U.S. EPA National Enforcement Initiatives for Fiscal Years 2011 – 2013

While U.S. EPA has certainly been focusing a large portion of its emissions reduction regulatory development and compliance enforcement efforts on the usual suspects (i.e., fossil fuel-fired energy production and use sectors such as coal-fired utilities, cement manufacturing, glass production, and large industrial boilers), they have now added energy extraction initiatives to the “list.” The energy extraction initiatives include coal mining and gas extraction (including Marcellus Shale gas). The following three (3) initiatives are some of U.S. EPA’s top initiatives out of a short list of six (6) top initiatives for fiscal years 2011 – 2013:

• Reducing Widespread Air Pollution from the Largest Stationary Sources, especially the Coal-Fired Utility, Cement Manufacturing, Glass Manufacturing, and Acid Production Sectors.

• Reducing Pollution from Mineral Processing Operations.

• Assuring Energy Extraction Sector Operations’ Compliance with Environmental Laws.

The intensity of regulatory development and compliance with those requirements is going to be a significant challenge for both the industrial sector trying to survive in today’s economy, and for the state environmental agencies whose staffing is stretched thin also because of budgetary issues.