Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; State of Delaware; Withdrawal of Final Rule for Transportation Conformity

EPA is hereby withdrawing a direct final rule approving Delaware's transportation conformity regulation as a revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP). EPA published the direct final rule on February 23, 1999 (64 FR 8723). However, on March 2, 1999, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its opinion in Environmental Defense Fund v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 97-1637. In that opinion, the Court vacated portions of the federal transportation conformity rule which had been incorporated into Delaware's transportation conformity regulation and which had served as the basis for EPA's evaluation and approval of that regulation. A revised federal transportation conformity rule must be promulgated, and Delaware's regulation amended, to reflect that revised federal rule.