AQMD moratorium puts a hold on public facilities, small business plants
Local government and others can’t get the necessary permits from the South Coast Air Quality Management District due to a November court decision that many are just learning about.
This could mean that the Whittier police station or Los Angeles County fire station on the border of La Mirada and Habra - both under construction - can’t open.
Other types of new businesses affected are auto body shops, service stations, printers, and even car dealerships.
The fight stems over how new pollution-generating facilities are allowed in Southern California. Before any such plant can be opened, emission credits to offset the anticipated pollution from the new building or facility are needed.
It is believed that the whole point of the offset process is to ensure no net increase in pollution levels and air quality is upheld across the region. The AQMD issued these permits free for facilities that produced less than four tons per year of pollutants.
However, several years ago citing the energy crisis, AQMD decided it also wanted to make them available for power plants. Some think it would be prudent under a temporary basis to allow power plants access - in this case to purchase emission credits at $92,000 per pound.
Four environmental groups sued saying these credits were going to go to polluters at too low a cost. They also felt that the district sold these scarce credits to facilities that earned millions of dollars.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones in November 2008 struck down two AQMD rules, one allowing the issuance of credits to power plants and another its credit-tracking system. Jones ruled that AQMD hadn’t done an adequate job of environmental analysis.
AQMD plans to readopt its rule on the tracking system minus the power plant provision. That could take nine to 12 months to do and would allow them to be issued to the same low-polluter facilities.
The word is just now getting out to local cities and others. Some still aren’t even aware of it.
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