EPA Rejects Retroactive Use Of Stricter PM2.5 Implementation Air Policy

摘要

EPA is rejecting environmentalists' calls to retroactively apply stricter implementation measures for states to comply with the agency's fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), issuing a final rule that retains the agency's earlier proposal to require use of the stricter approach in air plans due later this year. The final rule, published in the June 2 Federal Register, is EPA's response to a January 2013 U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that said the agency erred with a rulemaking allowing states to use Clean Air Act "subpart 1" rules in crafting state implementation plans (SIPs) detailing how they would attain EPA's 1997 and 2006 PM2.5 NAAQS, rather than the more stringent "subpart 4" requirements under the air law.