Draft rules on regulating greenhouse-gas tailpipe emissions are ready for public comment, according to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
DEQ has crafted the rules to match California standards, which depart from the federal auto-emission rules. The federal government does not regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks. But the Clean Air Act allows California to set tougher auto-emission standards, if the Environmental Protection Agency grants a waiver.
Once California gets a waiver, other states can follow that state’s lead. Arizona and a dozen other states are doing so.
The EPA, however, denied the waiver request in December, prompting a lawsuit against the agency by California. Arizona and 15 other states have joined California as interveners.
DEQ officials seek to have the rules formally approved by summer. The draft rules are available for viewing on the agency’s Web site, www.azdeq.gov. Click on the link to the Jan. 10 press release, then on the link for notice of proposed rulemaking. For comments or information, the public can call David Lillie of the DEQ’s air quality planning section at 602-771-4461 or 1-800-234-5677 or by e-mailing Lillie at Lillie.David@azdeq.gov.
The agency has scheduled a meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 3 in conference room 250 at the DEQ building, 110 W. Washington in Phoenix to take public comments. That is the final day of the comment period.