REFERENCE TITLE: EPA; regional offices; move

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

First Regular Session

2025

HCM 2008

Introduced by

Representative Willoughby

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

Urging the President of the united states and the director of the united states environmental protection agency to move Arizona from one EPA region to another or to move the regional office to Arizona.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

To the President of the United States of America and the Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the mission of which is to protect human health and the environment, has ten regional offices; and

Whereas, each regional office is responsible for the execution of EPA's programs within several states and territories; and

Whereas, regional offices allow the EPA to address health and environmental concerns in a specific area of the country across a set of commonalities in that area, including environmental, economic, cultural and other conditions in common; and

Whereas, Region 9 includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribal nations, the regional office for which is in San Francisco; and

Whereas, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and other public and private stakeholders in the Phoenix-Mesa nonattainment area in this state have experienced challenges in dealing with EPA administrators who are based out of the EPA Region 9 office in San Francisco; and

Whereas, these challenges have included the EPA failing to recognize legitimate natural background sources of ozone precursors, such as from native species indigenous to the Southwest, and international transport of ozone and ozone precursors from other countries and states, including California, Mexico and China, which cannot reasonably be controlled and in the case of native plant species, including shade trees, should not be controlled; and

Whereas, public and private stakeholders in Arizona have worked diligently over the past two decades to implement over 90 ozone control measures in this region, including robust regional multimodal transportation investments and expanded transit options, yet the stakeholders have continued to face increased scrutiny and unrealistic expectations from the EPA; and

Whereas, modeling conducted by MAG has found that, even if this state were to remove all four million on-road vehicle engines in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan area, this drastic, costly and unrealistic measure would not bring the Phoenix-Mesa nonattainment area into compliance with the 2015 ozone standard under the current design value; and

Whereas, leadership at the EPA Region 9 office has not acted on the revised Maricopa County Air Pollution Control Regulations II ─ Rules 204 and 205, which allow parties in the Phoenix-Mesa nonattainment area to earn nontraditional emission reduction credits for implementing reasonable emission precursor control measures on nontraditional sources and mobile sources, such light and heavy duty vehicles, which are the primary source of ozone emission precursors in some nonattainment areas; and

Whereas, the EPA Region 9 office is failing to meet the needs of and adequately recognize the circumstances in Arizona. Region 8, which includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and 28 tribal nations, is a better fit for the concerns of Arizona.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1. That the President of the United States and the Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency do one of the following:

(a) Move Arizona from EPA Region 9 to EPA Region 8.

(b) Move the EPA Region 9 office from California to Arizona.

2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States and the Director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.