Republican lawmakers in both chambers, joined by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), have reintroduced a bill that would modify the timing of EPA’s mandated reviews of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2017 would also push back the compliance date for the 2015 ozone NAAQS to 2025 and compel the EPA to take other actions intended to moderate the impact of the NAAQS on states that must put together and gain EPA’s approval for complex plans to achieve the standards.
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10-Year Interval
The main provision of the bill would change the mandatory review interval for the NAAQS from 5 to 10 years, although the EPA administrator would have the discretion to issue revised standards earlier. The bill’s sponsors believe the change would address the problem of overlapping NAAQS for the same pollutant. Ozone is currently subject to two NAAQSs, one set issued in 2008 and another set issued in 2015. States design state implementation plans (SIPs) based on EPA implementation guidance, which, for example, is essential to account for ozone transport in a manner that is acceptable to the EPA. But the EPA has been chronically slow in issuing guidance. States did not receive implementation guidance for the 2008 ozone standards until March 2015. Seven months later, in October 2015, the EPA issued the revised ozone NAAQS. In other words, states became subject to the new standards while they were still working to comply with the previous standards.
“The Ozone Standards Implementation Act gives states the needed time to fully implement two different ozone standards sequentially in a realistic and coordinated manner,” said Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX). “By harmonizing the EPA’s conflicting ozone standards, this bill provides for a more efficient implementation process and protects American jobs and public health.”
Technical and Economic Feasibility
The bill would also:
- Authorize the EPA administrator to consider technological feasibility as a secondary consideration when revising the NAAQS.
- Ensure the EPA administrator, before revising the NAAQS, obtains advice from the Agency’s scientific advisory committee regarding potential adverse effects relating to implementation of the standards, as required by Section 109 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).
- Ensure the EPA administrator issues timely implementation regulations and guidance when revising the NAAQS.
- Ensure that for certain ozone and particulate matter nonattainment areas, states are not required to include economically infeasible measures in their plans.
- Ensure that states may seek relief with respect to certain exceptional events, including droughts, under Section 319 of the CAA.
- Direct the EPA to submit a report to Congress within 2 years regarding the impacts of foreign emissions on NAAQS compliance and related matters, including the Agency’s current petition process under CAA Section 179B (attainment of the NAAQS “but for emissions emanating from outside the United States”).
The Obama administration had said it would not sign the previous version of this bill if it made it through Congress because it undermined protection of human health. The primary objection is that under the bill, the EPA would be much slower in adjusting federal clean air standards to the changing science of air pollution and human health.
The text of the bill is here.