/edkpub/index.jsp):
- Under "How to use EDOCKET," select "Quick Search" (#2).
- Select the "Docket" radio button.
- In the search box, enter: OAR-2002-0056 and press the "Search" button
to receive search results.
- In the results screen, select the link to OAR-2002-0056. Be
patient; loading the comments takes time. You should receive the first
of about 140 pages.
You may also want to try the "Advanced Search" feature (#3
under "How to use EDOCKET"). |
