New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 20 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 2 - AIR QUALITY (STATEWIDE) › Part 79 - PERMITS - NONATTAINMENT AREAS › Section 20.2.79.115 - EMISSION OFFSETS

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
All emission offsets approved by the department shall meet
				  the following criteria.
A. All
				emission reductions claimed as offset credit shall be from decreases of the
				same pollutant for which the offset is required.
B. All emission reductions claimed as offset
				credit shall occur prior to or concurrent with the start of operation of the
				proposed source. In addition, past reductions must have occurred later than the
				date upon which the area became nonattainment in order to be
				creditable.
C. For the case where
				emission reductions claimed as offset credit occur at the source subject to
				this part, such reductions shall be a condition required by a federally
				enforceable permit. For the case where emission reductions claimed as offset
				credit occur at a neighboring source, such reductions shall be incorporated as
				modifications to pertinent federally enforceable permits held by the
				neighboring source. If the neighboring source has no relevant permits, the
				reductions shall be approved as a revision to the state implementation plan by
				the board.
D. Offset credit for any
				emissions reduction can be claimed only to the extent that the department or
				U.S. EPA has not relied on it in previously issuing any permit or in
				demonstrating attainment or reasonable further progress.
E. No emissions reduction credit shall be
				allowed for replacing one volatile organic compound with another of lesser
				reactivity, except as approved by the U.S. EPA reactivity guidance found at 42
federal register
35314, (1977), and any amendments
				thereto.
F. Emission reduction
				credit may be allowed for a source permanently curtailing production or
				operating hours below baseline levels provided that the work force to be
				affected has been notified of the curtailment.
(1) Emissions reductions achieved by shutting
				down an existing emission unit or curtailing production or operating hours
				below baseline levels may be generally credited for offsets if such reductions
				are surplus, permanent, quantifiable, and federally enforceable. In addition,
				the shutdown or curtailment is creditable only if it occurred after the date of
				the most recent emissions inventory used in the state implementation plan's
				demonstration of attainment. However, in no event may credit be given for
				shutdowns which occurred prior to August 7, 1977. For purposes of this
				paragraph, a permitting authority may choose to consider a prior shutdown or
				curtailment to have occurred after the date of the base year inventory, if the
				projected inventory used to develop the attainment demonstration explicitly
				includes the emissions from such previously shutdown or curtailed emission
				units.
(2) Such reductions may be
				credited in the absence of an approved attainment demonstration only if the
				shutdown or curtailment occurred on or after the date the new source permit
				application is filed, or, if the applicant can establish that the proposed new
				emission unit is a replacement for the shutdown or curtailed emission unit, and
				the provisions of Paragraph (1) of Subsection F of
				20.2.79.7
				NMAC are observed.