[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6507 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6507

To provide that any State implementation plan submitted pursuant to the 
Clean Air Act to address impairment of visibility shall apply for such 
State until 2022 with respect to emissions from taconite ore processing 
                  facilities, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 21, 2012

 Mr. Cravaack introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide that any State implementation plan submitted pursuant to the 
Clean Air Act to address impairment of visibility shall apply for such 
State until 2022 with respect to emissions from taconite ore processing 
                  facilities, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting Nuanced Taconite 
Regulations Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In section 169A of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7491), 
        Congress declared ``as a national goal the prevention of any 
        future, and the remedying of any existing, impairment of 
        visibility in mandatory class I Federal areas which impairment 
        results from manmade air pollution''.
            (2) In section 51.308 of title 40, Code of Federal 
        Regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency established 
        ``requirements for implementation plans, plan revisions, and 
        periodic progress reviews to address regional haze'', including 
        requirements to establish goals for ``reasonable progress 
        towards achieving natural visibility conditions'', in part by 
        determining ``the rate of progress needed to attain natural 
        visibility conditions by the year 2064''.
            (3) In regulating the emissions that cause regional haze, 
        Congress assigned States the lead role in developing and 
        implementing a plan to reduce the precursor emissions that 
        cause regional haze.
            (4) The State of Minnesota, through the Minnesota Pollution 
        Control Agency (in this section referred to as ``MPCA''), 
        issued a State Implementation Plan (in this section referred to 
        as a ``SIP'') in December of 2009 that proposed the Best 
        Available Retrofit Technology (in this section referred to as 
        ``BART'') for nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, finding that 
        good combustion practices met BART for taconite facilities.
            (5) The Environmental Protection Agency received and 
        reviewed all of MPCA's December 2009 SIP. In January 2012, the 
        Environmental Protection Agency proposed accepting Minnesota's 
        SIP, including its emissions modeling, as well as BART to 
        reduce the emissions of taconite (iron ore) processing 
        facilities.
            (6) MPCA performed an extensive study of BART for the 
        different types of taconite indurating furnaces. MPCA 
        determined that the current technologies in place (good 
        combustion practices) were BART.
            (7) The Environmental Protection Agency determined that 
        because one taconite facility was able to make use of low NOx 
        burners to reduce emissions, that low NOx burners should be 
        considered BART for all taconite facilities, and that many 
        facilities should add this technology within 18 months.
            (8) The Environmental Protection Agency's failure to 
        account for all of the factors in the State's analysis has led 
        to a proposed rule that imposes technically infeasible 
        deadlines.
            (9) The State's Implementation Plan should take precedence, 
        setting BART and appropriate emissions limits for taconite 
        plants. The Environmental Protection Agency should defer to the 
        State for such a period of time that the taconite plants can be 
        feasibly upgraded according to the unique characteristics of 
        each furnace and line.

SEC. 3. STATE REGULATION OF EMISSIONS FROM TACONITE ORE PROCESSING 
              FACILITIES.

    Section 169A of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7491) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (f) the following 
        subsection:
    ``(g)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act--
            ``(A) any implementation plan submitted by a State 
        (including any such implementation plan submitted prior to the 
        date of enactment of this paragraph) that specifies the best 
        available retrofit technology for any taconite ore processing 
        facility for the purpose of eliminating or reducing any 
        impairment of visibility shall be considered to be approved 
        under section 110 for such State with respect to such facility 
        for such purpose; and
            ``(B) if such an implementation plan has been submitted, 
        the Administrator may not promulgate, implement, or enforce any 
        requirement pursuant to a plan under section 110(c) with 
        respect to such facility for such purpose.
    ``(2) Paragraph (1) shall apply with respect to the period 
beginning on the date of enactment of this subsection and ending on 
January 1, 2022.
    ``(3) This subsection shall not be construed to prevent the 
Administrator from taking any action otherwise authorized under this 
Act with respect to a facility described in paragraph (1) for the 
purpose of protecting human health and safety.''.
                                 <all>