Waste Management 2013 Annual Report Download - page 104

waste, including safety, movement and disposal. Various state and local agencies with jurisdiction over
disposal of hazardous waste may seek to regulate movement of hazardous materials in areas not otherwise
preempted by federal law.
We are also actively monitoring the following recent developments in United States federal regulations
affecting our business:
‰In 2010, the EPA issued the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) and Title V Greenhouse Gas
(“GHG”) Tailoring Rule, which expanded the EPA’s federal air permitting authority to include the six
GHGs, including methane and carbon dioxide. The rule sets new thresholds for GHG emissions that
define when Clean Air Act permits are required. The requirements of these rules have not significantly
affected our operations or cash flows, due to the tailored thresholds and exclusions of certain emissions
from regulation. Air permits for new and modified large municipal solid waste landfills, waste-to-energy
facilities and landfill gas-to-energy facilities could be affected. However, the degree of impact is
dependent upon the EPA’s final determination on permitting of biogenic carbon dioxide emissions, as
well as the EPA’s or implementing states’ determinations on what may constitute “Best Available Control
Technology” for new projects exceeding certain thresholds. In addition, recent final and proposed rules to
increase the stringency of certain National Ambient Air Quality Standards and related PSD increment/
significance thresholds could affect the cost, timeliness and availability of air permits for new and
modified large municipal solid waste landfills, waste-to-energy facilities and landfill gas-to-energy
facilities. In general, controlling emissions involves installing collection wells in a landfill and routing the
gas to a suitable energy recovery system or combustion device. At December 31, 2013, we had 137
projects at solid waste landfills where landfill gas was captured and utilized for its renewable energy
value rather than flared. Efforts to curtail the emission of GHGs and to ameliorate the effect of climate
change may require our landfills to deploy more stringent emission controls, with associated capital or
operating costs; however, we do not believe that such regulations will have a material adverse impact on
our business as a whole. See Item 1A. Risk Factors — “The adoption of climate change legislation or
regulations restricting emissions of “greenhouse gases” could increase our costs to operate.” We are
striving to anticipate the future needs of our customers by investing in and developing ever-more-
advanced recycling and reuse technologies. Potential climate change and GHG regulatory initiatives have
influenced our business strategy to provide low-carbon services to our customers, and we increasingly
view our ability to offer lower carbon services as a key component of our business growth. If the U.S.
were to impose a carbon tax or other form of GHG regulation increasing demand for low-carbon service
offerings in the future, the services we are developing will be increasingly valuable.
‰In 2011, the EPA published the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (“NHSM”) Rule, which provides
the standards and procedures for identifying whether NHSM are solid waste under RCRA when used as
fuels or ingredients in combustion units. The EPA also published new source performance standards and
emission guidelines for commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units, and Maximum
Achievable Control Technology Standards for commercial and industrial boilers. The EPA published
clarifications and amendments to these rules in 2013, and there is litigation surrounding the rules.
Although the recently published amendments are generally favorable to our industry, some of the
potential regulatory interpretations are undergoing review and other regulatory outcomes may be
dependent on case-by-case administrative determinations. These could have a significant impact on some
of our projects in which we are seeking to convert biomass or other secondary materials into products,
fuels or energy. Therefore, it is not possible to quantify the financial impact of these rulemakings or
pending administrative determinations at the present time. However, we believe the rules and
administrative determinations will not have a material adverse impact on our business as a whole and are
more likely to facilitate our efforts to reuse or recover energy value from secondary material streams.
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