Environmental Protection Agency January 10, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing revisions to requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for state plans for protection of visibility in mandatory Class I Federal areas in order to continue steady environmental progress while addressing administrative aspects of the program. In summary, the revisions clarify the relationship between long-term strategies and reasonable progress goals (RPGs) in state implementation plans (SIPs) and the long-term strategy obligation of all states; clarify and modify the requirements for periodic comprehensive revisions of SIPs; modify the set of days used to track progress towards natural visibility conditions to account for events such as wildfires; provide states with additional flexibility to address impacts on visibility from anthropogenic sources outside the United States (U.S.) and from certain types of prescribed fires; modify certain requirements related to the timing and form of progress reports; and update, simplify and extend to all states the provisions for reasonably attributable visibility impairment, while revoking most existing reasonably attributable visibility impairment federal implementation plans (FIPs). The EPA also is making a one-time adjustment to the due date for the next periodic comprehensive SIP revisions by extending the existing deadline of July 31, 2018, to July 31, 2021.

In the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act, 2017, signed by the President on December 10, 2016, Congress provided $20 million in budget authority for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA) program. This funding covers the Federal government's anticipated cost of providing a much larger amount of credit assistance. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that current budget authority may provide more than $1 billion in credit assistance and may finance over $2 billion in water infrastructure investment. The purpose of this notice of funding availability (NOFA) is to solicit letters of interest (LOIs) from prospective borrowers seeking credit assistance from EPA. EPA will evaluate and select proposed projects described in the LOIs using the selection criteria established in regulation at 40 CFR 35.10055,\1\ and further described in this NOFA as well as the WIFIA program handbook. This NOFA establishes relative weights that will be used in the current LOI submittal period for the selection criteria and outlines the process that applicants must follow to be considered for WIFIA credit assistance.