First Regular Session

Sixty-second General Assembly

LLS NO. R99­0689.02 Pam Cybyske

STATE OF COLORADO

BY REPRESENTATIVES Taylor and Miller;

also SENATOR Wattenberg.

ENGROSSED

AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK AND NATURAL RESOURCES

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 99­1047

CONCERNING RECONSIDERATION OF THE FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S IMPLEMENTATION OF THE "REGIONAL HAZE RULE".

WHEREAS, The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has promulgated the "Regional Haze Rule" which has general national applicability as well as containing alternative provisions that Colorado and other western states may utilize to deal with regional haze problems; and

WHEREAS, The Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission, comprised of the states of Colorado, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming and the Acoma, Hopi, Hualapai, and Navaho tribes, as well as federal agencies, industry, and environmental groups, spent over 9 million dollars and 3 years of detailed study and analysis to directly address regional haze problems and issued their findings in the 1996 report entitled, "Recommendations for Improving Western Vistas"; and

WHEREAS, The federal "Regional Haze Rule" ignores the primary recommendations of the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission to seek to improve haze by regulating all sources of haze, including visibility impairing emissions arising from federal lands; and

WHEREAS, The Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission found that unless emissions from all sources of haze are reduced, a recognizable improvement in visibility cannot be achieved; and

WHEREAS, Colorado is a receptor of haze attributable to upwind sources such as emissions from fires on federal lands, the Republic of Mexico, and sources located in other states; and

WHEREAS, Colorado has participated since 1996 with other western states in the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP), formed as the successor body to implement the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission's comprehensive regional approach to control all sources of regional haze; and

WHEREAS, As the alternative regional provisions mandated in the "Regional Haze Rule" prevent Colorado from receiving credit in its state implementation plan (SIP) for controlling sources of haze other than stationary sources which the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission report found are not a primary cause of western haze; and

WHEREAS, Prior to the promulgation of the "Regional Haze Rule", in violation of procedural fair play, the EPA made major substantive changes to the draft rule without making those changes available for public comment; and

WHEREAS, The United States Congress, in the 1998­99 EPA appropriations measure, specifically recommended to the EPA that the entire "Regional Haze Rule" be redrafted and made available for full public participation and comment on the substantive draft changes; and

WHEREAS, Amendments by other agencies and by other persons identified as representing "western state interests" to the draft rule were offered by the EPA without the opportunity for the general public to comment and without allowing for states that participated in the WRAP to receive credit in their SIPs for regulating sources of haze other than stationary sources; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty­second General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein:

(1)  That the United States Congress is urged to subject the "Regional Haze Rule" to congressional rule review, to reject the rule, and return it to the EPA for proper participation by all interested parties prior to promulgation in accordance with the requirements of the federal "Administrative Procedures Act.

(2)  That the members of the General Assembly respectfully request the Governor of Colorado to withdraw from participation in the WRAP until such time as the "Regional Haze Rule" is revised to allow for effective participation of the state of Colorado in control of all sources of haze on an equal basis.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the Governor of the State of Colorado, the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, each member of Colorado's Congressional Delegation, the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, and the Regional Administrator of EPA Region VIII.