What is a RACT plan approval and how does it differ from a standard air permit?

A RACT plan approval establishes the specific emission control technology and operational requirements a facility must use to meet the Clean Air Act's 'reasonably available control technology' standard for major sources in ozone nonattainment areas. A Title V operating permit incorporates and cross-references RACT requirements but may also include other conditions. When RACT conditions are submitted to EPA as part of a state's SIP and EPA approves them, those conditions gain federal enforceability under Clean Air Act Section 110(a) — meaning EPA can enforce them directly, not just the state permitting agency.

Does the PGW Richmond SIP revision change any emission limits for the facility?

No. EPA confirmed that the May 2026 SIP revision for the Philadelphia Gas Works Richmond Plant results in no change of emission allowances under RACT. The revision removes a plan condition — a procedural or operational requirement — without altering the NOx or VOC emission limits the facility is required to meet. This distinction is critical: emission limits and plan conditions are separate elements of a RACT approval, and removing a condition does not weaken the underlying standard.

What is the anti-backsliding standard under Clean Air Act Section 110(l)?

Section 110(l) prohibits EPA from approving any SIP revision that would interfere with attainment or maintenance of any National Ambient Air Quality Standard. When a state proposes to remove a condition from a RACT plan, EPA must find that the removal does not relax emission control and will not impede the area's progress toward attainment. In the PGW Richmond case, EPA made that finding, supported by the fact that emission allowances remain unchanged.

Which facilities in Pennsylvania need to review their RACT determinations?

Any major source in a Pennsylvania ozone nonattainment area should review its current RACT determination — defined as facilities emitting 50 tons per year or more of NOx or VOCs in a serious nonattainment area, or 100 tons per year or more in a moderate nonattainment area. This review is especially important for facilities whose RACT plans were submitted under earlier nonattainment designations that have since been revised, or whose operations have materially changed since the original RACT analysis. Applicable requirements are codified at 25 Pa. Code §§ 129.96-100.

How long does a SIP condition removal typically take from start to finish?

From state submission to EPA final rule, SIP revisions typically take two to five years for straightforward actions and considerably longer for complex ones. The PGW Richmond revision involved a condition incorporated in October 2016; the final rule was published in May 2026 — nearly a decade after original incorporation. Facilities that identify outdated or misaligned RACT plan conditions should begin engaging their state permitting authority as early as possible, since the process cannot be meaningfully accelerated once it enters the formal SIP revision pathway.

Pennsylvania RACT SIP Revision: Air Permit Compliance Guide

The Lesson Before the Details

When EPA published its final rule approving Pennsylvania's SIP revision for the Philadelphia Gas Works Richmond Plant on May 29, 2026 (Federal Register document 2026-10771), most facilities in ozone nonattainment areas probably didn't notice. That's understandable. A rule that removes one condition from a single facility's RACT plan — with no change in emission allowances — sounds administrative, not strategic.

But there's something worth paying attention to here, and it has nothing to do with Philadelphia Gas Works specifically. What this rulemaking shows is how RACT plan conditions can accumulate inside a SIP over years, how those conditions can outlive their original purpose, and how the revision process works when a state and EPA align on removing something that no longer serves the regulatory intent.

In my view, that's the real compliance lesson: RACT approvals are not permanent, and neither are their conditions. If your facility is operating under an older RACT determination — especially one incorporated into your state's SIP in the 2010s — this is a good time to review what conditions are actually binding and whether any of them may be candidates for revision.

What RACT Is and Why It Carries Federal Weight

Reasonably Available Control Technology is the baseline emission control requirement that Clean Air Act Section 182(b)(2) imposes on major stationary sources in ozone nonattainment areas. If your facility emits nitrogen oxides (NOx) or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) above applicable major source thresholds, you are required to implement RACT.

What "reasonably available" means in practice is a state-level determination, reviewed by EPA. States develop RACT requirements through their State Implementation Plans under Clean Air Act Section 110(a). EPA then reviews and approves or disapproves those SIP submissions. Once EPA approves a RACT determination, it becomes federally enforceable — not just as a state obligation, but as a condition that EPA itself can enforce directly.

This is the part that surprises many facility operators: once your RACT determination gets incorporated into your state's SIP and EPA approves it, you are no longer simply operating under a state permit condition. You are operating under a federal standard embedded in the SIP. Modifying or removing any condition requires going back through the full SIP revision process. That process is slow, public, and non-trivial.

Pennsylvania's specific RACT framework is established through 25 Pa. Code Chapter 129, particularly §§ 129.96 through 129.100, which govern NOx RACT II requirements for major sources. Pennsylvania has been navigating ozone nonattainment designations — particularly in the Philadelphia metro area — for decades, and the SIP reflects that accumulated history.

