New Clean Air Bill Links EPA Guidance to Permit Reviews, Exempting Some Projects from 2024 PM2.5 Standards

The “Clean Air and Building Infrastructure Improvement Act” is a procedural bill that changes how new air quality standards—and specifically the latest fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard—get applied to major construction permits. It’s less about changing pollution limits and more about slowing down the clock on when those limits kick in for big industrial projects.

The EPA’s New Homework Deadline

Section 2 of this Act essentially tells the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to get its act together right away. Currently, when the EPA sets a new National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS)—say, lowering the acceptable amount of ozone—it often takes time to issue the detailed rules and guidance needed for state and local agencies to implement the new standard in their permitting processes. This creates a confusing period for everyone involved.

This bill mandates that when the EPA finalizes a new air quality standard, it must simultaneously publish all the necessary implementation guidance for preconstruction permits. If the EPA misses this deadline and doesn't publish the guidance, the new standard simply won’t apply to anyone applying for a preconstruction permit. For example, if a new rule requires a factory to use a more expensive scrubber system, but the EPA hasn't provided the necessary instructions on how to evaluate that, the factory gets to stick with the old, less stringent standard for permitting until the guidance arrives.

In theory, this creates regulatory certainty, which is a good thing for businesses trying to plan. But the catch is that it also provides a clear mechanism to delay the environmental improvements mandated by the new standards. The only saving grace is that the bill explicitly states that even with this delay, any permit applicant still has to install the best available pollution control technology (BACT or LAER), which is already required under existing law.

The PM2.5 Carve-Out

Section 3 gets specific, focusing on the EPA’s new 2024 PM2.5 standard. PM2.5 is that microscopic soot that gets deep into your lungs and is linked to serious health issues. When the EPA sets a new standard, it eventually designates areas as non-attainment (meaning the air quality is bad). This designation triggers stricter rules for new polluters in those areas.

This section creates a significant exemption: If a construction permit application for a major pollution source was already considered complete, or if the public was notified about a draft permit, before the EPA officially designates the area as non-attainment under the new 2024 standard, that project gets to be reviewed under the old air quality rules. Think of it as a grandfather clause with a short fuse.

For communities near these planned projects, this is a big deal. If a new factory was planning to build in your town and submitted its paperwork just before the non-attainment designation, it could lock in less stringent pollution controls for decades, even though the EPA has already determined those older standards aren't protective enough of public health. While the bill preserves the requirement for the best available technology (BACT), avoiding the application of the new, tighter PM2.5 limits means those communities will be breathing air based on outdated health metrics for longer.