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NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standards)What's New
On November 9, EPA issued the Phase II rule for its National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone. The rule includes a requirement that the nine areas originally mandated to use federal Reformulated Gasoline (RFG) must continue to use RFG until they reach attainment designation for the 8-hour ozone NAAQS. Four areas, Baton Rouge, Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley in California, and Washington, D.C., which did not attain the 1-hour ozone standard must continue to use the fuel until they attain the 8-hour standard. On August 3, 2005, EPA published a final rule, effective September 2, which codifies the revocation of the 1-hour ozone standard for those areas with effective 8-hour ozone designations. According to the anti-backsliding provision, the 1-hour ozone NAAQS designation is retained for areas which were in nonattainment at the time of the 8-hour NAAQS designation. The rule also makes some technical corrections.
NPRA Position NPRA was compelled to take legal action on EPA's 8-hour ozone standard because the final designation, classification and implementation mechanism in these rules, unless corrected, will have significant negative effects on U.S. domestic petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries as well as U.S. energy security. NPRA believes that the two-year window – between when State Implementation Plans (SIPs) are due to the EPA in 2007 and when controls must be in place by the ozone season of 2009 – does not provide sufficient time for manufacturers to design, permit, procure and install the very stringent emissions controls technologies required to attain the standard. The 8-hour ozone rule has an infeasible attainment deadline for a number of major U.S. refining and petrochemical manufacturing areas of the nation, including northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Houston. Ignoring this information and establishing infeasible deadlines for major refining and petrochemical regions of the country will further constrain capital available for refinery capacity expansions and exacerbate existing tight fuel supplies. NPRA believes that these rules can and must be corrected to limit their adverse impact. These changes will preserve the fundamental goal of achieving significant air quality improvements. Finally, these errors can be corrected without change to the new ozone standard itself. Thus, NPRA is not seeking any change in the standard. Issue Brief On May 26, 2005, the EPA issued a final rule on two issues raised by environmental groups in a petition for reconsideration of EPA's 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) implementation rule. In the rule, EPA establishes the applicability of the section 185 fee provisions once the 1-hour NAAQS is revoked and finalizes a proposed rule on new source review (NSR) anti-backsliding. Federal Register NoticeOn April 4, 2005, EPA published a proposed rule and notice of public hearing on issues raised, by EarthJustice and others, in a petition for reconsideration of the April 2004 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard. The specific question is whether the 1-hour standard should still apply for the purpose of nonattainment area designation. A public hearing will be held on April 18, 2005, and written comments are due by May 4, 2005. Federal Register NoticeOn March 31, 2005, EPA released a proposal for implementation of New Source Review (NSR) in the new 8-hour ozone standard. Under the proposal, NSR requirements would apply based on a nonattainment designation determined by the new 8-hour ozone standard rather than the older 1-hour ozone standard. Existing NSR requirements based on the 1-hour standard would be revoked. A 30-day comment period will begin once the rule is published in the Federal Register. Proposed RuleOn September 29, 2004 in a motion before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, EPA requested that the court remove three issues from litigation involving the “Final Rule to Implement the 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard – Phase 1” because EPA granted a petition filed by several environmental groups. EPA will reconsider three elements of the rule: 1) determination that an area’s New Source Review (NSR) obligations based on its 1-hour classification are no longer required SIP (State Implementation Plans) elements once the 1-hour standard is revoked; 2) determination that the Section 185 fee provisions no longer apply for purposes of the 1-hour NAAQS once the 1-hour standard is revoked; and 3) the definition of applicable requirements as those that applied on the designation date of the 8-hour NAAQS. EPA expects that the complete rulemaking (notice, comment period and revised final rule) for these three issues will require approximately nine months. On September 22, 2004 EPA published a final rule reclassifying the following areas from moderate to marginal: Cass and Muskegon Counties, Michigan; Detroit, Michigan; Greensboro, North Carolina; Kent/Queen Anne Counties, Maryland; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; LaPorte, Indiana; Memphis, Arkansas/Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia. Previously, EPA has received and granted requests from nine areas (Detroit; Cass County, MI; Muskegon County, MI; Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, NC; Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties, MD; LaPorte County, IN; Lancaster County, PA; Memphis, TN; and Richmond, VA) for reclassification to a lower category. This is an appeal of the April 2004 classification; all nine requested a change from moderate to marginal.On June 29, 2004, NPRA filed a Petition for Reconsideration appealing directly to the EPA Administrator challenging the Agency's recently released implementation rule for the 8-hour ozone standard. In consideration of the fact that EPA is not required to and may not act on an Administrative Petition alone, NPRA also filed a Petition for Review with the D.C. District of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The petition argued that EPA's methodology for identifying those areas that will not attain by 2010 does not adequately take into account the severity of these areas' 8-hour ozone problems or how long it will take to attain the standard. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments established a categorization scheme for the one-hour ozone standard which gave more severe ozone nonattainment areas additional time to meet the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). On April 30, 2004, EPA promulgated two final rules that are intended to implement the new 8-hour ozone NAAQS standard across the country. Among other things, these two rules categorize areas that are in nonattainment with the new rule and explain the process EPA used to make such nonattainment designations. Notably, under the prior one-hour ozone standards, a significant number of areas across the country fell into serious or severe nonattainment categories, giving them nine years and 15 years, respectively, to come into attainment with the one-hour standard. Under EPA’s new rules, the vast majority of nonattainment areas has been re-categorized as "marginal" or "moderate" nonattainment areas under the 8-hour standard and must achieve attainment within only three years and six years of the effective date of the rules, respectively. EPA’s reclassification of certain areas as less serious nonattainment areas poses significant, and in a number of cases, insurmountable challenges (e.g., technical infeasibility) to achieving attainment within the statutorily required timeframes. In the recently released implementation rule for the 8-hour ozone standard, EPA attempted to fit areas into the same scheme, but has, for most of the classified nonattainment areas, put them into less severe categories. The methodology did not adequately take into account the severity of an area’s 8-hour ozone problem or how long it will take to attain the standard. It also ignores the timeline for the benefit from the national controls. All but four of the classified areas have attainment deadlines of 2007 or 2010. The 8-hour ozone rule has an infeasible attainment deadline for a number of major U.S. refining and petrochemical manufacturing areas of the nation, including northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Houston. These states must submit State Implementation Plans (SIPs) to attain the 8-hour ozone standard to the EPA in 2007 and communities must have controls in place by the ozone season of 2009. This two-year window does not provide adequate time for manufacturers to design, permit, procure and install the very stringent emission controls technologies required to attain the standard. In addition, emission reductions from federal programs such as cleaner diesel/engines are not captured by 2010, putting more pressure on "local" reductions.
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