Administrative Stay of Clean Air Interstate Rule for Minnesota; Administrative Stay of Federal Implementation Plan To Reduce Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone for Minnesota

This final rule administratively stays the effectiveness, for Minnesota and Minnesota sources only, of two rules issued under section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) related to the interstate transport of pollutants. On May 12, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) requiring Minnesota and other states in the eastern U.S. to submit State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions to limit sulfur dioxide (SO<INF>2</INF>) and nitrogen oxides (NO<INF>X</INF>) emissions in order to eliminate the significant contribution of these states to nonattainment for fine particulate matter (PM<INF>2.5</INF>) and/or ozone, and eliminates interference with maintenance of attainment, in downwind states. On April 28, 2006, EPA issued Federal Implementation Plans (CAIR FIPs) to serve as a backstop until replaced by approved SIPs. Subsequently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed and remanded CAIR. Among other things, the Court held that EPA had not properly addressed possible errors in analysis supporting the inclusion of Minnesota in CAIR for fine particulate matter. In this final rule, EPA is administratively staying the effectiveness of CAIR and the CAIR FIP with respect to Minnesota and sources in Minnesota only, pending further rulemaking in response to the remand.