WASHINGTON – American Wood Council (AWC) Vice President of Environment Tim Hunt issued a statement following the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signing of the Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) final rule following review in response to three D.C Circuit Court remands.
“The wood products industry has received the final clarity it has needed on Boiler MACT since the courts directed EPA to relook at a few aspects of its 2013 rules. AWC appreciates that EPA has reaffirmed parts of the original rule and made reasonable adjustments to emission limits for biomass boilers, used extensively by the wood products industry. This regulatory certainty allows wood products manufacturers to complete their compliance planning and confirms that the hundreds of millions of dollars already invested in pollution controls are largely sufficient.
“Using these boilers, wood product manufacturers produce over 70 percent of their own energy through the use of carbon neutral biomass that displaces the need for fossil fuels. This final rule allows mills to minimize costly additional retrofits of existing biomass boilers and has confirmed that significant compliance investments already made by the wood products industry are sufficient.”