EPA proposal to cut plastics, chemical plant emissions draws intense interest

An EPA proposal to regulate fenceline air pollution from large plastics and chemical plants is drawing intense scrutiny, with industry accusing the agency of exceeding its authority but others saying action is needed to cut cancer risk in nearby communities.

The new Environmental Protection Agency proposal, covering about 200 of the largest chemical and plastics plants, is a major update to some Clean Air Act (CAA) provisions. Plastics News is examining the first detailed comments the agency has received on its April plan.

EPA wants to require those factories to cut discharges of nearly 80 chemicals, including chloroprene used in making elastomers and ethylene oxide, where EPA projected the largest cancer reduction risks.

As well, it proposed tighter flaring rules it said would sharply cut some emissions and it proposed eliminating some emissions rules exemptions the factories have during startup operations, malfunctions and major disruptions like hurricanes.

The agency's plan also, for the first time, sets up detailed fenceline monitoring for six chemicals, including plastic building blocks like benzene, 1,3-butadiene and vinyl chloride, building on an effort used around reducing benzene from petroleum refineries.

EPA said the plan would reduce elevated cancer risks from air toxins by 96 percent in communities within six miles of the plants overall, although some environmental groups said their own analyses pointed to shortcomings in cancer reduction.

In a sign of the intense interest, the proposal attracted widespread detailed comments ahead of a July 7 deadline from environmental groups, a coalition of state attorneys general, Texas state lawmakers and a former EPA engineer, who all spoke in support.

Industry groups and large chemical companies weighed in as well, saying they backed the goals and supported feasible updates but questioned the costs and effectiveness.

A coalition of the American Chemistry Council, the Vinyl Institute and tire and petroleum associations jointly told EPA that while they agreed with some of the proposed changes, the ambitious effort could disrupt supply chains with limited benefits.

"EPA's proposed rulemaking represents six separate rulemakings in one and is a complex and far-reaching Agency initiative that will have significant implications for several groups of chemical manufacturing entities, including potential restrictions that may force numerous facilities offline and create potential supply chain disruptions for critical products, all with limited or no meaningful benefit for public health or the environment," the groups said.

ACC said in a statement that while it supports "technically feasible and economically efficient" CAA updates, it said EPA lacks legal authority for some of the additional risk reviews it's undertaken.

"EPA's arbitrary decision has created a number of significant concerns throughout the proposal, many of which do not consider the substantial and immediate costs associated with them," ACC said.

Several industry groups pointedly accused EPA of exceeding its authority in setting up fenceline monitoring programs.

"EPA has exceeded its CAA statutory authority in proposing fenceline monitoring requirements, which do not represent an update in technology [under the CAA] and are not cost-justified," the Texas Chemical Council said, using language similar to ACC and the Louisiana Chemical Association had in their filings.

But in a series of counter arguments, environmental groups and state officials urged EPA to go further, saying their analyses point to continued cancer risks even if the proposal is fully implemented.

Defend Our Health, Fenceline Watch and others said jointly that while EPA's rule would make important gains, like an 80 percent reduction in cancer incidence, they said people of color in impacted areas around the large plants will still face serious cancer risks at 1.5 times the general population.

They told EPA in a joint filing that Latino residents make up 37 percent of the at-risk population but are only 19 percent of the U.S. population, while Black residents are 23 percent of those at risk, but only 12 percent of the country's population.

The groups also said EPA didn't put enough attention on how planned increases in plastic production will impact air emissions. They called for caps on chemical production and pollution emissions.

"EPA improperly failed to consider trends in plastic production and the likelihood that the hazardous air emissions it proposes to partially control will significantly increase in the near future," they said. "These increases will erode the health protections advanced by the proposed … rule."

Similarly, a group of 11 state attorneys general and others said they backed the EPA's proposal and what they said is its first-of-its-kind effort to consider how environmental pollution and social factors, like high poverty rates and less access to health care, compound each other.

The attorneys general urged EPA to strengthen the fenceline monitoring program and said residents in the petrochemical corridors face more cancer risks from air pollutants.

"EPA estimates that residents of Cancer Alley have a cancer risk from air toxics of 100 in 1 million or higher, while the national average is 30 in 1 million," the state AGs said.

The state officials were also joined in their comments by the attorney for Harris County, Texas, government, and said the county of 4.7 million people, which includes Houston, has about 30 of the 200 plants covered by the rule.

"The communities around these facilities in Harris County often the bear the disproportional burden of environmental hazards," the attorneys general coalition said. "A proper level of safe emissions … must account for the fact that nearby residents are often already exposed to hazardous chemicals and other pollutants from other facilities and sources."

The AG coalition includes the top state law enforcement officers in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and others.

ACC and others pointed to previous progress in reducing emissions.

ACC said companies in its Responsible Care environmental management program saw emissions of hazardous air pollutants drop 24 percent between 2010 and 2020, and it said EPA's Toxics Release Inventory shows notable declines in chemical emissions to the air in the last decade.

"Since the 1980s, air emissions of criteria pollutants and other substances in the U.S. have fallen sharply, even as population and GDP have grown," ACC said.

The industry coalition with ACC and VI said they back some EPA proposals to tighten exemptions the CAA has for emissions that happen during non-routine operations like plant startup, shutdown and malfunctions, and provided some technical input on how to do that.

Some of the environmental and state officials supporting the EPA action called those exemptions "loopholes" that need to be closed, saying that under current CAA rules, those startup and maintenance periods are not subject to emissions limits.

EPA estimates its proposal would reduce fugitive emissions, or leaks from the thousands of valves and connectors in the large plants, by about 70 percent.

But some of the environmental groups pointed to tougher EPA standards in industries like wastewater that they said reduced fugitive emissions by more than 93 percent.

"In its final rule, EPA should require chemical manufacturers to deploy all available technologies to further reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants," the Defend Our Health coalition said, pointing to technology like infrared monitoring, smart leak detectors and leakless equipment.

EPA said its proposals to tighten emissions rules for flaring would account for about 80 percent of the reductions in air toxins and volatile organic compounds it projects.

But ACC warned those rules and others could lead to unintended shutdowns.

"We support strong, science-based regulations to protect our health and the environment," ACC said. "However, as detailed in our comments, the proposal as written could have substantial unintended consequences, even potentially resulting in facility shutdowns to meet EPA's proposed flaring and maintenance vent restrictions."

The EPA proposal stems from a 2022 federal court consent decree that saw EPA agree to update the emissions standards for resin plants and to strengthen rules for flaring from chemical plants, to settle lawsuits brought by environmental groups.

The legal background could figure prominently in the rulemaking.

Industry groups highlighted areas they thought the EPA was on legally questionable grounds, and they urged the agency to wait for the results of another case in federal court in Washington, D.C., before using what they called flaw assessments of ethylene oxide exposure levels.

But a Louisiana-based environmental justice group, the Descendants Project, said EPA's regulatory proposal takes on larger importance following the agency's own decision last month to drop its an environmental justice investigation of Louisiana state officials over their approvals of new Denka Performance Elastomers and Formosa Plastics facilities in the state.

The state AGs, perhaps in a pushback on others questioning EPA's legal authority, said they viewed the agency as acting appropriately given evolving science.

"It is EPA's obligation to update its regulations as our scientific understanding of the potential dangers of hazardous substances grows," the attorneys general said. "In this case, EPA appropriately exercised its discretion to ensure that those living near the regulated facilities are protected."