Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today released the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Sept. 16 update of the flawed exceptional events rule. Final revisions were made in part due to concerns over the onerous and costly efforts Arizona cities and counties are forced to make to avoid federal penalties when uncontrollable, naturally occurring “exceptional events” – such as dust storms and wildfires – impact air quality.
“Thanks to the hard work of Arizona stakeholders, the EPA has finally listened and made the first step in streamlining the process in which exceptional events are evaluated,” said Flake. “With continued support, we can push for additional common sense improvements to this rule that will further protect states from unfair penalties.”
Background: In 2005, Congress amended the Clean Air Act to ensure that states and localities are not considered in violation of federal air-quality standards due to uncontrollable, naturally occurring events – otherwise known as “exceptional events” – such as the dust storms and wildfires that occur in Arizona.
The resulting exceptional events rule, promulgated by the EPA in 2007, has proven to be broad and vague, sapping state and local air quality agencies of limited resources to prove that even routine naturally occurring events are not the result of manmade pollution. States and localities are burdened with a cumbersome and sometimes indefinite process that often seems to consider states and localities guilty of air quality violations until proven innocent.
On Nov. 10, 2015, the EPA announced that it would reopen and revise the exceptional events rule. The EPA also announced it would host a public hearing to solicit and incorporate input from stakeholders and the public at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in Phoenix, Ariz. on Dec. 8, 2015.
On Feb. 2, 2016, Flake was one of three federal, state, or local officials to offer comment on the proposed exceptional events rule revision. Flake’s comment can be read here.
Flake has introduced legislation to address concerns with the exceptional events rule – known as the Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reform (CLEER) Act – in the 112th, 113th and now the 114th Congress. Flake also testified at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in support of the CLEER Act in June 2015.
In 2011, while serving in the House of Representatives, Flake passed an amendment expressing the sense of Congress that there should be an approach to exceptional events that maximizes transparency and predictability for states, tribes, and local governments, while minimizing the regulatory and cost burdens those governments should bear in excluding such events. In 2012, Flake inserted language into the report accompanying the FY 2013 interior appropriations bill that highlighted the issue of exceptional events, air quality regulations, and required EPA to provide Congress with additional information on the topic.
Flake has also taken steps to ensure that Arizona’s interests and concerns will be well-represented during the revision of the exceptional events rule. In Sept. 2013, Flake hosted Arizona stakeholders to hear their concerns and discuss a strategy to prod EPA into revising the rule.
Flake took those concerns directly to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and, in Nov. 2013, secured a rare Arizona-only listening session, affording key Arizona stakeholders the opportunity to put forth directly to the agency, their insights and priorities with regard to a revision of the exceptional events rule.
###
