Public Notice: Texas and Oklahoma Regional Haze: SIP Disapproval and Revision of the Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan to Address Reasonable Progress Requirements of the First Planning Period
Summary
Public hearing registration information on this proposal can be found in the section titled "Public Hearing Registration Information" further below on this page. A recording of the August 10, 2023 public hearing livestream is available to view.
The comment period for this proposal closed on September 25, 2023. Comments received can be found at the Federal eRulemaking Portal at Regulations.gov.
On July 13, 2023, EPA proposed a rule to address Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements to protect views in certain national parks and wilderness areas, such as Big Bend National Park in Texas and Wichita Mountains Wilderness in Oklahoma.
EPA is revisiting an action the agency took on January 5, 2016, to address certain Regional Haze requirements for the states of Texas and Oklahoma for the first planning period. In 2016, the agency disapproved portions of Texas’s and Oklahoma’s State Implementation Plans (SIPs) related to making reasonable progress towards the national goal of reducing visibility impairment in certain national parks and other federal wilderness areas. In that same action, EPA promulgated a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that imposed limits on sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions on 15 electric generating units (EGUs) located at 8 power plants in Texas. That action was challenged by Texas and Industry in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Fifth Circuit), which issued an opinion in 2016 staying the rule from taking effect. In response to the stay opinion, EPA requested, and the court granted, the EPA’s voluntary motion to remand the action for reconsideration of certain aspects of the 2016 rule.
NPS air quality monitoring station webcam of Sierra del Carmen in Mexico from Big Bend National Park. Photos courtesy of NPS web cam archives.
To complete our remand, EPA is now revisiting and proposing to disapprove the same portions of Texas’s and Oklahoma’s SIP submissions and provide supplemental rationale, where necessary, to support the proposed disapprovals. The EPA is also proposing amendments to the FIP we promulgated in the 2016 Final Rule by proposing to rescind the FIP SO2 emissions limits we imposed on 15 Texas EGUs in light of a variety of factors.
The comment period on this proposal will be open for 60 days.
To learn more, please find the proposal and a summary fact sheet at the following links:
Public Hearing Registration Information
The EPA held a virtual public hearing on the "Proposed Disapproval of the Texas Regional Haze SIP and Oklahoma Regional Haze SIP and Proposed Revision of the Texas and Oklahoma Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan to Address Reasonable Progress Requirements of the First Planning Period" on August 10, 2023.
Public Hearing Livestream/Recording:
The public hearing livestream and recording on YouTube can be found at the link below.