EPA Pivots on Traveling Ozone Plans While Litigation Continues

The Environmental Protection Agency is carrying out court-mandated halts of its new good neighbor ozone plan for certain states, according to an interim final action filed in the Federal Register on Friday.

A federal implementation plan for traveling ozone pollution won’t go into effect for Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas, which are part of a group of states that would have been subject to stricter requirements under the EPA’s new good neighbor standards.

States have been launching lawsuits over the EPA’s denial of their state air plans and subsequent replacement with federal programs. Courts in response have largely frozen the implementation of the good neighbor rules for certain states while litigation carries on.

“EPA is also revising certain other regulations to ensure that sources in these states will continue to be subject to previously established requirements to mitigate interstate air pollution with respect to other ozone NAAQS while the Good Neighbor Plan’s requirements are stayed,” according to the interim final action, which references the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

The action will formally publish on July 31 and go into effect Aug. 4. The interim rule is limited to the states specified, while implementation carries forward in other states regulated under traveling ozone standards.

Good neighbor regulations mitigate emissions from downwind states that create ozone pollution, which travels into upwind states. The EPA’s new good neighbor rule denies air plans from 21 states and adds additional regulated industrial sectors.