Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; State of Texas; Regional Haze and Interstate Visibility Transport Federal Implementation Plan

In the January 4, 2017 Federal Register, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requested comments by March 6, 2017 on a proposed rule pertaining to Clean Air Act requirements for regional haze and interstate visibility transport. This proposal would promulgate a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) to address the Clean Air Act requirement for eligible electric generating units (EGUs) in Texas to install and operate the Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART). This proposal would also disapprove a portion of the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) that evaluated BART for Particulate Matter (PM) at EGUs. In addition, this proposal reconsiders earlier disapprovals of portions of several SIP revisions submitted to satisfy the requirement to address interstate visibility transport for six National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), newly proposing that they be disapproved and that the proposed EGU BART FIP would satisfy any FIP obligation for interstate visibility transport that would follow from those disapprovals. EPA is extending the public comment period for this proposal until May 5, 2017.