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Enron Mail |
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has extended the date for states and sources
to comply with the EPA's NOx SIP Call regulation to May 2004, from the original May 2003 date. Background Back in May 1999, a federal Court stayed the NOx SIP submittal deadline for States, pending the final outcome of the NOx SIP litigation. After the DC Circuit Court decided the case in March 2000, EPA asked the court to lift the stay on the NOx SIP submittal for States and give the states the same amount of time they would have had to submit their SIPs, had the stay not been imposed in the first place. Industry sources opposed lifting the stay, and also asked the court to move the complaince deadline back a year, due to the delays caused by the litigation. The Court lifted the stay on June 22, 2000, but was silent on the issue of the compliance deadline. States are now required to develop their "State Implementation Plans" (SIPs) by October 31, 2000. Yesterday, the Court decided that sources should have until May 2004 to comply, giving sources an extra year to prepare for the new regulatory regime. Remaining Questions With the previous 2003 compliance deadline, the NOx SIP Call regulations were on the same time schedule as the Section 126 petitions, which were approved by EPA (though a separate regulatory process -- a nearly-identical fallback to the NOx SIP call) for many of the same sources and states as the NOx SIP Call. The Section 126 Rule is going to be litigated starting this coming November, but the Court has not yet issued a stay of those regulation, nor has it delayed the compliance deadline to 2003. Unless the Court places a stay on the 126 Rule and delays the compliance deadline to 2004, sources could still be required to make substantial NOx reductions starting in May 2003. We expect the Courts to resolve this issue sometime before the 126 litigation commences in early November. Enron Activities SIPs are being developed by the states, with a deadline of October 31, so Environmental Strategies will be spending the next few months working to ensure that the rules that are crafted in the states provide the most favorable treatment possible for our assets while providing a competitive advantage to our traders. While the delay could benefit some Enron assets that need to comply with the regulations, it could also benefit our competitors, who have another year to defer environmental compliance decisions that would likely increase their costs and create other disadvantages for them. We will keep you posted with any developments as they occur. Jeff Keeler (202) 466-9157 Mary Schoen (713) 345-7422
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