Clean Air Act Advisory Committee Subcommittee on Air Quality Management Structure November 28, 2005 Purpose One of the key goals of the Subcommittee on Air Quality Management is to assess and develop Phase 2 recommendations for long-term changes to the air quality management system based on recommendations made by the National Research Council in its 2004 report (Air Quality Management in the United States). The AQM Subcommittee will also assist in tracking and serve as a sounding board for EPA's work on implementation of 38 Phase 1 recommendations made by the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC) in January 2005. Phase 1 Implementation At the June 16-17 meeting of the AQM Subcommittee in Ann Arbor, we heard a few of the same issues that were discussed at length under the Phase 1 effort. We do not envision the work of the AQM Subcommittee reinventing the Phase 1 efforts or generating another list of short-term recommendations. As you know, our Phase 1 report includes 38 recommendations that focus on improvements to the current system and are intended to begin a steady evolution of change. These recommendations are intended to be implemented in the near-term (1 to 5 years). EPA has accepted all 38 recommendations and has begun discussions and made resource commitments. Implementation of the Phase 1 recommendations is an important step in guiding EPA and others on future actions. EPA's implementation plan for the Phase 1 recommendations is available on the CAAAC website at: http://epa.gov/air/caaac/aqm.html. Components of Phase 2 Based on discussions at meetings of this Subcommittee in Ann Arbor in June and Arlington, VA in July, the AQM Subcommittee agreed on the following team structure for this Subcommittee. 1) The AQM Planning Process 2) New and Improved AQM Tools Each of these teams is discussed in more detail on the pages that follow. Each team will have three leaders. Teams will conduct their work through conference calls and in breakout sessions at Subcommittee meetings. Each team will report regularly on its progress. Final recommendations in each area will be based on significant consensus reached by the Full Subcommittee. Subcommittee members may participate in more than one team and participation on the teams by interested parties who are not members of the Subcommittee is encouraged. EPA will provide some logistical support to the teams as well as technical and policy support. For the Phase 2 effort, this Subcommittee is committed to taking a more holistic look at air quality management and identifying how we could meet future challenges. We encourage each of you to think more broadly on how air quality management practices could be applied at the State and local levels as well as nationally. We also would like to emphasize the need to expand 1 ------- our discussions to include Tribal lands and encompass their issues and approaches into our overall AQM planning process. Structure for AQM Subcommittee Teams: Team 1) The AQM Planning Process -This team will design a process for managing air quality that simultaneously addresses (or addresses in an integrated fashion) the full range of air quality issues (health, welfare, and ecosystems). It will take a more in depth look at the pollution problems we have to solve in the future and develop larger, more fundamental recommendations to the AQM system to address these problems. This team should work to develop specific responsibilities that each of the stakeholder groups would agree to implement under a new AQM system (i.e., industry agreement to install certain level of control on new plants regardless of location). Below are some potential components that may be important for this team to address: • Problem definition and determining necessary reductions • Determine meaningful boundaries (e.g. state, air shed or other approach) • Transform the SIP process • Provide for continuous progress and accountability (are goals being achieved) • Deal with pollution transport (intercontinental, cross-border, regional, interstate) • Define roles at each level of government (federal, state, tribal, local) • Incorporate environmental justice and local impacts in air quality plans • Adapt the AQM system to a changing (and most likely warmer) climate and increase coordination with other activities addressing climate change* • Assess multi-pollutants, multi-effects • Coordinate AQM with land use (agriculture, forestry, sprawl, water impacts) • Increase trust between stakeholder groups, government agencies, and the public • Improve communication and access to information • Build partnerships among States, Tribes, industry, EPA and others • Be more proactive at problem solving • Expedite procedural requirements • Build in feedback mechanisms • Enhance ecosystem protection • Increase collaboration on energy use • While the Subcommittee did not have consensus on the wording of this bullet, all members agreed that work could proceed. Team 2) New and Improved AQM Tools - This team will develop and describe emission management strategies and tools to meet ever more stringent/ambitious air quality goals. It may focus on efficient and effective control strategies such as voluntary programs or economic incentive-based programs and identify ways to foster such approaches. We anticipate this team working closely on economic incentive approaches with CAAAC's Subcommittee on Economic Incentives and Regulatory Innovation. This team will also look to create and expand linkages between the air quality management process and management processes in related areas such as energy, agriculture, forest management, land use, transportation, water quantity and quality. As we look more holistically at our AQM process, this team will be tasked with identifying ways we 2 ------- can coordinate the AQM process and other activities to encourage efficient land use and energy use, and to work more closely on transportation planning. This team will begin by reviewing and, as appropriate, expanding recommendations submitted back in the late-1990s by the CAAAC's existing Subcommittee on Linking Land Use, Transportation and Air Quality. Below are some of the potential components that may be addressed by this team: Expand market/economic incentive approaches Achieve reductions, including criteria and toxic pollutants, from existing sources (stationary, area, and mobile) Ensure new sources are as clean as possible Identify areas where additional federal regulations are appropriate Expand the use of pollution prevention (e.g., efficiency, conservation, renewable/alternative energy sources) Encourage innovative, voluntary and flexible policy approaches (i.e., sectors) Ensure that emissions reductions are achieved from all source categories (including traditional and non-traditional sources) Ensure that any new tools or strategies for use in the air quality management system be evaluated for their benefits or disbenefits to greenhouse gas emissions Expand control strategies to link AQM with land use Spur new technology Consider multiple pollutants when developing control programs and requirements Improve permitting Incorporate accountability/evaluation metrics into program design Further integrate transportation plans into AQM pollution mitigation programs Expand investments in human and technical resources Team 2 will be asked to develop specific recommendations or approaches that may also need to be addressed as part of the overarching AQM process (Team 1). These teams will need to coordinate throughout the process to ensure that efforts are not duplicated and that the Subcommittee is moving in an integrated fashion. Bringing recommendations back through the Full Subcommittee will help keep everyone apprised of all the team activities. Schedule: Each team will be responsible for developing a schedule for meetings and deliverables. The Subcommittee co-chairs will ask for periodic updates and schedule meetings for the Full Subcommittee to hear reports from each of the two teams. Below is the planned schedule for meetings over the next several months. At each Full CAAAC meeting, we hope to run our AQM Subcommittee meetings longer (6 to 8 hours) than the typical 2 hour subcommittee meetings. Subcommittee Mtg October 18-19 San Diego Full CAAAC Mtg Nov 16-17 El Paso, TX Subcommittee Mtg Jan 24-25,2006 Dallas, TX Full CAAAC/Subcommittee Mtg Apr 2006 DC area Expected Work Product: The goal of the Subcommittee should be to finalize its work by the November 2006 CAAAC meeting. The final product should consist of a series of specific recommendations that EPA, States, Tribes, industry, environmentalist, and other stakeholders can implement in support of 3 ------- our vision and principles, and ultimately the AQM system we present to the CAAAC for consideration. Some of the recommendations may be fairly broad in nature and reflect shifts in policy and approaches to managing the AQM system. Other recommendations will be fairly specific and designed to produce actual reductions in emissions, improvements in accountability, or changes to the planning process. Under the current Clean Air Act, the nation has made tremendous progress in protecting public health and the environment. It is likely that most of the recommendations that the Subcommittee develops could be implemented within the current Act. However if the Subcommittee is truly going to be creative in its work, there will almost certainly be recommendations developed that will require legislation to implement. While it is not the role of the Subcommittee to advocate for changes to the CAA, the Subcommittee's final report can serve as a resource to the Agency and to Congress. 4 ------- |