Pat Berger, vice president of Mercer Color Corporation shared a link to environmental regulatory resources the Printing Industries of Northern California (PINC) has published since last May in their PIC Government Affairs Watchdog newsletter.

Berger writes:

The Control Techniques Guidelines for Offset Lithographic Printing and Letterpress Printing (PDF Link) are the a set of policies used by the EPA to regulate the printing industry.

When there is a control technology that is working, the EPA will present the data to states and they can modify or accept the rules. The implementation of the rules being used in California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, there is a very good chance of them becoming “reasonably available control technology” (RACT) nation wide.

This should be a wake-up call to all printers. Once a RACT program is initiated it has passed the test of working and cost of implementation it is extremely difficult to get changed.

California's environmental approach, as the largest consumer market for many goods and services in the U.S., has significant impact how other states implement their own environmental regulations.