Disputed Permits Defended by TDEC

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Citing decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Tennessee environmental officials have issued two official responses defending the issuance of disputed permits in Greene County.
The two nearly identical five page documents were in response to objections to the permits raised at public hearings held in June in Greeneville. The permit applications were submitted by Praxair Inc and Yara North America, two firms operating from the same site in Midway, Tenn.
Praxair's facility produces liquid carbon dioxide for use of the soft drink industry. The Yara facility has yet to be built, but it will produce calcium nitrate, which is used in fertilizer.
That same site is the location of U.S. Nitrogen which recently had its permit applications approved.
Objections to all three permits were raised in person and in writing by the Sierra Club of Tennessee and Park Overall, an environmental activist who lives near the Greene County industrial site.
Scott Banbury of the Sierra Club wrote to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation objecting to the permits questioning the decision to issue separate permits to the three companies. Previously they operated under a single permit.
In the five-page response, TDEC cited a decision by the EPA involving two Pennsylvania firms, Meadowbrook Energy LLC and Keystone Sanitary Landfill. In the April 30, 2018 decision the agency concluded that two firms could be combined for certain permits only if they were under "common control."
EPA, TDEC stated, determined that common control exists when "one entity has the power or authority to restrict another entity's choices."
Applying that ruling to the Greene County firms, TDEC concluded that US Nitrogen, Praxair and Yara, were separate corporations and not under common control.
"The division has concluded that US Nitrogen, Yara North America and Praxair are separate sources," the TDEC document states.
Banbury also challenged TDEC's decision to exempt the three firms from permit restrictions based solely on estimates of greenhouse gas emissions.
TDEC, however, cited a June 23, 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred environmental agencies from being declared as a "major source"of pollutants for permitting purposes solely on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions.
TDEC also cited a March 11, 2015 declaration by the Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board directing Tennessee environmental officials to comply with the Supreme Court decision.
Referring to the Praxair permit, TDEC concluded, "The facility is a true minor facility."
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