Revised Transportation Conformity Guidance Challenged by Environmental Groups

摘要

Environmental and public health organizations are challenging updated Environmental Protection Agency guidance that they claim would loosen restrictions on transDortation Droiects that are exDected to increase particulate matter emissions (Sierra Club v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 16-1097, 3/15/16). The lawsuit, filed March 15 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, seeks review of a November 2015 update to the EPA's guidance on conducting quantitative "hot-spot" analyses for highway and transit projects in nonattainment and maintenance areas for particulate matter. The agency guidance describes transportation conformity requirements for that analysis and provides technical information on how to model estimated emissions from those projects.