The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has scheduled meetings throughout the stat  to discuss anticipated revision of the Emissions Reduction Credit (ERC) and Discrete Emissions Reduction Credit (DERC) Program rules with stakeholders. This rulemaking primarily addresses implementation issues with the generation of emissions credits for area and mobile sources.

The meetings are open to the public and anyone interested may attend. Meetings are scheduled for Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin. The Houston meeting will be held on February 28, 2017 in the offices of the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

The current Emissions Banking and Trading rules (30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 101, Subchapter H, Divisions 1 and 4) allow an area or mobile source to generate ERCs from emission reductions that are demonstrated to be real, quantifiable, permanent, enforceable, and surplus to the state implementation plan (SIP) and all applicable rules, and DERCs from reductions that are real, quantifiable, and surplus to the SIP and all applicable rules. However, research into the feasibility of generating area and mobile source credits had uncovered significant implementation issues associated with ensuring that area and mobile source credits meet the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Federal Clean Air Act (FCAA) requirements. To address implementation issues associated with generation and use of area and mobile credits, the TCEQ is proposing new requirements related to:

• the types of sources that would be eligible to generate credits;
• the quantity of credits that could be generated by area and mobile sources;
• the timeframe for credit generation; and
• recordkeeping and reporting.

These potential new requirements and how the TCEQ plans to implement these requirements, including anticipated procedures for transitioning to implementation of the proposed new requirements, will be discussed at these meetings. While the primary focus of this rulemaking is addressing issues associated with credit generation from area and mobile sources, certain aspects of the proposal may influence the review of all potential credit generation applications.

The rule proposal is scheduled for consideration at the upcoming March 8, 2017 Commissioner’s Agenda. The proposed rule revision is expected to be available at the TCEQ website after February 17, 2017.

For more information about these meetings, contact Guy.Hoffman@tceq.texas.gov or Daphne.McMurrer@tceq.texas.gov.