Air permitting and infrastructure bills

New Source Review Permitting Improvement Act

• Sets a 10-year hourly-emissions test: A change would count as increasing emissions for the New Source Review definition of a modification only if the source’s maximum achievable hourly emission rate after the change is higher than the rate it achieved during any hour in the preceding 10 years
• Exempts certain efficiency and safety changes: A change designed to reduce pollution per unit of production, or to restore, maintain, or improve a source’s reliability or safety, generally would not count as a modification. The exception would not apply if the change meets the bill’s modification test and EPA determines the higher hourly rate would harm human health or the environment
• Limits what counts as construction: For preconstruction requirements in both prevention-of-significant-deterioration and nonattainment programs, construction would mean physical construction of discrete parts of an emissions unit. Other on-site work would not count by itself, and a change at a major emitting facility would not count as construction under the bill’s definition unless it causes a significant increase or significant net increase in annual actual emissions

1. Introduced
2. In committee
3. Reported▲ THIS MARKUP
4. Passed House
5. Passed Senate
6. Law

What’s next: a floor vote. None is scheduled.