Illinois Regulators Work to Avoid Federal Clean Air Act Sanctions by …

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency building. (Capitol News Illinois file photo)

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois faces a deadline next month to either change the way it enforces air pollution emission limits on heavy industries or face federal sanctions that could eventually result in restricted access to billions of dollars in federal highway funding.

But state agencies are working to avoid that as they rush to meet an Aug. 12 deadline imposed by the federal government to put a new regulatory framework in place that will comply with the federal government’s current interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

Those rule changes, which come from the Illinois Pollution Control Board, are up for review on Tuesday, July 18, before the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a 12-member group that exercises oversight over the state’s administrative rulemaking process.

“At this point, any future course for this rulemaking depends entirely on JCAR’s review and…