Approval and Promulgation; Georgia Transportation Conformity State Implementation Plan Memorandum of Agreement for the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

EPA is promulgating a minor correction to its previous approval of the transportation conformity State Implementation Plan (SIP) for Atlanta, Georgia promulgated on April 7, 2000 (65 FR 18249). This direct final rulemaking will amend EPA's approval of the Georgia Transportation Conformity SIP, so that the current SIP is consistent with the March 2, 1999, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court that affected the transportation conformity regulations pertaining to triggers and the frequency of conformity determinations. As a consequence of this correction, Georgia will no longer be required to make a new conformity determination within eighteen months of the submission date of an initial SIP. Alternatively, EPA's August 6, 2002, rulemaking revision (67 FR 50808) will now govern the establishment of the eighteen-month conformity clock for initial SIP submissions. The eighteen-month clock for initial SIPs will begin upon the effective date of EPA's adequacy finding for the motor vehicle emissions budgets in such submitted SIPs.