This article is the first of several dealing with the effects of the Clean Air Act Amemhem qf1990 on the nutural gar industry.
After a long and contentious debate, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAA amendments) passed overwhelmingly in the final hours of the lOlst Congress and were signed by the president In many respects, however, the debate is just gelling underway. The legislation, more than 750 pages long, is sweeping, detailed, and highly complex, the first major revision of the act since 1977. Many of its requhements will be phased in over the next two decades or more. It will produce years of rulemaking and litigation devoted to spelling out in even greater detail the meaning of i~ many requirements.
Compressor stations are high emitters of NOx. Thus, natural gas pipeline operations will be directly affected
The bill tackles some problems like acid rain for the first time; it adopts new, market-based appmaches to some long-staoding problems. F i n a l l y , it puts off to another day the resolution of some issues, like visibility standards and the Egulation of greenhouse gases.
Becaw of its complexity and breadth, the final bill defies complete description in this single article, but it has a few, clearly defined objectives: reducing urban smog (caused pMpally by ground-level ozone), controlling acid rain, limiting air toxics, and protecting the stratospheric ozone layer.
For the natural gas inclumy, the bin imposes some significant new controls, but it atso presents some new o p p o ~t i e s .
This article takes a look at four aspects of the new law.
New Requirements for the Control of Nitrogen Oxides
The two principal contributoxs to ozone pollution, or smog, are volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) and NOx. In the past, EPA has emphasized the (Continued on page 3) Ma?y Anne Sulupor, tr a porsnrr in tlir Washington, OC, lawof Hogan (0 Horbon. She is active in botk the j%ntJs enrrgl a d envtonmeutal proebfcss and makes a specof envlronme~issucsthataffecttheerurgg industry.S& isagnaduat~of YalcLawSchooLJe~ C. Mang, a Iegkhive assistantat Hogan & Hartson, assisted in the prepamtion of this artick.