The National Association of Manufacturers and several other trade associations representing a broad range of industries petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency today for an immediate stay of the Boiler MACT rule affecting industrial boilers and the rule establishing stricter emissions limits on Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units (CISWI). The petition is here.

As the broad range of industries supporting this stay – as well as EPA’s own impact analyses – make clear, these rules have the potential of doing economic harm by imposing enormous additional costs on key industrial sectors.  The petition also states that the NAM and other associations intend to seek reconsideration of the rule and will soon provide the EPA with detailed reconsideration requests.

We believe that during the reconsideration process that the EPA must take the time to ensure that the rules achieve necessary environmental goals while minimizing the impact on U.S. competitiveness. Furthermore, even as the EPA takes that necessary time, it should not mandate that companies invest in potentially unnecessary compliance expenditures. During the period leading up to and including reconsideration — which could last a year or more — thousands of existing facilities would otherwise be forced to make major investments in compliance measures that ultimately may prove unnecessary.

The rules also immediately and adversely affect new facilities and force companies to make crucial decisions regarding plant upgrades or shutdowns, all of which may be undone depending on the reconsideration process. The NAM believes the EPA should stay the rules in their entirety until the reconsideration process is complete. This will give manufacturers the certainty they need to make investments in their businesses and create jobs.

Alicia Meads is the NAM’s director for energy and resource policy.