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TexasTowelie

(111,315 posts)
Thu Mar 2, 2017, 11:40 AM Mar 2017

Bay Area Might Adopt Worlds First Regional Oil-Refinery Emissions Caps

On May 17, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will consider a proposal that would make the San Francisco Bay Area the world's first region to place limits on oil refineries' overall greenhouse-gas and particulate-matter emissions. This new regulation, Refinery Rule 12-16, would prevent oil corporations from making the East Bay a hub of Canadian tar-sands processing, because it would enforce a cap based on historic emissions levels at the five major Contra Costa and Solano county refineries.

Not everyone agrees with this approach.

As the Express reported last June, BAAQMD executive staff members oppose the emissions cap, which they say would be illegal under state law. They also say it could lead to oil-price spikes, a stance shared by the industry.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is about to weigh in on the debate, though. And at the February 1 BAAQMD board of directors meeting, Contra Costa County supervisor and California Air Resources Board director John Gioia noted that ARB Executive Officer Richard Corey is preparing a new letter detailing the agency's position on Refinery Rule 12-16 and other refinery-related air-quality protections that BAAQMD is considering.

Read more: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/web/Content?oid=5307846

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