Environment

Air Quality Update

April 29, 2002

Congressman Takes Aim at Conformity Process

A Texas congressman appears to be drawing a bead on one of the transportation conformity rule's more prevalent sticking points. The Houston area lawmaker is planning legislation that would more closely align the timelines of transportation plans and State Implementation Plans (SIPs), more commonly phrased as the "mismatch issue."

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) ultimately hopes to protect state and local access to Federal transportation funding, since a failure to demonstration conformity can lead to a number of consequences, including lapses, EPA sanctions, and a curtailment of highway funds. The misalignment of the two major controls in the process--the transportation plan and the SIP--is a growing issue and one that can add to an already cumbersome conformity process in many metropolitan areas struggling to achieve attainment of air quality standards.

An official in Rep. Brady's office notes that his ". . .legislation would streamline the conformity process so that communities can continue with their needed transportation and mobility projects." Bringing local resources into the debate, the congressman is gathering a working group including representation from Houston-area businesses and other groups just now being contacted.

Although introduction of the legislation is expected soon, a staff person affiliated with Rep. Brady noted that the bill would probably be debated during the reauthorization process of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Although early work has commenced, the full debate over reauthorization is slated for next year.

Industry officials in the Houston area are expected to favor the proposed legislation, although its chances of survival are uncertain, given the likely scenario of amending the Clean Air Act. Opening the Act has been traditionally avoided in most Congressional sessions, although more targeted, surgical changes have been suggested in recent months.

Advocacy Group Files Suit to Push Toxics Standards

The Sierra Club appears to have run out of patience on the air toxics front. The club filed suit last Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking formal standards for the control of more than 80,000 sources of hazardous air pollutants.

In last week's suit, Sierra Club attorneys cite the strict deadlines written into the Clean Act Amendments of 1990 covering the standards-setting process for a host of air toxics. In addition to the schedule for developing the standards, a club official stressed that the "hammer provision" of the 1990 Amendments required individual facilities to act even if the EPA failed to issue standards on time. Beyond such industry actions, state regulatory agencies must then set an individual standard equal to what EPA should have developed to address the toxic emissions in question. Industry officials have voiced strong opposition to the daunting task of establishing individual standards down to the facility level in the absence of uniform limits set at the national level.

Sierra Club officials stress that EPA has missed a number of deadlines for toxics control and the agency is nearly 18 months late in setting standards for most of these pollutants. The hammer provision would require industry and state actions to commence on May 15, 2002.

Plan for Western Haze Gains EPA Endorsement

Labeling it a groundbreaking clean air program, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has lauded a new plan cleaning the air in western national parks and pristine wilderness areas. The agency has proposed its formal approval of the plan.

This latest effort to fight regional haze pollution, the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) Annex Plan was submitted in September 2000 and takes aim at sulfur dioxide emissions. The plan uses a schedule of regional emissions reduction milestones to bring SOx levels down substantially in the Western U.S.

Key to the success of the WRAP plan is an innovative emissions allowance trading program. Open to nine western states and eligible Indian tribes, the trading program first requires the collection and tabulation of annual emission reports and the establishment of regional totals. When these figures exceed the annual milestone, the trading program would be triggered and with appropriate caps and budgets in place.

EPA's regional haze rule included built in flexibility for regional groups--especially those in the western states--to devise major parts of the ultimate strategy. Industrial generators in the region emit about 650,000 tons of SOx, annually. Under the plan, this total for SOx would drop by about one-third by 2018.