What Changed for Philadelphia Gas Works

The Philadelphia Gas Works Richmond Plant (PGW Richmond) is a natural gas distribution and processing facility operating in Philadelphia County, which has historically been designated as a serious ozone nonattainment area under EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. That classification imposes more stringent RACT requirements than moderate or marginal nonattainment areas — including a lower major source threshold of 50 tons per year of NOx or VOCs.

On October 7, 2016, EPA incorporated a RACT Plan Approval for PGW Richmond into Pennsylvania's SIP. That approval included a specific condition — the condition at the center of this revision. Pennsylvania subsequently submitted a SIP revision request to EPA, seeking to remove that condition from the RACT Plan Approval.

The critical detail: this revision results in no change of emission allowances under RACT. The facility's actual emission limits remain intact. What changed is a plan condition — a procedural or operational requirement attached to the RACT approval — not the underlying NOx or VOC limits that RACT is designed to achieve.

This distinction matters. A RACT plan can include both emission limits (the hard numbers defining what a facility may emit) and plan conditions (requirements about how the facility demonstrates, reports, or maintains compliance with those limits). Removing a plan condition does not change the emission limits. It changes how compliance is demonstrated or what operational constraints apply — often because the original condition was tied to equipment or processes that have since changed, or because a more workable compliance pathway has been identified.

How a SIP Condition Gets Removed: The Process

Understanding how this revision happened is useful for any facility that may want to pursue something similar. The process is not simple, but it is well-established.

Step 1 — State initiates the revision. Pennsylvania identified that the condition in PGW Richmond's RACT Plan Approval was no longer necessary or appropriate and submitted a SIP revision to EPA's Region 3 office. This submission is made under Clean Air Act Section 110(l), which requires that any revision to an approved SIP must not interfere with attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS.

Step 2 — EPA proposes the revision. EPA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register, opening a public comment period. This is the standard process under 40 CFR Part 51 for all SIP revisions.

Step 3 — EPA evaluates the anti-backsliding standard. Under Section 110(l), EPA must determine that removing the condition does not relax overall emission control and will not impede the area's progress toward attainment. In this case, EPA made that finding — supported by the fact that emission allowances remain unchanged.

Step 4 — EPA finalizes and publishes. The final rule was published May 29, 2026, with an effective date 30 days after publication.

The timeline from original SIP incorporation (October 2016) to condition removal (May 2026) is nearly a decade. That is not unusual. SIP revisions move slowly, especially when the revision requires demonstrating to EPA that removing a condition does not degrade air quality or undermine RACT's regulatory purpose.

How This Scenario Compares Across Facility Types

Facility Scenario	RACT Implication	SIP Status Consideration
New major source in nonattainment area	RACT analysis required before permit issuance	Determination submitted with permit application
Existing source with pre-2016 RACT determination	May need RACT II review under updated state rules	Confirm whether RACT II was submitted and EPA-approved
Source with conditions in SIP-incorporated RACT plan	Conditions are federally enforceable	Review conditions against current operations
Source that changed operations since RACT approval	Changed operations may affect RACT compliance	SIP revision may be necessary; notify state authority
Source in area reclassified to more severe nonattainment	More stringent RACT may now apply	Additional SIP submissions likely required

That last row deserves real attention. EPA's 2015 ozone NAAQS revision — setting the standard at 70 ppb — triggered new nonattainment designations and, in some areas, reclassifications to more stringent categories. If your facility is in an area that received a more severe classification after your original RACT determination, you may be operating under an outdated plan that was appropriate for a moderate nonattainment designation but needs revisiting under a serious or severe designation.

The Philadelphia Ozone Context

The Philadelphia area has been subject to ozone nonattainment designations across multiple NAAQS cycles. Under the 2015 ozone NAAQS (70 ppb), Philadelphia-area counties were designated as serious nonattainment. Serious nonattainment under the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments means major source thresholds drop to 50 tons per year for NOx and VOCs, and RACT applies to all sources at or above that threshold — a broader compliance universe than the 100 ton-per-year threshold that governs moderate nonattainment areas.

According to EPA's ambient monitoring data, the Philadelphia metropolitan area has continued to record ozone concentrations exceeding the 70 ppb NAAQS in recent monitoring years. That ongoing nonattainment status means RACT obligations for major sources in the region remain fully active — and that SIP-incorporated conditions retain their federal enforceability regardless of what a facility's state operating permit says on its face.

