Regional Haze Regulations and Guidelines for Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) Determinations

On July 1, 1999, EPA promulgated regulations to address regional haze (64 FR 35714). These regulations were challenged, and on May 24, 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a ruling vacating the regional haze rule in part and sustaining it in part. American Corn Growers Ass'n v. EPA, 291 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2002). Today's rule addresses the court's ruling in that case. In addition, prior to the court's decision, EPA had proposed guidelines for implementation of the Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) requirements under the regional haze rule, (66 FR 38108, July 20, 2001). The proposed guidelines were intended to clarify the requirements of the regional haze rule's BART provisions. We proposed to add the guidelines and also proposed to add regulatory text requiring that these guidelines be used for addressing BART determinations under the regional haze rule. In addition, we proposed one revision to guidelines issued in 1980 for facilities contributing to "reasonably attributable" visibility impairment. In the American Corn Growers case, the court vacated and remanded the BART provisions of the regional haze rule. In response to the court's ruling, on May 5, 2004 we proposed new BART provisions and reproposed the BART guidelines. The American Corn Growers court also remanded to the Agency its decision to extend the deadline for the submittal of regional haze plans. Subsequently, Congress amended the deadlines for regional haze plans (Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2004, Public Law 108-199, January 23, 2004). The May 5, 2004 proposed rule also contained an amendment to the regional haze rule to conform to the new statutory deadlines. We received numerous comments on both the July 20, 2001 proposal and the May 5, 2004 reproposal. Today's final rule reflects our review of the public comments.