EPA Eases ‘Contingency Measures’ For States Failing To Meet NAAQS

EPA in a just-issued draft guidance is easing mandates for states to impose “contingency measures” (CMs) in areas failing to make sufficient progress in meeting federal air quality standards, a development that may help areas in California and elsewhere that struggle with high pollution levels and have few options to take extra steps to curb them. According to the March 17 draft guidance , EPA is planning to ease several steps and measures it has previously used to assess the...