Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans for Air Quality Planning Purposes; Georgia: Early Progress Plan for the Atlanta 8-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area

On December 31, 2006, the State of Georgia, through the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, submitted a voluntary State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision requesting approval of an Early Progress Plan for the sole purpose of establishing motor vehicle emission budgets (MVEBs) for the Atlanta 8-hour ozone nonattainment area. The Atlanta 8-hour ozone nonattainment area is comprised of the following twenty counties: Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Spalding and Walton counties in their entireties (hereafter referred to as the "Atlanta 8-Hour Ozone Area"). EPA is approving Atlanta's Early Progress Plan, including the new regional MVEBs for nitrogen oxides (NO<INF>X</INF>) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) for 2006. This approval of the Early Progress Plan for the Atlanta 8-Hour Ozone Area is based on EPA's determination that Georgia has demonstrated that the SIP revision containing these MVEBs, when considered with the emissions from all sources, shows some progress toward attainment from the base year (i.e., 2002) through an interim target year (i.e., 2006).