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

Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing a partial approval of the 2009 Texas Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) submission and a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for Texas to address certain outstanding requirements. Specifically, the EPA is finalizing determinations regarding best available retrofit technology (BART) for electric generating units (EGUs) in the State of Texas. To address the BART requirement for sulfur dioxide (SO2), the EPA is finalizing an alternative to BART that consists of an intrastate trading program addressing the SO2 emissions from certain EGUs. To address the BART requirement for oxides of nitrogen (NOX), we are finalizing our proposed determination that Texas' participation in the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule's (CSAPR) trading program for ozone-season NOX qualifies as an alternative to BART. We are approving Texas' determination that its EGUs are not subject to BART for particulate matter (PM). Finally, we are disapproving portions of several SIP revisions submitted to satisfy the CAA requirement to address interstate visibility transport for six national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS): 1997 8-hour ozone, 1997 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (annual and 24-hour), 2006 PM2.5 (24-hour), 2008 8-hour ozone, 2010 1-hour nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 2010 1-hour SO2. We are finding that the BART alternatives to address SO2 and NOX BART at Texas' EGUs meet the interstate visibility transport requirements for these NAAQS.