Protect California Air Act of 2003 - Senate Bill 288

This page last reviewed April 19, 2011

Overview of SB 288

Senate Bill 288, the "Protect California Air Act of 2003," was signed into State law on September 22, 2003, with an effective date of January 1, 2004. That law, developed in response to concerns regarding federal changes to New Source Review, places restrictions on changes that California air pollution control districts can make to their local New Source Review rules. Such local rules guide the pre-construction permitting of new and modified stationary sources of air pollutants.

• Types of rule changes prohibited by SB 288
  
  
• Types of rule changes allowed by SB 288
  
  
• New steps involved in making rule changes
  
  

Senate Bill 288 Implementation Guidance

• 2007 Hearing Guidance Document 
  
  
• 2006 Letter from Catherine Witherspoon, Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board, to all California Air Pollution Control Officers transmitting the revised implementation guidance document and the process guidance document.
  
  
• 2006 Revision to Implementation Guidance
  
  
  • Underline/strikeout version showing changes from 2004 document.
    
    
  • Letter from W. Thomas Jennings, Chief Counsel of the California Air Resources Board to Barbara Baird, Principal Deputy District Counsel of the South Coast Air Quality Management District discussing the legal basis for the 2006 Revision to the Implementation Guidance.
    
    
• 2006 Process guidance document that describes ARB review process for implementing Senate Bill 288.
  
  
  • Flow chart of process
    
    
• 2004 Letter from Catherine Witherspoon, Executive Officer of the California Air Resources Board, to all California Air Pollution Control Officers transmitting the guidance document.
  
  
• 2004 Implementation Guidance document on Senate Bill 288 implementation prepared by the Air Resources Board's legal staff.
  
  

District Rules

Senate Bill 288 prohibits California districts from changing their New Source Review rules in ways that would make them less stringent than the rules that existed on December 30, 2002, as submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for inclusion into the State Implementation Plan. December 30, 2002 is the day before the first federal New Source Review changes were published in the Federal Register. (Each district name will link to a list of its NSR rules.)

Relevant versions of the California district New Source Review rules as they existed on or prior to December 30, 2002

Amador	Feather River	Mariposa	Northern Sonoma	Shasta
Antelope Valley	Glenn	Mendocino	Placer	Siskiyou
Bay Area	Great Basin	Modoc	Sacramento	South Coast
Butte	Imperial	Mojave	San Diego	Tehama
Calaveras	Kern	Monterey	San Joaquin Valley	Tuolume
Colusa	Lake	North Coast	San Luis Obispo	Ventura
El Dorado	Lassen	Northern Sierra	Santa Barbara	Yolo-Solano

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Federal New Source Review Regulations as they existed on December 30, 2002 *Hard copies of the federal regulations are also available for purchase at a cost of $0.10 per page, or a CD can be purchased for $2.00. Please contact Chris Gallenstein at (916) 327-8017.	40 CFR 51.165 40 CFR 51.166 40 CFR 51 Appendix S 40 CFR 52.21 40 CFR 52.24 40 CFR 52.270
Federal New Source Review Permitting Manual, 1990	The United States Environmental Protection Agency published a New Source Review permitting manual in 1990 that spells out, in clear terms, the federal New Source Review requirements in effect at the time.
National Archives and Records Administration-Code of Federal Regulations	Complete collection of current and past versions of federal regulations.
ARB Presentations	Senate Bill 288 - Limits Changes to Air Districts' New Source Review Rules (Powerpoint slides, 82 KB) Presentation to the Industrial Environmental Association and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, November 20, 2003.

For more information about SB 288, please contact Chris Gallenstein at (916) 324-8017.