I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3379 

To amend the Clean Air Act to provide States increased flexibility in 

implementing standards through State implementation plans. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 4, 2011 

Mr. BERG (for himself and Mr. LANKFORD) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Clean Air Act to provide States increased 

flexibility in implementing standards through State implementation plans. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Regional Haze Fed5 eralism Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION PLANS. 

7 Section 110 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7410) 

8 is amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘(c)(1) The 

2 Administrator’’ and all that follows through the end 

3 of paragraph (1) and inserting the following: 

4 ‘‘(c) FEDERAL PLANS.— 

5 ‘‘(1) PLANS.— 

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

7 subparagraph (C), unless the conditions de8 scribed in subparagraph (B) are met, the Ad9 ministrator shall promulgate a Federal imple10 mentation plan at any time after the date that 

11 is 2 years after the date on which the Adminis12 trator— 

13 ‘‘(i) finds that a State has failed to 

14 make a required submission or finds that 

15 the plan or plan revision submitted by the 

16 State does not satisfy the minimum cri17 teria established under subsection 

18 (k)(1)(A); or 

19 ‘‘(ii) disapproves a State implementa20 tion plan submission in whole or in part. 

21 ‘‘(B) CONDITIONS.—The conditions de22 scribed in this subparagraph are that, before 

23 the date on which the Administrator promul24 gates a Federal implementation plan— 


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1 ‘‘(i) a State corrects a deficiency in a 

2 State implementation plan or plan revision 

3 submitted by the State; and 

4 ‘‘(ii) the Administrator approves the 

5 plan or plan revision. 

6 ‘‘(C) VISIBILITY PROTECTION PLANS.—In 

7 the case of a Federal implementation plan pro8 mulgated after the date of enactment of this 

9 subparagraph in place of a State implementa10 tion plan under section 169A— 

11 ‘‘(i) the Administrator shall promul12 gate such Federal implementation plan 

13 only if the Administrator makes a finding 

14 that the State submitting the State imple15 mentation plan failed to consider the fac16 tors described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of 

17 section 169A(g) in preparing and submit18 ting the plan; and 

19 ‘‘(ii) compliance with the requirements 

20 of such Federal implementation plan shall 

21 not be required earlier than 5 years after 

22 the date of promulgation.’’; and 

23 (2) in subsection (k)— 

24 (A) by striking paragraph (3) and insert25 ing the following: 


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1 ‘‘(3) FULL AND PARTIAL APPROVAL AND DIS2 APPROVAL.— 

3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

4 subparagraphs (B) through (D), in the case of 

5 any submission on which the Administrator is 

6 required to act under paragraph (2), the Ad7 ministrator shall approve the submission as a 

8 whole if the submission meets all of the applica9 ble requirements of this Act. 

10 ‘‘(B) REVIEW.—In reviewing any State im11 plementation plan submitted pursuant to sec12 tion 169A, the Administrator shall limit the re13 view only to a determination of whether the 

14 State submitting the State implementation plan 

15 considered the factors described in paragraphs 

16 (1) and (2) of section 169A(g) in preparing and 

17 submitting the plan. 

18 ‘‘(C) VISIBILITY PLANS.—The Adminis19 trator shall approve as a whole any implementa20 tion plan submitted under section 169A that 

21 was prepared and submitted after consideration 

22 of the factors described in paragraphs (1) and 

23 (2) of section 169A(g). 

24 ‘‘(D) PARTIAL APPROVAL AND DIS25 APPROVAL.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If a portion of a 

2 plan revision meets all applicable require3 ments of this Act, the Administrator may 

4 approve the plan revision in part and dis5 approve the plan revision in part. 

