An Act To Improve Maine's Air Quality and Reduce Regional Haze at Acadia National Park and Other Federally Designated Class I Areas
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1662
Committee: Natural Resources
Sponsors: GOODALL, FLEMINGS, DAMON, SIMPSON, BUTTERFIELD, DUCHESNE, EATON, LANGLEY, PINGREE, SCHATZ
Amends: 38 MRSA §603-A

Legislative Document 
No. 1662 
S.P.627 
.rll Senate, December21,2009 
An Act To Improve Maine's Air Quality and Reduce Regional Haze 
at Acadia National Park and Other Federally Designated Class I 
Areas 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Reference to the Committee on Natural Resources suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Senator GOODALL of Sagadahoc. 
Cosponsored by Representative FLEMINGS of Bar Harbor and 
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JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
. Senators: DAMON of Hancock, SIMPSON of Androscoggin, Representatives: 
BUTTERFIELD of Bangor, DUCHESNE of Hudson, EATON of Sullivan, LANGLEY of 
Ellsworth, Speaker PINGREE of North Haven, SCHATZ of Blue Hill. 
Printed on recycled paper 
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §603-A~s~b-§2,as amended by PL 2007, c. 95, §5, is further 
amended to read: 
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2. Prohibitions. Except as p~ovided in subsections ~ 
and 8, 00 ~ person may not 
use any liquid fossil fuel with a sulfur content exceeding the limits in paragraph A or any 
solid· fossil fuel with a sulfur cpntent to heat content ratio exceeding the limits of 
. paragraph B. 
A. The sulfur content for liquid fossil fuels is as follows. 
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(1) In the Central Maine, Downeast, Aroostook County and Northwest Maine 
Air Quality· Control Regions and the Metropolitan Portland Air Quality Control 
Region outside the Portland Peninsula Air Quality Control Region, 00 ~ person 
may not use any liquid fossil #4 or #6 fueroil with a: sulfur content greater than 
2.5% untilNovember 1, 1991, and 2.0% by weight any time thereafter; beginning 
January 1, 2018, the limit for those regions is 0.5%' by weight.. In-the 
Metropolitan Portland Air Quality Control Region outside the Portland Peninsula 
Air Quality Control Region, no person may use any liquid fossil fuel 'with a 
sulfur content greater than 2.5% until November 1, 1991, and 2.0% by v/eight 
any time thereafter. 
(2) In the Portland Peninsula Air Quality Control Region, 00 ~ person may not 
use any liquid fossil #4 or #6 fuel oil with a sulfur content greater than 1.5% by 
weight any time after November 1, 1975; beginning January 1, 2018, the limit for 
that region is 0.5% by.weight.· 
(3) Statewide, a person may not use a distillate fuel: . 
(a) Beginning January 1, 2014, with a sulfur content greater than 0.05% by 
weight; and 
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(b) Beginning January 1, 2018, with a sulfur content greater than 0.0015% 
by weight. . 
B. The sulfur content for solid fossil fuels is as follows: 
(1) One and two-tenths pounds sulfur per million British Thermal Units until. 
November 1, 1991, and .96 pounds sulfur per million British Thermal Units· 
. thereafter, calculated as a calendar quarter average for. sources in the Central 
Maine, Downeast, Aroostook County, Northwest Maine Air Quality Control 
Regions and that portion of the Metropolitan Portland Air Quality Region outside 
the Portland Peninsula Air Quality Region. 
A calendar quarter is composed of 
the months as follows: (1) January, February, March; (2) April, May, June; (3) 
July" August, September; and (4) October, November, December; and 
(2) Seventy-two hundredths pounds sulfur per million British Thermal Units 
calculated as a calendar quarter average for sources in the Portland Peninsula Air 
Quality Region. A calendar quarter is composed of the months as follows: (1) 
January, February, March; (2) April,May, June; (3) July, August, September; 
and (4) October, November, December. 
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SUMMARY 
Federal law and regulations require states with fuel-burning sources that are 
reasonably anticipated to cause or contribute to impairment of'visibility in federally 
designated Class I areas to implement reasonable measures to reduce visibility 
impairment within those areas. This bill establishes reductions in the sulfur c'ontent of 
fuel oil that take effect in 20.14 and 2018. 
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