Opinion ID: 717461
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: state transportation plans and programs

Text: 16 Under 23 U.S.C. § 135 (1994), states must prepare statewide transportation plans and improvement programs similar to those required of metropolitan planning organizations. The Agency's transportation regulations require that metropolitan planning organization's transportation plans and programs conform to the relevant SIP, but do not require conformity determinations for state transportation plans or programs. See 40 C.F.R. § 51.392 (definition of transportation improvement program and transportation plan). Petitioners challenge the exclusion of state transportation planning from the Clean Air Act's conformity requirements, arguing that the Agency has improperly circumscribed a broad statutory provision. Section 176(c)(2), after all, requires conformity determinations to be made for [a]ny transportation plan or program. 17 We agree with the Agency that it reasonably defined transportation plan or program to be only those plans or programs adopted by metropolitan planning organizations and that not requiring state plans or programs to conform in no way works to reduce the protections afforded air quality under the statute. A state transportation plan or program must include the plans or improvement programs adopted by metropolitan planning organizations within that state. Before any plan or improvement program can be included in the state's plan or program, it must be found by the relevant metropolitan planning organization to conform to the SIP. See 23 C.F.R. § 450.312(d). A state may well include both areas that have and areas that have not attained the national ambient air quality standards. The conformity requirements, however, apply only to nonattainment areas. The Agency concluded, therefore, that little was to be gained by requiring state plans and programs to conform. An area inside a state that was covered by the conformity rules--a nonattainment area--and contained a metropolitan planning organization would necessarily already have a conforming plan or improvement program. Under petitioners' reading of the statute, attainment areas within the state would be forced to undergo conformity determinations that Congress did not intend to require. 13 We further agree with the Agency that the information yielded by conformity determinations at the state level is of minimal additional value--we are told, and petitioners do not dispute, that analyses for purposes of determining conformity are performed by region, not by state. See 58 Fed.Reg. at 62,206.