RMA: EPA New Source Review program change brings 'certainty'

WASHINGTON (Sept. 2)—While only time will tell how useful a procedural change to the Environmental Protection Agency's New Source Review program will be to tire and rubber product manufacturers, the change at least brings some certainty to the process, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association. "In this program, certainty is better than anything else," said Tracey J. Norberg, vice president-environment & resource recovery for the RMA. The new provision sets forth specific circumstances when an industrial facility or public utility is exempt from the New Source Review process when it replaces equipment. While the industrial community is friendly to the changes, environmentalists have accused the Bush administration of degrading air quality standards, and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said he will sue the EPA to block the change.