One Step Closer In Wyoming -- State vs Feds in Regulating Greenhouse Gases

From Wyoming, comes this story:

Companies that release carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases are one step closer to being regulated by the state.

On Friday the Senate Minerals Committee approved House Bill 63, which would transfer the regulation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

So, the process is moving along. Time will tell how it works out.

The EPA decided in 2011 to oversee permitting of large sources of greenhouse gasses in states that had shown themselves unwilling or unable to do so. Wyoming sued, protesting that the EPA hadn’t given the state enough time to submit its plan to regulate such facilities. The lawsuit is ongoing.

In the meantime, legislators on the Joint Minerals Interim Committee and industry proceeded to design a process by which the state — and not the federal government — would regulate the emissions.

DEQ regulates other emissions from such facilities. With the federal greenhouse standards, companies must deal with both EPA regulators in Denver and state regulators.
“What you have is dual permitting,” said Todd Parfitt, director of DEQ.

DEQ tried to work with EPA to deliver permits at the same time, but there is no guarantee they can always work together, he said.

Again, the major component of greenhouses gases, water vapor, which composes 95 to 97 percent of greenhouse gases, is not regulated.