On May 11, 2026, EPA issued guidance promoting an expedited process for Title V permitting.
Title V of the Clean Air Act requires certain stationary sources of air pollution to obtain a single permit, enforceable by federal authorities, that must be renewed every 5 years. The program is primarily administered by state, local, or Tribal permitting authorities with oversight from EPA. Title V permits outline the necessary state and federal emission control measures that individual facilities must comply with to operate.
When a facility applies for a Title V permit, the relevant permitting authority (State, local, or Tribal air agency) must provide the public 30 days to comment. The permitting authority must also provide EPA 45 days to review the permit, during which time EPA may object to the permit. If EPA does not object, the public has 60 days following the 45-day period to petition EPA to object.
EPA’s new guidance directed permitting authorities to, when possible, run the public’s 30-day comment period concurrently with EPA’s 45-day review. Current EPA regulations require that if the applicant chooses to do these processes concurrently and the permitting authority receives “significant comment” on the permit, EPA will “no longer consider” the permit as “proposed.” The permitting authority must first respond and make any necessary revisions based on the public’s comments before EPA will consider the proposal. The permitting authority may then resubmit the proposed permit with the additional materials, and EPA’s 45-day review process will begin again.
The new guidance states, however, that “If the EPA has already reviewed the permit, the Agency’s review of the re-proposed permit should be limited in scope to changes to the permit and permit record associated with the significant comments that prompted the re-proposal.”
The guidance also stated that while EPA has 45 days to review the permit, it is not required to use the entire 45-day window and may “communicate to the permitting authority that the Agency does not plan to object” earlier than 45 days. If EPA is therefore re-reviewing a permit following significant comments “the secondary review may not take the full 45 days.”