The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to propose a rule to withdraw the Emission Comparable Fuels (ECF) rule, which became effective January 20, 2009, according to EPA information.
The withdrawal proposal will present the agency’s concerns and request comments from the public after publication in the Federal Register, planned for November 2009. After evaluating the public comments, the EPA will make a decision on whether to repeal the exclusion.
The ECF rule removed regulatory costs by reclassifying certain manufacturing byproducts as non-wastes. ECF is fuel that is produced from a hazardous waste, but which generates emissions when burned in an industrial boiler that are comparable to emissions from burning fuel oil.
The materials also must be stored under an elaborate set of requirements. The final rule has been criticized for allowing hazardous waste to evade the hazardous waste regulatory system, and also for being difficult to administer. Industry members have criticized it because of the detailed and prescriptive conditions for reclassification, which they believe will limit the rule’s use.
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