Obama-Immelt relationship is a complex one

EPA-GE waiver story not over yet

By Steve Milloy
Friday, February 4, 2011

Kudos to Tim Carney for exposing the EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions waiver for the proposed Avenal (CA) power plant which intends to buy gas and steam turbines from General Electric. http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/bel ... ption-febr

But there’s possibly much more to the story.

First, the EPA has not yet granted the waiver to GE. According to a Jan. 31, 2011 court declaration by EPA air chief Gina McCarthy, the EPA is planning to seek public comment on a proposal to grant the waiver. http://greenhellblog.files.wordpress.co ... ration.pdf

While it might not be unreasonable to view such a proposal as a mere formality, consider that the EPA rejected a permit this week for a U.S. Steel facility in Granite City, IL http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 826e0.html — in response to an appeal from the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law.

In this blog’s Feb. 3 story http://greenhellblog.com/2011/02/03/epa ... hg-permit/ about the EPA taking a hard line on the first greenhouse gas emissions permit, activists opposed the permit in public comments, a likely indicator that they will appeal the permit to the EPA. If (when) the enviros appeal, the EPA can then reject the permit and then say it was responding to new facts brought to light by “public interest groups.â€