4002

VETOES

Environmental Protection Agency or other Federal agency
acting pursuant to Section 109 et seq. of the Federal
Clean air Act or other applicable Federal legislation."
To the extent that existing State standards are
inconsistent with this requirement, they are repealed.

The bill also provides that, with regard to all fuel
burning stationary sources of air emissions, all
regulations proposed by the Department and adopted by the
State Board of Health and Mental Hygiene for Garrett and
Allegany Counties shall be identical to "national air
emissions standards established by or pursuant to the
Federal Clean Air Act and other applicable Federal
legislation in effect on July 1, 1975. Previously
adopted regulations which are inconsistent with this
requirement are, as of October 31, 1975, repealed to the
extent of the inconsistency.

House Bill 685 is based upon the assumption,
unfortunately an erroneous one, that there are, in fact,
national air emissions standards in existence which are
less restrictive than standards adopted by the State; and
that if Maryland's standards could be lowered to these
federal standards, a lower priced fossil fuel could be
used by electric generating companies.

The fact is, that although the Federal Government
has adopted emission standards for new sources, it has
not done so with respect to existing sources. Thus,
there are no "national air emissions standards" for "all
fuel burning stationary sources of air emissions". The
bill, to that extent, cannot be implemented, as the
criteria to which the State standards must conform simply
do not exist.

As a result, if this bill became law, the effect
would be uncertain, but clearly not what its authors
intended. One possible effect, according to the Director
of the Environmental Health Administration, would be that
for existing stationary sources, there would be no
standards at all. Another, more likely effect, according
to the Director of the Bureau of Air Quality and Noise
Control, would be that the Federal Government would step
in and enforce the existing State standard. This is, you
may recall, exactly what happened with the "bee's wing"
episode, when the General Assembly attempted to relieve
grain drying installations from State requirements.
Neither effect is what the Legislature intended or what I
can permit to happen.

The provisions added as new Section 693(b)(3) to
Article 43 also raise serious problems. This new
paragraph, as noted, provides that, with respect to
ambient air quality, "all standards" must be identical to
national primary or secondary Federal ambient air quality