US Chamber of Commerce says EPA 'over-stepping' on coal ash rule

Washington (Platts)--19Nov2010/537 pm EST/2237 GMT

The US Chamber of Commerce Friday said the Environmental Protection Agency is "overstepping its bounds" as it considers whether to regulate coal combustion waste as a hazardous material.

The chamber was among hundreds of corporations, associations and individuals that submitted comments on the proposal by Friday's deadline. The agency has held public hearings around the country that pitted environmentalists and concerned citizens against companies worried about the economic effects of coal ash regulation.

"This rule has potentially devastating consequences for America's construction industry," said William Kovacs, the chamber's senior vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs, told the agency. "The EPA blatantly side-stepped a critical requirement by not performing a study of the potential impact on employment of this regulation. At a time when our country continues to struggle to dig out of the recession, we simply cannot afford this guaranteed job-killer."

Coal ash is recycled and used in cement, concrete, wallboard, roofing materials, paints and plastics and highway projects -- so-called beneficial uses that would be restricted or eliminated if ash is categorized as "hazardous," the chamber said.

The chamber also criticized a "dramatic increase in burdensome regulation by Congress and the administration in several ... areas, including healthcare, financial markets, energy, and labor," saying the actions are creating tremendous uncertainty for business owners.

"Once again, EPA is overstepping its bounds to attack the coal industry, and it is ignoring the adverse employment impacts on the nation's construction industries," Kovacs said. The group charged that the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requires EPA to study the effects on employment of new environmental regulations.

Environmentalists have launched a massive campaign calling for EPA to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste following a massive spill at Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston plant in December 2008 that unleashed five million cubic yards of coal ash into surrounding rivers and land areas.

EPA is considering whether to regulate coal ash as hazardous or under non-hazardous RCRA rules that would be less stringent.

--Jason Fordney, jason_fordney@platts.com

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