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PA TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY RULES TAILORED FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS
Release Date: 08/01/97
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1997
TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY RULES TAILORED
FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS
FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS
EPA clarified the transportation conformity rule to provide states greater flexibility when planning clean air programs to reduce mobile source air pollution. The amended rule addresses concerns raised by stakeholders and is part of Administrator Browner’s and President Clinton’s regulatory reinvention efforts. The transportation conformity rule implements the Clean Air Act requirement for local governments and the U.S. Department of Transportation to determine that federally funded or approved transportation plans, programs and projects do not cause or contribute to new violations of air quality standards, worsen existing violations or delay attainment of air quality standards. The amended rule gives state and local governments increased authority to set performance measures to determine conformity. Several provisions respond directly to stakeholders’ concerns; for example, the final rule allows state and local officials more discretion to advance previously planned non-federal transportation projects when there is no conforming transportation plan or program. Under the original rule, non-federal projects could not be approved without a conforming transportation plan and program. The final rule also allows states to determine conformity using emission reduction targets in their state implementation plans, without waiting for EPA to approve it. This largely eliminates the use of the "build/no-build” test. In addition, the rule gives rural areas more options for demonstrating conformity, tailors procedural modeling requirements to different types of areas and applies specific modeling requirements only to large, urbanized areas with populations greater than 200,000. Details of today’s announcement are available on the EPA conformity web site at www.epa.gov/omswww/transp.htm#conform.
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