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Preposed Owens Corning Plant would Emit Harmful Greenhouse Gas in Oregon
Owens Corning has begun constructing a polystyrene foam board insulation plant in Gresham. If operational, the plant is expected to emit approximately 250 tons per year of HCFC-142b, an extremely potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance. This is roughly the equivalent of adding 100,000 new cars per year to Portland, the equivalent of one million tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions, and the equivalent of the emissions from a 100 mega-watt coal-burning power plant operating around the clock! Owens Corning has requested, and DEQ has agreed, that not only will no emissions control technology be required at the new plant, but the company will also not be required to monitor how much HCFC-142b is actually released to the environment.
Owens Corning initially sought permission from the DEQ to operate a plant that would emit 283 tons per year of HCFC-142b. Under the Clean Air Act, Owens Corning is prohibited from beginning construction without a required permit. Despite this prohibition, Owens Corning began constructing its facility without the required permit and in violation of federal law. Concerned about the adequacy of the review process, the ongoing construction, and the ultimate emissions, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Sierra Club and the Oregon Center for Environmental Health immediately filed suit to stop the construction. Shortly after the company was sued in federal court it recalculated its estimated emissions of HCFC-142b to a value just under a threshold that it hopes will allow it to escape additional regulatory oversight. Since that time it has recalculated those emissions estimates two more times, lowering them each time. Emissions data supporting the initial calculations and subsequent recalculations have not been provided to concerned citizens to review and are not in DEQ's possession.
EPA Preposes Immediate Ban on HCFC-142b
As of November, 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed an immediate ban on many uses of HCFC-142b, the ozone-depleting greenhouse gas that Owens Corning intends to use in its new Gresham plant. It previously planned to ban those uses by 2010. Until now, Owens Corning has refused to employ readily available safer alternatives to HCFC-142b. The new EPA ban would mandate the use of a much less harmful alternative. Owens Corning is claiming that they fall under a "grandfather" clause that would allow them to use the chemical in their newly constructed plant and DEQ is considering how the new law will apply.
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