The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to give operators of cement kilns more time to comply with a 2010 clean-air regulation and also increase the limits for soot particle emissions. An industry organization welcomed the EPA plan but environmental groups criticized it.
The proposed regulatory change, which EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed on June 22 and the agency announced on June 25, would extend the 2010 rule's compliance date for the cement-plant standards by two years, to Sept. 9, 2015. The extension would apply to emissions of particulates—or soot—and mercury, total hydrocarbons and hydrogen chloride.