New Guidance on Using Voluntary and Emerging Measures to Meet Air Standards Should Help Industry

States are required to adopt and implement State Implementation Plans (“SIPs”) designed to attain and maintain the national ambient air quality standards (“NAAQSs”). The emissions control measures that SIPs have traditionally imposed on industrial sources, however, have not always resulted in attainment of the NAAQSs in all areas. With the recent tightening of the NAAQSs for ozone and particulate matter, attaining them will become even more difficult. As a result, States have looked to voluntary and emerging measures in addition to traditional emission control strategies to include as part of their SIPs.