§7511d Enforcement for Severe and Extreme ozone nonattainment areas for failure to attain

Summary

If a Severe or Extreme ozone area misses its deadline to meet the ozone standard, each big polluting facility that makes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) must pay a fee to the State for every calendar year after the deadline until the area is officially redesignated as meeting the standard. The fee is $5,000 per ton (adjusted each year for inflation beginning the year after 1990) for each ton emitted above 80% of a baseline amount. The baseline is the lower of the facility’s actual emissions or the emissions allowed by its permit during the attainment year (or the allowed amount in the plan if no permit existed). The EPA can allow averaging over multiple years for sources with uneven emissions. If a year is treated as an Extension Year under section 7511(a)(5), no fee is due for that year. States must include how they will assess and collect these fees. If the EPA finds a State’s fee program doesn’t meet the rules or the State is not enforcing it, the EPA can collect unpaid fees itself, following EPA procedures. The EPA may collect fees for earlier periods and add interest under section 6621(a)(2) of title 26. Areas with fewer than 200,000 people can avoid these penalties if they show, using EPA guidance, that pollution came from other places and they have met all required measures.