Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
secretary
Natural and Historic Resources
Agency
Department of Environmental Quality
Board
Air Pollution Control Board
Petition 3
Petition Information
Petition Title Permits for Stationary Sources - Major NSR (E03)
Date Filed 4/21/2003   
Petitioner Virginia Manufacturers Association 
Petitioner's Request "To initiate an expedited rulemaking pursuant to Section 2.2-4006 A 4 c of the Code of Virginia to incorporate recent federal new source review reforms into Virginia's major new source review regulations (Articles 8 & 9 of 9VAC5-80) 
Agency's Plan At the first available meeting of the State Air Pollution Control Board following the end of the comment period, the Board will make a decision on whether to grant the petition request or deny the petition request. NOTE: All comments must be in writing and reference the specific petition number to which they are responding. This petition number is "E03." Comments may be submitted by mail, facsimile transmission, or email, and must be submitted to the agency contact identified below. Comments by facsimile transmission will be accepted only if followed by receipt of the signed original within one week. Comments by email will be accepted only if the name, address, and phone number of the commenter are included. All testimony, exhibits and documents received are matters of public record. 
Comment Period Began 5/19/2003    Ended 6/9/2003
0 comments
Agency Decision Initiate a regulatory change    
Response Date 10/27/2003
Agency Decision Summary The request to consider incorporating recent federal new source review reforms into Virginia's major new source review regulations is granted based on the following reasons articulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the promulgation of the reforms:
· Use of the NSR reform regulations will result in an overall net benefit to air quality.
· Use of the NSR reform regulations will address long recognized problems with the current regulations.
· Use of the NSR reform regulations will contribute to overall efficiency of permit preparation, review and processing, and thus contribute to resource savings for the state and the regulated community.
· Use of the NSR reform regulations will redirect focus from a wide range of relatively insignificant projects to ones with the potential for significant environmental impact.
· Use of the NSR reform regulations will provide tangible rewards for environmental stewardship by encouraging sources to voluntarily reduce emissions.
The request to use the expedited rulemaking process pursuant to § 2.2-4006 A 4 c of the Code of Virginia to accomplish the above is denied for the following reasons:
· The full APA regulatory process is preferable because it provides opportunity for broad-based public participation and government oversight.
· Exemptions from the full process should be narrowly construed so as not to foreclose that opportunity and to permit the nature and the quality of the regulation to benefit from the full process, including conflict resolution.
· The expedited process has hitherto only been used for noncontroversial regulatory amendments. To approve a potentially controversial regulatory change under the expedited process has never been done,
and doing so would violate the intent of the APA.
· The expedited process should not be applied to a matter where federal requirements may be met in ways other than merely adopting the specified federal provisions, especially in a situation where the mere adoption of the specified federal provisions, at the behest of particular interested stakeholders, may be unacceptable to other stakeholders.
· The EPA regulations are in litigation at the federal level and may change. Use of the expedited process is inadvisable in consideration of this ongoing litigation. EPA has already responded to the court that it intends to seek public comment and reconsider at least one issue associated with its new regulations.
Use of the expedited process is not necessary to meet the EPA SIP submittal deadline.
· Due to the complexity of the EPA regulations, use of an expedited process would not afford the DEQ staff adequate time to gain a thorough understanding of the EPA regulations prior to implementing them.
Associated regulatory action Major New Source Review Reform (Rev. E03) - NEW FINAL
Latest Stage: Final