EPA Delays GHG Permitting Requirements for Landfills

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay for three years requirements that landfills obtain permits for carbon dioxide emissions. The delay also covers other biogenic sources of carbon dioxide emissions such as facilities that burn forest or agricultural products for energy; wastewater treatment plants; livestock management facilities; and ethanol production sites.

The rulemaking making the delay official will be published by July 2011, the EPA says.

The agency will use the next three years "to seek further independent scientific analysis of this complex issue and then to develop a rulemaking on how these emissions should be treated in determining whether a Clean Air Act permit is required," the EPA said in a press release.