-7 IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE PROGRAMS TO PREVENT THE SIGNIFICANT DETERIOPATION OF A WORD HERE ON OUR MORE SPECIFIC PREFERENCES. WE HOPE THAT YOU WILL ADD A CLASS III TO YOUR DESIGNATION SYSTEM, AS YOU DID IN THE CONFERENCE BILL NOW BEFORE YOU AS S. 253. THIS WOULD PROVIDE MORE INDUSTRIAL SITING FLEXIBILITY AROUND NONATTAINMENT AREAS, WHICH MIGHT CONTRIBUTE TO A BASELINE POLLUTION LEVEL HIGH ENOUGH TO PRECLUDE MUCH ADDITIONAL GROWTH IN A NEIGHBORING CLEAN AREA UNDER A CLASS II INCREMENT. A CLASS III WOULD ALSO HELP TO MITIGATE THE DISPERSION OF NEW INDUSTRIAL SITES THAT COULD INCREASE TRANSPORTATION COSTS AND WASTE ENERGY. ANOTHER CONCERN IS THAT THERE BE SOME REASONABLE LIMITS ON THE EXTENT OF FEDERAL LANDS OVER WHOSE AIR RESOURCES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY. THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM FOR NEW YORK, BUT IT CAN BE ARGUED THAT SOME STATES, PARTICULARLY IN THE WEST, WHERE THERE ARE LARGE FEDERAL LAND HOLDINGS, ARE PUT AT A DEVELOPMENTAL DISADVANTAGE; THEIR POTENTIAL FOR FURTHER INDUSTRIAL GROWTH HAS BEEN LIMITED AT THE OUTSET BY FEDERAL ACQUISITION DECISIONS THAT HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN BEYOND THEIR CONTROL. THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOGNIZES THAT THERE ARE SOME FEDERAL LANDS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALONE HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT, AND OUR POLICY HOULD RESERVE FROM STATE CONTROL LARGE NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDERNESS AREAS. BUT THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE LANDS AND OTHERS, SUCH AS THE MULTI-USE HOLDINGS OF THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, WHERE STATE CONTROL IS FULLY JUSTIFIED. -8 WE ARE PLEASED THAT THE COMMITTEE HAS MADE SUCH DISTINCTIONS, ALTHOUGH WE ARE CONCERNED THAT THE COMMITTEE'S PROPOSED PROCEDURES FOR VARIANCES FROM THE INTRUSION REQUIREMENTS OVER SOME CLASS I FEDERAL LAND MAY PROVE TO BE TOO CUMBERSOME. PERHAPS ONE SOLUTION WOULD BE TO REQUIRE THE FEDERAL LAND MANAGER OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS, PRIMITIVE AREAS, AND NATIONAL PRESERVES, TO CONSULT WITH AFFECTED STATES AND BUILD A RECORD OF THEIR COMMENTS FOR A REPORT TO BE SUBMITTED TO THEM AND THE CONGRESS WITHIN A YEAR. THIS PROPOSAL IS SIMILAR TO THAT IN S. 253, EXCEPT FOR THE RECORD-BUILDING REQUIREMENT FOR STATE COMMENTS FOR CONGRESSIONAL DECISION-MAKING. I WOULD ALSO SUGGEST THAT IN REVIEWING THE STATUS OF THESE LANDS, THE FEDERAL LAND MANAGER BE EXPLICITLY REQUIRED TO CONSIDER NOT ONLY ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS BUT ENERGY, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS AS WELL. IF YOU AGREE TO INCORPORATE THIS AMENDMENT, I HOPE THAT IN THE COMMITTEE REPORT YOU WOULD ALSO TAKE CARE TO DEFINE "AFFECTED STATE" FOR PURPOSES OF CONSULTATION AS ANY STATE WHOSE EXISTING OR PROPOSED P.S.D. CLASSIFICATIONS MAY CAUSE OR CONTRIBUTE TO A VIOLATION OF A CLASS I INCREMENT OVER THE FEDERAL LAND IN QUESTION. BEFORE I CLOSE, LET ME MAKE TWO OTHER POINTS. FIRST, WE ARE PLEASED AT YOUR PROPOSED AMENDMENT THAT FEDERAL FACILITIES BE SUBJECT TO ALL STATE AND LOCAL SUBSTANTIVE AND PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS, INCLUDING PERMIT CONDITIONS. SECOND, YOUR PROPOSED WAIVER FROM THE MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT REQUIREMENT FOR STATE PROGRAM FUNDING OFFERS ESSENTIAL RELIEF FROM FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS WHERE STATES ARE FORCED TO MAKE GENERAL ACROSS-THE-BOARD REDUCTIONS IN STATE AGENCY BUDGETS. AS I'M SURE YOU ARE AWARE, NEW YORK IS IN JUST THIS DIFFICULTY, AND IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO PENALIZE US WITH A POTENTIAL CRIPPLING BLOW TO OUR CLEAN AIR PROGRAM AS THE RESULT OF A FISCAL BELT-TIGHTENING WE HAVE ALREADY FOUND DIFFICULT ENOUGH. WE HOPE YOU WILL RETAIN THESE TWO AMENDMENTS WHEN YOU COMPLETE YOUR MARKUP. IN CLOSING, WHILE I APPLAUD ALL WARRANTED EFFORTS TO ENHANCE THE FLEXIBILITY OF STATES IN MEETING THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES, AND I RECOGNIZE THAT SOME DELAYS ARE NECESSARY TO ACCOMMODATE NEEDS OTHER THAN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I AND THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES SUPPORT FEDERALLYMANDATED STANDARDS TO ESTABLISH A FLOOR ON THE DEGRADATION OF OUR NATION'S AIR. WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU TOWARD THE EARLIEST REASONABLE ATTAINENT OF THESE STANDARDS. 84-239 - 77-45 NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY POSITION ON CLEAN AIR State Air Pollution Control It has been asserted that: "All civilization will pass but away, not from sudden cataclysm like a nuclear war, from gradual suffocation in its own wastes." While this statement may be somewhat dramatic, the facts of one form of waste alone, air pollution, are nothing less than astounding. The hundreds of millions of tons of aerial garbage dumped into the United States atmosphere each year constitute a prodigious waste of potentially valuable resources. These pollutants are damaging to health, defacing buildings, and despoiling crops. They cannot be tolerated. The states assume primary responsibility for the health and well-being of their citizens. They accept the challenge of providing clean air for people, whatever their number or density. To achieve this end, they must be able to plan for the control of air pollution from all sources, to implement the requisite programs, and to enforce compliance with standards established to meet their respective needs. The NCSL believes that such intent implies that states must be allowed to: 1. Establish air quality control regions of appropriate dimension, whether regional, state, or interstate; 2. Establish ambient or emission standards stricter than those set by the federal government, where warranted; 3. Retain the authority to enforce regulations which they promulgate; 4. Develop multi-jurisdictional approaches to the solution of common air pollution control prob. lems and urge that Congress expedite action on any necessary, state-approved interstate compacts; 5. Expect the federal air pollution control programs will be funded to the fullest extent of authoriza tion to provide grant assistance to the state and regional implementing programs for the contro! of air pollution. The NCSL also urges Congress, in amending the Clean Air Act, to recognize the following principles: 1. Current auto emission standards and attainment dates should be retained. 