Semiconductor Industry Seeks Judicial Review of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rules

Provisions in the EPA’s recent greenhouse gas reporting rules will hit the U.S. semiconductor industry, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said in a petition for reconsideration filed with the agency. The association also filed a petition for review of the rules with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The SIA supports GHG reporting for our industry and we stand ready to work constructively with the EPA to develop a revised rule that achieves our shared environmental goals in a more balanced, cost-effective and less burdensome manner,” said association President Brian Toohey.

"The semiconductor industry is engaged at the technical level with EPA regarding the potential impact of new requirements that have not yet gone into effect,” said Cathy Milbourn, an agency spokeswoman. The EPA is “devoting substantial attention to understanding the semiconductor industry’s concerns and to working collaboratively to develop options in a responsible and timely manner,” she told us.

The industry has taken particular issue with a provision that requires larger manufacturing facilities to quantify “each fluorinated GHG emitted from each individual recipe or process sub-type for all plasma etch processes based on recipe-specific utilization and by-product formation rates.” That rule would force semiconductor companies to measure emissions in a “technically infeasible manner, thereby imposing an undue and onerous burden on this key manufacturing sector,” the SIA said. Also, the regulations would let EPA have access to “highly valuable proprietary data which would compromise critical trade secrets and could result in the disclosure of this sensitive information to domestic and foreign companies,” it said.

The SIA had been working with the agency to “strike an appropriate and feasible balance to this reporting rule,” the association said. But the agency issued its rules “without including key industry recommendations,” compelling the association to seek judicial review and file a petition for reconsideration, it said. The U.S. semiconductor industry accounts for only 0.12 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, “a very small number compared to other industry sectors,” the association said. Of this, most of the industry’s emissions are associated with the use of fluorinated gases, it said. Semiconductor manufacturing is not “technically feasible” now without the use of fluorinated gases, but “research continues to uncover viable alternatives,” SIA said.

Working with the EPA, the industry has reduced fluorinated gas emission by 35 percent since 1999, the association said. “Most U.S. semiconductor facilities have reduced their … emissions substantially, and to date have been categorized as ‘minor source’ under the Clean Air Act.” The industry voluntarily started reporting greenhouse gas emissions to the EPA more than 10 years ago, it said. Semiconductor makers are reducing fluorinated gas emissions through “abatement, recycling, alternative chemistry and process optimization,” SIA said. “As the industry continues to operate it will innovate and uncover additional resources to aid in emissions reductions."

Meanwhile, the EPA said Tuesday that it’s extending its March 31 reporting deadline to later this summer following “conversations with industry and others.” The agency expects to have a user-friendly online reporting platform operating this summer, it said. “This extension will allow EPA to further test the system that facilities will use to submit data and give industry the opportunity to test the tool, provide feedback, and have sufficient time to become familiar with the tool prior to reporting,” it said.