State Implementation Plan
Encyclopedia
A State Implementation Plan (SIP) is a United States
state plan for complying with the federal Clean Air Act
, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency
. The SIP consists of narrative, rules, technical documentation, and agreements that an individual state will use to clean up polluted areas.
were introduced. NSPS measures the concentration and amount of pollution put into the air, thus making a taller smoke stack useless under the new standard.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state plan for complying with the federal Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
. The SIP consists of narrative, rules, technical documentation, and agreements that an individual state will use to clean up polluted areas.
Example State Implementation Plan
In Ohio between the dates of 1970 and 1977 a rule in the Clean Air Act required a reduction in the measured SO2 emitted by coal fired power plants into the air. The State Implementation Plan to decrease the SO2 emitted by such plants was to increase the height of the smokestacks on the plants. The result was that the SO2 was carried in the wind out of the state and there was a reduction in the measured SO2. These kinds of exploits in the Clean Air Act were solved in the 1977 revision of the Clean Air Act when the NSPSNew Source Performance Standard
New Source Performance Standards are pollution control standards issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency . The term is used in the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 to refer to air pollution emission standards, and in the Clean Water Act referring to standards for discharges...
were introduced. NSPS measures the concentration and amount of pollution put into the air, thus making a taller smoke stack useless under the new standard.