6 ‘‘(ii) FULL APPROVAL.—A plan revi7 sion shall not be treated as meeting the re8 quirements of this Act until the Adminis9 trator approves the entire plan revision as 

10 complying with the applicable requirements 

11 of this Act.’’; and 

12 (B) in paragraph (5)— 

13 (i) in the first sentence, by striking 

14 ‘‘Whenever’’ and inserting the following: 

15 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Whenever’’; and 

16 (ii) by adding at the end the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(B) VISIBILITY PLANS.—Notwithstanding 

19 subparagraph (A), with respect to an implemen20 tation plan or portion of an implementation 

21 plan approved pursuant to section 169A, the 

22 Administrator shall only find that such a plan 

23 or portion of a plan is substantially inadequate 

24 to meet standards for air pollutants that cause 

25 or contribute to the impairment of visibility, or 


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1 any other applicable standard or requirement, 

2 under that section if the Administrator makes 

3 a finding that, in preparing the plan, the sub4 mitting State failed to consider the factors de5 scribed in paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 

6 169A(g). 

7 ‘‘(C) EXISTING VISIBILITY PLANS.— 

8 ‘‘(i) REQUEST FOR REVOCATION.—At 

9 any time after the date of enactment of 

10 this subparagraph— 

11 ‘‘(I) a State may request that the 

12 existing Federal or State implementa13 tion plan for the State regarding visi14 bility or any determination made in 

15 calendar year 2010 or 2011 of best 

16 available retrofit technology pursuant 

17 to section 169A be revoked; and 

18 ‘‘(II) upon receipt of such a re19 quest, the Administrator shall revoke 

20 the implementation plan. 

21 ‘‘(ii) SUBMISSION OF NEW OR RE22 VISED PLAN.—Upon a revocation under 

23 clause (i)(II), the State that requested the 

24 revocation shall, within a reasonable period 

25 of time, submit to the Administrator a visiVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:14 Nov 10, 2011 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3379.IH H3379

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1 bility plan or a revised best available ret2 rofit technology determination in accord3 ance with this Act.’’. 

4 SEC. 3. VISIBILITY PROTECTION FOR FEDERAL CLASS I 

5 AREAS. 

6 Section 169A of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7491) 

7 is amended— 

8 (1) in subsection (b)(2), in the matter pre9 ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘as may be 

10 necessary’’ and inserting ‘‘as the State determines, 

11 at the sole discretion of the State after considering 

12 factors described in this section and providing ade13 quate opportunity for public comment, may be nec14 essary’’; and 

15 (2) in subsection (g)— 

16 (A) by striking paragraph (1) and insert17 ing the following: 

18 ‘‘(1) in determining reasonable progress, there 

19 shall be taken into consideration— 

20 ‘‘(A) the costs of compliance; 

21 ‘‘(B) the time necessary for compliance; 

22 ‘‘(C) the energy and nonair quality envi23 ronmental impacts of compliance; 


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1 ‘‘(D) the remaining useful life of any exist2 ing source subject to requirements under this 

3 section; 

4 ‘‘(E) the degree of improvement in visi5 bility that may reasonably be anticipated to re6 sult from measures described in the applicable 

7 implementation plan; and 

8 ‘‘(F) the economic impacts to the State 

9 (including people of the State);’’; 

10 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

11 (i) by striking ‘‘(2) in determining 

12 best available retrofit technology the 

13 State’’ and inserting the following: 

14 ‘‘(2) in determining the best available retrofit 

15 technology— 

16 ‘‘(A) the State’’; 

17 (ii) in subparagraph (A) (as des18 ignated by clause (i)), by inserting ‘‘the 

19 economic impacts to the State (including 

20 people of the State),’’ after ‘‘life of the 

21 source,’’; 

22 (iii) by striking ‘‘technology;’’ and in23 serting ‘‘technology; and’’; and 

24 (iv) by adding at the end the fol25 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(B) the determination of best available 

2 retrofit technology by the State for any source 

3 shall be subject to review by the Administrator 

4 or an administrative entity or Federal or State 

5 court only pursuant to a clearly erroneous 

6 standard of review;’’; and 

7 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘(or the 

8 date of promulgation of such a plan revision in 

9 the case of action by the Administrator under 

10 section 110(c) for purposes of this section)’’. 

Æ 


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