EPA Denies State's Request on Baseline Date To Make Determinations on Fine Particulates

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency has denied a request from North Carolina to revise the baseline date states must use to judge whether emissions of fine particulate matter from new or modified industrial facilities would degrade air quality. The EPA, in a notice scheduled for publication Sept. 16, informed the public that it had formally denied North Carolina's petition to reconsider and initiate rule-making to change the baseline date of October 2010 to a baseline of 1975. The agency, in an August letter signed by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, said that the state's petition didn't present "compelling policy or legal reasons" for the agency to consider changing the baseline date. The major source baseline date, which is a milestone for accounting for emissions changes that occur at major stationary sources, was established in a 2010 EPA rule-making that established increments for fine particulate matter in prevention of significant deterioration permitting requirements (41 ER 2349, 10/22/10).