CA air board may invalidate 1.3 million pollution-offset credits
By Wayne Lusvardi | Cal Watchdog
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s repeated punishment of an Arkansas waste disposal firm has led the California Air Resources Board to consider invalidating 1.3 million environmental offset credits bought from the Arkansas company by California firms to offset the effects of air pollution.
On May 30, the U.S. EPA in Dallas ordered the Clean Harbors waste incineration facility in El Dorado, Ark., to pay a $39,900 penalty for manufacturing and using “16 regulated chemicals in excess of established reporting thresholds” in 2011. The EPA had previously fined Clean Harbors $581,236 for other violations of hazardous waste standards.
The day before the EPA’s latest fine, the air board had already issued a notice to industrial holders and traders of renewable energy certificates from Clean Harbors that their certificates could be invalidated because the facility may been noncompliant in 2011. CARB can invalidate credits for up to eight years after implementation of a pollution reduction project.
at Cal Watchdog.
