Ten AGs Filed Comments Opposing EPA’s Proposed Weakening of New Source Review Program

OCTOBER 9, 2019

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal led a coalition of 10 attorneys general in filing comments criticizing the Environmental Protection Agencys’ (EPA) proposed rule to modify the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR) permitting requirements for major modifications of existing facilities. The comments emphasized that the proposed changes would give facility operators excessive discretion to define the scope of a modification and to selectively determine which emissions should be included in project emissions accounting. Because NSR permitting requirements apply only to modifications that result in net emissions increases, dramatically expanding operators’ ability to “net out” modifications from the requirements would undermine the NSR program and jeopardize air quality nationwide. The attorneys general also stressed that the proposed rule weakens state clean air protections by compelling state environmental agencies to adopt the EPA’s “improper new approach” — a violation of the Clean Air Act, which “expressly preserves the states’ rights to impose standards that are more stringent than federal requirements.”