Terms and Abbreviations
ALAPCO: Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials
BACT: best available control technology (This is the level of control required to obtain a PSD permit.)
BART: best available retrofit technology
Btu: British thermal unit
CAA: Clean Air Act, codified at 42 USC § 7401 et. seq.
CAFE: corporate average fuel economy
CAIR: Clean Air Interstate Rule
CAMR: Clean Air Mercury Rule
CASAC: Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee
CEM: continuous emission monitoring
CGE: computable general equilibrium
CO: carbon monoxide
Criteria pollutant: The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for certain pollutants known to be hazardous to human health and the public welfare (for example, damage to forests and degradation of atmospheric visibility). In addition, these pollutants should be ones whose presence in ambient air results from numerous or diverse mobile or stationary sources. EPA has identified and set standards to protect human health and welfare for six pollutants: ozone, carbon monoxide, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), sulfur dioxide, lead, and nitrogen oxide. The term criteria pollutants derives from the requirement that EPA must describe the characteristics and potential health and welfare effects of these pollutants. It is on the basis of such criteria that NAAQS are set or revised.
DOE: U.S. Department of Energy
EIA: U.S. Energy Information Administration
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the agency that implements the Clean Air Act.
ERP: equipment replacement provision
ESP: electrostatic precipitator
FCCU: fluid catalytic cracking unit
FGD: flue-gas desulfurization
Greenfield: refers to an emission source that is part of a newly constructed facility at a site where no facility had previously existed
GW: gigawatts
HAP: hazardous air pollutant
HNO3: nitric acid
HRSG: heat recovery steam generator
H2S: hydrogen sulfide
IECM: integrated environmental control model
IGCC: integrated gasification combined cycle
IPM: Integrated Planning Model
LAER: lowest achievable emission rate (This is the level of control required to obtain a Part D NSR permit.)
LCA: life-cycle assessment
LNB: low-NOx burners
MACT: maximum available control technology
MW: megawatts
NAAQS: National Ambient Air Quality Standards (Many of the mechanisms of the Clean Air Act are aimed at attaining and maintaining compliance with these standards.)
NaOH: sodium hydroxide
Na2S: sodium sulfide
NEI: National Emissions Inventory
NEMS: National Energy Modeling System
NERC: National American Electric Reliability Council
NESHAP: National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
NH3: ammonia
N2O: nitrous oxide
N2O4: dinitrogen tetroxide
N2O5: dinitrogen pentoxide
NO: nitric oxide
NO2: nitrogen dioxide
NO3: nitrogen trioxide
NOx: nitrogen oxides
NOy: sum of NOx and other oxidized compounds
NPRA: National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
NRC: National Research Council
NSPS: New Source Performance Standards
NSR: New Source Review (The collective name for the Part D NSR and PSD programs.)
O3 ozone
ODS: ozone-depleting substance
OTC: Ozone Transport Commission
PAL: plantwide applicability limitation (A PAL limits emissions from a source or facility as a whole.)
Part D NSR: This is the NSR program that applies to sources seeking permits in areas whose air quality violates the NAAQS.
PCP: pollution-control project
PM: particulate matter
PM2.5: particles less than 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter, called fine particles
PM10: particles less than 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter
ppm: parts per million
PSD: prevention of significant deterioration (This is the NSR program that applies to sources seeking permits in areas whose air quality complies with the NAAQS.)
R&D: research and development
RACT: reasonably available control technology
REMSAD: Regulatory Modeling System for Aerosols and Acid Deposition
RIA: regulatory impact analysis
RMRR: routine maintenance, repair, and replacement
R/R/R: retrofitting flue-gas desulfurization (FGD)—selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, repowering, or retiring of a coal-fired electricity-generating facility
SCOT: Shell Claus off-gas treating
SCR: selective catalytic reduction
SIC: Standard Industrial Classification
SIP: state implementation plan (Every state must prepare a plan to show how it will attain and maintain the NAAQS.)
SNCR: selective noncatalytic reduction
SO2: sulfur dioxide
STAPPA: State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators
TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority
UAM: Urban Airshed Model
VOC: volatile organic compound