Deseret Power Electric Cooperative

Case Updates

The Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) rejected the Sierra Club’s claim that the Clean Air Act currently requires the regulation of carbon dioxide from stationary power sources. However, the EAB blocked the EPA from issuing a permit to Deseret Power to construct a new coal-fired power plant, and remanded the permit proceeding to EPA Region VII to explain why carbon dioxide is not subject to regulation under the Act

The Chamber urged the Board to recognize that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The Chamber argued that just because a carbon dioxide source can be required under the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) to monitor for the gas, that does not automatically make carbon dioxide a pollutant “subject to regulation” under the CAA. The Chamber also argued that the Board lacked jurisdiction to consider whether stationary power sources with the potential to emit more than 100 or 250 tons of CO2 per year would be “major” stationary sources under the CAA, because the issue was not presented before the board. A decision that stationary sources within that range are “major” stationary sources whose CO2 emissions could be regulated under the CAA would dramatically expand the number of facilities subject to PSD permits, resulting in huge societal costs.