NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1979 SESSION

CHAPTER 931
SENATE BILL 677

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 143-215.107(0 SO AS TO CLARIFY THE AUTHORITY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 143-215.107(f) is amended by rewriting the second paragraph of that subsection as follows:
"It is the intent of the General Assembly (1) that the air quality rules, regulations, procedures, plans, practices, air quality standards, and emission control standards adopted by the Environmental Management Commission pursuant to this Article or Article 21, or by any other State or local regulatory body under the General Statutes of North Carolina, shall be no more restrictive and no more stringent than required to comply with federal ambient air quality standards or other applicable federal requirements, if any, adopted in final or proposed regulations by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under or pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act, and amendments thereto; except (2) that no air quality rules, regulations, procedures, plans, practices, air quality standards or emission control standards shall be adopted by the Environmental Management Commission with respect to matters on which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has not proposed or adopted final regulations unless the Environmental Management Commission first considers, among other things, an assessment of the economic impact of the proposed standards. The Department shall prepare and submit into the record of the rule-making hearing an economic impact study of such proposed standards. Such study shall include an estimate of the economic and social costs to commerce and industry, units of local government, and agriculture necessary to comply with the proposed standards and an examination of the economic and social benefits of such compliance."
Sec. 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) for the 1979-80 fiscal year and thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) for the 1980-81 fiscal year, in addition to all other appropriations, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act.
Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective July 1, 1979.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 8th day of June, 1979.