Pennsylvania has documented its RACT II program — the state's framework for applying RACT under the 2008 and 2015 NAAQS — through 25 Pa. Code §§ 129.96-100, adopted through rulemaking and incorporated into the SIP through a series of EPA approvals. According to EPA's SIP tracking system, Pennsylvania has submitted multiple RACT-related SIP revisions over the past decade as the state and individual facilities have worked to align their plans with evolving operations and updated regulatory requirements.

Three Things Compliance Officers Should Do Now

1. Audit your RACT determination for SIP incorporation. Pull your facility's RACT plan and any associated permit conditions. Check whether and when those conditions were submitted to EPA for SIP incorporation. If they were incorporated, they carry federal enforceability that goes beyond your state operating permit.

2. Review conditions against current operations. RACT plan conditions written in 2012 or 2016 may reference equipment, operational parameters, or monitoring approaches that have since changed. If your operations have evolved and your RACT plan conditions haven't followed, you may have a compliance gap — or conditions that no longer reflect how you actually operate, which creates unnecessary compliance burden and potential inspection exposure.

3. Engage your state permitting authority early if a revision is warranted. The SIP revision process is slow. If you identify conditions that should be updated or removed, start the conversation with your state agency now. The process from state submission to EPA final rule can take years. Early engagement also helps avoid situations where outdated conditions become the basis for enforcement during a permit renewal or inspection cycle.

I've worked through this process with clients in Pennsylvania and other nonattainment states. In my experience, the gap between what a RACT plan says and what a facility is actually doing tends to grow quietly over time, as operations evolve but the plan document doesn't follow. It rarely becomes a problem until an inspection reveals a condition someone had forgotten about — or until a permit renewal forces a line-by-line review of every SIP-incorporated commitment.

RACT in 2026: Still Active, Still Evolving

RACT is not a relic of 1990s Clean Air Act implementation. It is an active, evolving obligation for major sources in ozone nonattainment areas, and those areas continue to include large portions of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and parts of the Midwest and West.

EPA has continued to receive and process RACT-related SIP revisions across numerous states, reflecting the reality that RACT determinations made under earlier nonattainment designations need periodic updating as operations change, equipment is modified, and regulatory standards are revised. The PGW Richmond action is one example of a facility-specific revision that moved through the process successfully — and the key to that success was that the revision came with a clear demonstration that no emission allowances were being weakened.

At the same time, EPA's cross-state air quality programs have reinforced NOx reduction obligations for states including Pennsylvania, adding regulatory pressure on top of RACT that makes source-specific RACT plan accuracy more important, not less. A facility operating under an outdated or misaligned RACT plan faces compounding exposure when multiple regulatory programs are tracking the same source.

The core takeaway from this rulemaking is simple: EPA will approve a SIP revision that removes a plan condition when the anti-backsliding analysis holds and emission allowances are unchanged. That is a workable pathway. But it requires the facility to have done its homework on what the condition actually does, why removing it doesn't reduce environmental protection, and how to document that argument for state and federal review.

Effective Dates and Key Deadlines

Original RACT Plan Approval incorporated into Pennsylvania SIP: October 7, 2016
EPA Final Rule published (removing the condition): May 29, 2026 — Federal Register document 2026-10771
Effective date of the revision: Approximately June 28, 2026 (30 days after Federal Register publication)
Pennsylvania RACT II obligations: Ongoing for major sources in nonattainment areas; no sunset date

For Pennsylvania sources generally: if your facility has not yet undergone a RACT II review under 25 Pa. Code §§ 129.96-100 and you are a major source in an ozone nonattainment area, that obligation applies to current operations. Contact Pennsylvania DEP's Bureau of Air Quality for guidance on the current RACT II submission process and any pending deadlines for your area.

Citation Hooks

Once a state's RACT determination is incorporated into the SIP and approved by EPA under Clean Air Act Section 110(a), it becomes federally enforceable — meaning EPA can enforce it directly, independent of the state's permitting authority.

EPA's May 29, 2026 final rule approving Pennsylvania's SIP revision for the Philadelphia Gas Works Richmond Plant demonstrates that condition-only SIP revisions are viable when the Section 110(l) anti-backsliding analysis shows no change in emission allowances — establishing a useful precedent for similarly situated facilities.

In serious ozone nonattainment areas like Philadelphia, RACT applies to major sources at or above 50 tons per year of NOx or VOCs — a threshold that is 50 percent lower than the 100 ton-per-year threshold governing moderate nonattainment areas, making the compliance universe significantly broader.

For questions about your facility's RACT status or how to approach a SIP revision, contact Certify Consulting for a compliance consultation. With 200+ clients served and a 100% first-time audit pass rate, we help facilities in regulated industries navigate complex air permit requirements from initial RACT analysis through SIP revision support.

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Last updated: 2026-06-18