Fact Sheet

Determination to Grant Clean Air Act Section 176A Petition from Maine

Action:

•	On January 26, 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a petition from the
state of Maine requesting removal of a portion of the state from the Ozone Transport Region
(OTR). The petition was submitted consistent with the requirements of section 176A(a) of the
Clean Air Act (CAA).

•	In its February 2020 petition, the state of Maine requested that EPA remove the state, except
for 111 towns and cities comprising the Androscoggin Valley, Down East, and Metropolitan
Portland Air Quality Control Regions, commonly referred to as the "Portland and Midcoast
Ozone Areas," from the OTR. Maine based its petition on the area's continued attainment with
ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and technical analyses demonstrating
that the control of emissions from the state do not significantly contribute to ozone attainment
in any area in the OTR.

•	EPA has determined that additional OTR controls under CAA section 184(b) for the portion of
the state that Maine requested be removed from the OTR will not significantly contribute to
attainment of any ozone NAAQS in any area of the current OTR. Additionally, the portion of the
state being removed from the OTR does not contribute to a violation of any ozone standard in
any area of the OTR.

Background:

•	Section 176A(a) of the CAA provides the EPA Administrator with the authority to develop
interstate transport regions for particular pollutants where the Administrator determines that
interstate transport of air pollutants from one or more states contributes significantly to
violations of air quality standards in other states.

•	In the 1990 CAA Amendments, Congress created the OTR by statute under section 184(a) to
address the interstate transport of ozone pollution in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of
the United States. The OTR includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
the District of Columbia, and portions of northern Virginia.

•	The creation of an interstate transport region requires establishing a transport commission with
representatives from each state who make recommendations to mitigate interstate pollution.
Model rules and programs designed through the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) may be
adopted by the individual states through their own rulemaking processes. Under CAA section
184(c), the OTC may petition the EPA to approve additional control measures to be applied
within all or part of the transport region.

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•	Section 176A(a)(2) of the CAA provides the Administrator with the authority to remove any state
or portion of a state from a transport region whenever there is reason to believe that the
control of emissions in that state or portion of the state will not significantly contribute to the
attainment of the ozone standard in any area in the region.

For More Information:

•	Interested parties can download a copy of the final rule from EPA's Web site at the following
address: https://www.epa.gov/ground-level-ozone-pollution/ozone-national-ambient-air-
quality-standards-section-176-petitions.

•	This final action and other background information are also available electronically at
https://www.regulations.gov/. EPA's electronic public docket and comment system. It can
be accessed using Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-0310.

•	For further technical information about the proposed rule, contact Holly DeJong, EPA's
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, at deiong.holly@epa.gov.

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