2017 was also a good year for emissions reduction programs. Maryland initiated the adoption process for six regulations. These regulations will aid in the progress toward ozone attainment. All of these regulations are expected to be effective in 2018.
2017 Maryland Air Quality Regulatory Actions
Regulation |
Status |
Amendment to Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program |
Effective January 1, 2018 |
Amendments to Distributed Generation |
Effective February 12, 2018 |
Small Wood Boiler Amendments |
Effective February 12, 2018 |
Interprecursor Trading |
Effective April 9, 2018 |
NOx Ozone Season Emission Caps for Non-trading Large NOx Units |
Effective April 23, 2018 |
NOx RACT for Municipal Waste Combustors |
Effective September 1, 2018 |
Other key emission reduction efforts also began in 2017. Federal rules for low-sulfur fuels became effective in 2017. These cleaner fuels will be fully phased in by around 2020 and will help significantly. Federal rules for power plants in upwind states that contribute to Maryland's ozone problem were also improved in 2017. This improvement is clearly very helpful, but Maryland's 2015 power plant regulations, that require air pollution controls to be run optimally every day of the summer ozone season, are still more stringent than federal rules. Maryland is pushing hard to "level the playing field" in this area.
If power plants in states across the eastern U.S. simply ran their existing air pollution controls optimally, approximately 46,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (NO
x) emissions reductions could have been achieved throughout the 2017 summer ozone season. NO
x reductions are the key to continued progress on ozone. Running controls can reduce NO
x up to 400 tons on a high ozone day, which is a huge emission reduction.
Maryland has initiated legal actions under two sections of the Clean Air Act to compel power plants in states upwind of Maryland to reduce NO
x emissions. Maryland has filed a petition under Section 126 of the Clean Air Act to compel reductions at 36 power plant units in five upwind states. Maryland is also part of a nine-state petition under Section 176 of the Clean Air Act which would help level the playing field by adding nine new states to the Ozone Transport Commission. Both of these legal petitions are expected to be resolved in 2018.
Maryland has also done extensive analysis of power plant NO
x emission data and, with this report, is issuing an annual report card for eastern power plants based upon how well they are using their existing control technology. For a detailed summary of the first annual power plant report card, click
here.