On October 24, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for a 30-day extension to complete the final emissions standards for the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (“MACT”) rule. Currently the EPA is operating under a 2009 consent decree with a November 16, 2011 deadline to issue a final rulemaking on standards for hazardous air pollutants from EGUs (see October 17, 2011 edition of the WER).

EPA stated in its filing that the additional 30 days, which will extend the deadline to December 16, 2011, will enable the agency to complete responses to the comments filed on the proposed rule.

A copy of EPA’s filing is available here.