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Environmental Regulation and the Border The EPA permit requirement opens the door to the establishment of an emissions reduction trading program. Federal law allows the transfer of permits between operators. Emissions reduction trading as a practical matter, then, is the transfer of a permit to emit a quantity of a pollutant for a fee. (In the U.S. Acid Rain Program, for example, each allowance is a permit to emit one ton of SO 2 ; see box, page 12). Not only does federal law allow the transfer of permits, thereby establishing a mechanism for emissions trading, but the law goes further, actually promoting emissions trading. In particular, CAAA includes provisions to promote the use of markets and market incentives, of which permit trading is a prominent example. The stated reason behind the inclusion of these provisions is to allow emission sources flexibility in choosing how to meet a standard, thereby reducing the cost of achieving any given standard. For example, if a major source operating in a nonattainment area wants to expand production or otherwise increase the amount of a criteria pollutant it is emitting, an offset must be obtained. Under CAAA, the offset must be greater than the planned increase in emissions so that the net release into the environment is reduced. The offset, which in all cases must come from within the nonattainment area, can be obtained from another stack within the same plant, from another plant owned by the firm, or it can be obtained from another company. In the latter case, money often changes hands. MEXICAN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS The main environmental law in Mexico is the Ley General de Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente (LGEEPA), passed in 1988 and amended in 1997 and 2001. Environmental regulation is the responsibility of the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT). Within SEMARNAT, power is distributed among three institutions. Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE) is responsible for setting and enforcing most environmental standards, including those for air quality. Comisión Nacional del Agua (CNA) is responsible for setting and enforcing standards for water quality. 51
Improving Transboundary Air Quality with Binational Emission Reduction Credit Trading The Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Medio Ambiente (PRO- FEPA) is charged with factory inspections and enforcement of all pollution regulation. The relationship between federal and state authorities is in flux in Mexico, with power slowly devolving more and more to the states. This general trend in Mexican law is evident in environmental regulation. Until recently, enforcement of environmental regulation has been highly centralized and individual states had almost no responsibility. Moreover, enforcement was limited primarily to large cities. The trend has been toward greater responsibility for enforcement devolving to state and local officials, but that process has been slow as well. For example, although all Mexican states have established state-level environmental agencies, until recently they have had little enforcement power because of the limited local budgets and a lack of local technical expertise (Lybecker and Mumme 2002). The 1997 and 2001 amendments to LGEEPA more carefully delineated the responsibilities of the federal, state, and local governments. For example, Mexican states will take the lead in developing emissions inventories (see box, page 53). The process of decentralization involves states negotiating judicial frameworks with the federal government, under which states will have more power to determine and enforce environmental regulations. Each state is negotiating a separate agreement with the central authorities, with different states potentially undertaking different tasks depending on the resources of the state. In many cases, the responsibility for local enforcement will continue to rest with the SEMARNAT state delegation. In other cases, local responsibility will rest with state and local officials. While the balance of power still favors the Mexican federal government, the authority of local governments in matters having to do with the environment is increasing. Mexican law authorizes the establishment of atmospheric concentration standards, referred to in Spanish as norms. These have been developed for the same six criteria pollutants covered by NAAQS, ozone precursors (VOCs and NO x ), and for various HAPs. The guiding principle in setting these standards, as with NAAQS in the United States, is the protection of human health. Often Mexican officials refer to U.S. studies in determining what concentration of a pollutant is consistent with protecting health, so it is not surpris- 52
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THE SCERP MISSION The Southwest Con
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Authors SCERP Monograph Series, no.
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Published by San Diego State Univer
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Contents Foreword v Prefacio ix Pre
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Improving Transboundary Air Quality
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Prefacio “Si vale la pena tener u
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Prefacio pudiera ser difícil, cost
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Page 22 and 23: I Introduction THE VIEW FROM EL PAS
Page 24 and 25: Introduction Resource Conservation
Page 26 and 27: Introduction approaches to correcti
Page 28 and 29: Introduction into the environment.
Page 30 and 31: Introduction maquiladoras, to hire
Page 32 and 33: Introduction (PM 10 and PM 2.5 )—
Page 34 and 35: Introduction installing scrubbers,
Page 36 and 37: Introduction The existence of emiss
Page 38 and 39: Introduction would require an initi
Page 40 and 41: Introduction EPE generated emission
Page 42 and 43: OVERVIEW Introduction This volume i
Page 44 and 45: II A Snapshot of the Border THE MEA
Page 46 and 47: A Snapshot of the Border states—B
Page 48 and 49: A Snapshot of the Border Table 1. U
Page 50 and 51: A Snapshot of the Border Interestin
Page 52 and 53: Table 3. Percentage Change in Borde
Page 54 and 55: A Snapshot of the Border Another so
Page 56 and 57: A Snapshot of the Border plants tha
Page 58 and 59: A Snapshot of the Border Air Qualit
Page 60 and 61: A Snapshot of the Border quality. T
Page 62 and 63: A Snapshot of the Border million in
Page 64: A Snapshot of the Border THE ENVIRO
Page 67 and 68: Improving Transboundary Air Quality
Page 71: Improving Transboundary Air Quality
Page 92 and 93: Appendix A Excerpts from the Border
Page 94 and 95: Environmental Regulation and the Bo
Page 96: Environmental Regulation and the Bo
Page 103 and 104: Nearly 90% think Mexican environmen
Page 114 and 115: Appendix B Survey Instrument Encues
Page 116 and 117: Manquiladora Attitudes 13) ¿Tu com
Page 118 and 119: Manquiladora Attitudes 22)¿Habías
Page 120 and 121: V Designing a Transborder Trading S
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Designing a Transborder Trading Sch
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abatement activities, 4, 6-7, 16, 1
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automobile and truck, 47 banking, 2
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nitrogen oxide (NO x), 9-10, 16-18,
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