"EPA told the new owners of a shuttered U.S. Virgin Islands oil refinery that they may need a new Clean Air Act permit, a hurdle that could significantly slow any plan to reopen the plant.
While regulators are still gathering information, there are “strong indicators to suggest” that the Limetree Bay refinery must get a Prevention of Significant Deterioration pre-construction permit before restarting operations, Liliana Villatora, an air branch chief in EPA’s New York City-based regional office, wrote in a letter today to lawyers for West Indies Petroleum Ltd. and Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation LLLP, which jointly bought the facility at a bankruptcy auction late last year (Greenwire, Dec. 22, 2021).
Under the act, large industrial operations must get a PSD permit before beginning work on a “major modification” expected to lead to a significant increase in emissions of pollutants like soot and sulfur dioxide. In the letter, Villatora did not spell out why EPA suspects the permit is needed but asked the two companies to reply as soon as possible to a series of questions related to the plant’s brief reopening last year and their plans for its future, along with their own analysis of “PSD applicability.”"
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