Dive Brief:

• The National Waste & Recycling Association (NW&RA) and the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) have issued comments about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed greenhouse gas rule, Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units.
• The EPA rule is intended to reduce greenhouse gas from electric plants.
• The recycling groups are concerned that waste and recycling facilities could fall under a provision that serves to regulate power plants and other facilities.

Dive Insight:

The EPA is looking to reduce greenhouse gas in an effort to curb climate change through its proposed rule. While this is a commendable effort, there's a possibility that renewable energy sources at landfills would be included under the rule's purview. 

The president and CEO of NW&RA, Sharon Kneiss, said, “[W]e object to the potential for the EPA to regulate ambiguously defined ‘other entities’ that are outside the scope of this rule.”

The associations applauded the EPA’s efforts, and maintained that landfills generating energy from methane could help utility companies reach their emission targets. The organizations are still encouraging the EPA to act without pulling the sites of concern into the proposed rule.