Nonattainment Major New Source Review Implementation Under 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard: Reconsideration

On April 30, 2004, the EPA (we)(in this preamble, the terms "we" and "us" refers to the EPA, and "our" refers to EPA's. All other entities are referred to by their respective names (e.g., commenter)) took final action on key elements of the program to implement the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS or 8-hour standard). In that final action, we addressed certain implementation issues related to the 8-hour standard, including the nonattainment major New Source Review (NSR) program mandated by part D of title I of the Clean Air Act ("the Act" or "CAA"). Following this action, EarthJustice filed a petition on behalf of several organizations requesting reconsideration of several aspects of the final rule including implementation of the nonattainment major NSR program, among other issues. By a letter, dated September 23, 2004, we granted reconsideration of three issues raised by the petition for reconsideration filed by EarthJustice. One of these issues relates to implementation of the major NSR program. On April 4, 2005, in response to the request for reconsideration relating to aspects of the nonattainment major NSR program for the 8- hour standard, we proposed to retain the final rule as promulgated on April 30, 2004. (70 FR 17018). We requested comment on and provided additional information related to whether we should interpret the Act to require areas to retain major NSR requirements that apply to certain 1-hour ozone nonattainment areas in implementing the 8-hour standard. We also requested comment on whether we properly concluded that a State's request to remove 1-hour major NSR provisions from its State Implementation Plan (SIP) will not interfere with any applicable requirement within the meaning of section 110(l) of the Act. Today, we are re-affirming our April 30, 2004 final rule. We conclude that the requirements for nonattainment major NSR under the 8- hour standard will be based on a nonattainment area's classification for the 8-hour