EPA QUIETLY ISSUES STATE GUIDANCE FOR MAJOR OVERHAUL OF VOC POLICY

EPA has quietly unveiled a long-planned change to its policy for regulating volatile organic compounds (VOCs), issuing an interim guidance that allows states to set the stringency of new rules on a sliding scale based on the compound's reactivity. The document, posted on EPA's Web site Aug. 26, ahead of planned publication in the Federal Register , encourages states to adopt the new approach where feasible. If states adopt a reactivity approach, those VOCs would be given ratings on a...