New Source Review is given new life

President Bush has delivered on his promise to fix the New Source Review (NSR) process that has paralyzed desperately needed powerplant maintenance projects. The new rulemaking delivers a more rational approach to plantwide emissions limits and opens for public comment a proposed set of definitions that seem to restore a common-sense approach to determining what constitutes routine plant maintenance. The November 2002 announcement of NSR changes by the Bush administration was welcome news to a battered, cash-strapped U.S. utility industry. The announced changes include: 1. several significant finalized rules, and 2. a proposed regulatory definition of routine maintenance, repair and replacement. The utility industry did not get everything it wanted in the NSR changes and is concerned about the wording of the new policy, in particular the lack of specific guidance about what can be modified without triggering an NSR or additional lawsuits.