Opinion ID: 187425
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: NSR Limits on Pollution from New and Modified

Text: Major Sources Pursuant to the SIP NSR requirements of CAA Part D, supra pp. 28-30, the Phase 2 Rule accords a State three years to develop and submit an approvable nonattainment major NSR program for the 8-hour NAAQS. 70 Fed. Reg. at 71,672. In addition to the Part D requirements for nonattainment areas, however, CAA section 110(a)(2)(c) imposes on States a “general duty” to implement a NSR program in their SIPs for all areas, see supra note 10, which “exists during all periods, including before a State has an approved part D NSR permit program.” Id. at 71,677-78. Although section 110(a)(2)(c) requires that the SIP contain NSR provisions, it does not specify what NSR requirements apply during the period after an area is designated nonattainment but before the NSR SIP is effective. To fill this gap, the EPA decided in the Phase 2 Rule to retain an interim NSR regime it has used for this purpose since 1979, namely, Appendix S to 40 C.F.R. Part 51, which both establishes interim NSR permitting requirements paralleling the Act’s (in section IV.A) and provides for an exemption from the same requirements under certain circumstances (in section VI). The EPA further decided in the Phase 2 Rule, however, to eliminate an existing 18-month time limit on the applicability of Appendix S (including section VI’s exemption provision) to a given nonattaiment area. Petitioners NRDC and New Jersey challenge both the EPA’s general authority to exempt new sources from 13 In light of this conclusion, we need not consider the NRDC’s alternative contention that elimination of the requirement violates section 172(e) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7502(e). 38 permitting requirements under section VI and, more specifically, its decision to eliminate the 18-month limit on such exemptions. We reject the petitioners’ objection to the EPA’s general exemption authority as untimely but agree that eliminating the 18-month limit violates the “anti-backsliding” provision in CAA section 172(e), 42 U.S.C. § 7502(e). In 1979, the EPA codified in its regulations a three year-old “Emission Offset Interpretative Ruling” as Appendix S to 40 C.F.R. Part 51 and directed that Appendix S was to “govern[] permits to construct and operate applied for before the deadline for having a revised SIP in effect that satisfies Part D.” Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Statutory Restriction on New Sources Under Certain Circumstances for Nonattainment Areas, 44 Fed. Reg. 38,471, 38,473 (July 2, 1979) (codified at 40 C.F.R. § 52.24(c) (1979) (now § 52.24(k)); see Emission Offset Interpretative Ruling, 44 Fed. Reg. 3274 (Jan. 16, 1979) (codifying interpretive ruling in regulations). In so applying the interpretive rule, the EPA allowed a nonattainment area to avoid, during the period before the SIP was due, the statutory ban on all major source construction or modification in any nonattainment area not subject to a SIP that “me[t] the requirements of Part D (relating to nonattainment areas).” See Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-95, § 108(b), 91 Stat. 685, 694 (Aug. 7, 1977) (establishing construction ban) (1977 CAA Amendments). The EPA noted at the time that the Congress had similarly adopted the rule (“as may be modified by rule of the Administrator”) to govern NSR during the interim period from enactment of the 1977 CAA amendments until July 1, 1979, when the statutory ban was to take effect. 44 Fed. Reg. at 38,472; 1977 CAA Amendments § 129(a)(1), 91 Stat. at 745 (adopting interpretive rule for interim before ban) (Aug. 7, 1977). The Congress eliminated the construction ban in 1990. Clean Air Act, Amendments, Pub. L. No. 101-549, § 101(c), 104 Stat. 2399, 2408 (1990). 39 In 1980, the EPA “clarif[ied]” Appendix S to limit to eighteen months the period during which it governed NSR in a qualifying nonattainment area. Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Statutory Restriction on New Sources Under Certain Circumstances for Nonattainment Areas, 45 Fed. Reg. 65,209 (Oct. 2, 1980). Since that time the EPA has continued to apply Appendix S’s NSR requirements in the interim after an area’s nonattainment designation and before implementation of a revised SIP. Thus, after the Congress amended the Act in 1990—adding, inter alia, Subpart 2’s ozone-specific requirements—the EPA again affirmed its policy