On January 2, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources under the Clean Air Act. EPA's stationary source regulation risks significant adverse impacts on investment, expansion and job creation in today's fragile economy, raises significant legal concerns, and places a tremendous regulatory burden on state resources.

These regulations will eventually impact as many as six million of America's industrial facilities, power plants, hospitals, and agricultural and commercial establishments. In order to comply, businesses would need to obtain permits before moving forward with construction and modification. EPA has never estimated the cost to stationary sources.

EPA has recently released guidance to permitting authorit... more »

A federal appeals court has rejected a motion for a partial stay of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, clearing the way for the rules to take effect on Jan. 2.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the motions filed by coalitions of industry groups and the State of Texas failed to prove that the harm likely to be caused by the regulations is "certain," or that it will be caused directly by the regulations. API is a member of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) coalition, which moved for a partial stay of the regulation of GHG emissions from stationary sources.

NAM stood behind the coalition's arguments. In a statement, Quentin Riegel, NAM's vice president for litigation and deputy chief counsel, s... more »

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today took two significant steps toward its proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations for stationary sources. It released guidance to help states and local permitting agencies implement controls on GHGs, and it issued "white papers" to refineries, power plants, pulp and paper mills and other industries outlining the Best Available Control Technologies (BACT) that can be used to reduce GHGs.

Starting Jan. 2, 2011, GHG emissions from certain large GHG stationary sources are subject to regulations, and they must obtain GHG permits to build new sources or to expand.

API responded quickly saying the BACT guidance comes too late for the January deadline. "The EPA is railroading job killing regulation onto states, localities and America's businesses," API... more »

Editor's Note: In a statement issued today, API President and CEO Jack Gerard cited the need for a thorough assessment of the Kerry-Lieberman draft climate proposal released today. The full text of Jack's comments appears below:

"This broad proposal reflects the complex relationship between the U.S. energy system and greenhouse gas emissions which come from every car, home, factory and farm in America. We are reviewing the released text to assess the proposal's possible impact on jobs, energy production, and consumers of oil and natural gas. However, until full legislative language has been thoroughly analyzed, any assessment would be guess work at best.

We need reliable data and estimates on how the draft legislation would affect energy production, energy prices, consumers' budgets and t... more »

Each week the National Journal's Energy and Environment blog poses a question and invites a select group of authorities to respond. The question for the week asked about a Gallup Poll showing that Americans are less concerned about the environment than at any time in the past 20 years.

National Journal asked, why? And what does the lack of concern portend for climate legislation?

API's President and CEO Jack Gerard posted a response that made two key points:

• Americans are focused on jobs and the economy; and

• It's likely that many Americans are aware that the environment has improved markedly during the past several years.

According to a report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the levels of six common air pollutants have fallen 41 percent on average since 1990, de... more »