2. Continuous emission compliance deadlines for certain powerplants must be extended to recognize shortages in equipment and low-sulfur coal, but nothing in the Clean Air Act should prevent the Administrator from requiring sich powerplants to enter into contract, bei 1950 to purchase flue gas deer erization s d. necessary to achieve seconds a quality standards for sulfur oxides. 3. a state so requests and demonstrates to FPA that all available practical control measures will be implemented, such state should be authorized to extend the final compliance date for the attainment of national primary air quality standards for suspended particulate matter. 4. Any proposed federal actions that would cause state or local air quality standards to be exceeded should require prior state consent. Such consent should include but not be limited to federal actions concerning regional limitations on compliance date extensions, installations eligible for compliance date extensions, compliance plan requirements, dates of termination of compliance date extensions, and waivers for technology innovations. 5. A state should be given reasonable notice prior to any EPA contact with a pollution source within the state concerning a violation of any implementation plan, standards of performance, or emission standard. Such notice should specify the EPA Administrator's reasons for believing a violation has occurred, and provide reasonable time for the state to take corrective action. 6. Upon petition of a state, or with a state's prior consent, the Administrator of EPA should be empowered to change the boundaries of an air quality control region, or create a new region to provide more flexibility for the state to develop control strategies suited to local problems. 7. Federal facilities should be required to comply with all state and local air quality control and abaternent procedures, particularly permit require transportation control mestres in the state's applicable implementation plan have been implemented according to the plan. 10. Each state should be allowed to establish an air quality planning program for areas with pollution exceeding national air quality standards as the state itself sees fit, consistent with broad federal guidelines developed in cooperation with the states. In no case should the federal government require the adoption of specific land use controls as elements of such programs, nor shall state or local governments be denied federal funds for the construction of highways or water pollution con. trol facilities for failure to adopt an air quality planning program consistent with federal guidelines. 11. In complying with requirements to prevent significant deterioration of air cleaner than federal standards, states should be allowed to: a. Regulate air quality over federal lands, Senator Edmund Muskie Chairman, Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution United States Senate Dear Mr. Chairman: RE: Clean Air Act Amendments (S. 251,252, 253) The National Oil Jobbers Council is a federation of 42 state and regional associations whose membership includes over twelve thousand independent small business marketers of petroleum products. Our members wholesale and/or retail approximately 25% of the gasoline sold in the United States. Their interest in the Clean Air Act is very great because they are perhaps the first group of small businessmen to be heavily impacted by our nation's air clean up program. Until now the National effort to clean up the air had been aimed at the twenty thousand "major" sources of air pollution. The effort to abate the pollution caused by the hundreds of thousands of smaller sources is just begining. The success of this effort, and ultimately the success of the entire clean up program, is dependent upon the realization that, while small business pollution is no better than big business pollution, compliance programs for small business must differ from those for big business. The conference report on last years S. 3219 recognized this fact in its treatment of "vapor recovery for small business marketers of petroleum products" (Section 321). By requiring a phase-in of required equipment purchases and an FTC study of impacts on competition, this section tends to preserve small businesses while allowing the nation to move ahead in the environmental area. As the attached NOJC comments show, independent oil marketers are cooperating with the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to find a solution to the hydrocarbon emission problem which will allow for their continued existance in business. Section 321, as approved by last year's conferees, furthers this end, and we support it. The conferees also attempted to alleviate a vapor recovery caused problem faced by independent dealers by its adoption of Section 320. This section prohibits the "owner" (identified as the owner of an outlet's pumps and tanks) A Federation of Independent Petroleum Marketers Founded in 1941 Merged with the National Oil Fuel Institute in 1974. |