An effort by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to update decade-old haze regulations that have yet to be implemented in Arkansas drew criticism this week from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and seven other attorneys general.
The Regional Haze Program was created by the EPA in 1999 to improve air quality at designated national parks and wilderness areas, two of which -- the Caney Creek and Upper Buffalo wilderness areas -- are in Arkansas.
States were required to submit their own plans for improving air quality at protected areas by 2007, according to the EPA, with revisions to those plans to be put in place every 10 years.
Arkansas never implemented a state plan, and a judge ordered the EPA last year to implement a federal plan for the state by Aug. 31. In the meantime, the agency has already proposed tightening its regulations for the first 10-year revision beginning in 2018.
In a news release Thursday, Rutledge's office said she is leading a group of Republican attorneys general from Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina in opposing the new set of proposed EPA regulations, which were released for comment in May.
Among their chief concerns, the state attorneys said in their letter to EPA, was that revised definitions for how to measure haze and air quality, along with new requirements for long-term goals, would allow the EPA to set standards that could increase costs for businesses and consumers without noticeably improving air quality.
"The proposed amendments would unnecessarily and unjustifiably divest the states of their long-established role in determining what is a reasonably attributable visibility impairment source," the letter states.
A spokesman for the regional EPA office in Dallas said the agency would review and respond to the letter.
Rutledge argues, along with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and utility companies, that the state already is well on its way to improving standards due to previously implemented emissions controls, as well a recent increase in the use of cheap natural gas.
In May 2015, the Department of Environmental Quality released a five-year progress report, which showed slight improvement in visibility at the two sites.
"We're seeing that improvement, we've been seeing it and we're surpassing the goals that we have," said Stuart Spencer, the director of the department's Air Quality Division. "Any EPA changes are going to be imperceptible."
The Sierra Club, which sued the EPA in 2014 to force it to implement a federal plan in Arkansas, issued a statement Friday criticizing Rutledge's opposition to the proposed rules.
"While Rutledge works to lessen our air quality, the Sierra Club believes that our Regional Haze protections should be stronger than they are currently," state Director Glen Hooks said in an emailed statement. "We have urged the EPA to adopt several common-sense improvements, including relying upon stronger scientific standards, requiring states to meet important deadlines and not delay cleanup, and giving EPA more robust abilities to enforce air protection standards."
Arkansas did submit a state plan to reduce haze in 2008, though it was partially rejected by the EPA after several revisions in 2012. The Sierra Club sued in 2014, seeking to force the EPA to introduce a federal plan.
Rutledge sought to have the case thrown out in court, and criticized a settlement plan proposed by the EPA to cut carbon emissions by retrofitting emissions scrubbers on two coal plants, with costs projected at up to $2 billion. The EPA estimated the upgrades would cost $500 million, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Entergy Arkansas proposed shutting down one of the coal plants, the 1,700-megawatt White Bluff facility in Jefferson County, by 2028 and replacing it with a natural gas or alternative energy plant in order to avoid the costs of updating the plant.
"Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is working on behalf of Arkansans to address proposed changes to the EPA's regional haze rule," the utility said in a statement Friday. "The issues are of national scope. Like many others, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. is following these developments, especially through our industry trade associations."
Spencer said that his department is waiting to review the federal implementation plan due to be submitted at the end of the month. If the final plan does not include enough of the changes requested by the state, there could be additional challenges, he said.
Metro on 08/13/2016