New Source Review (NSR) Permitting

New Source Review (NSR) requires stationary sources of air pollution to get permits before construction starts.

New Source Review (NSR) Permitting

EPA's New Source Review (NSR) permitting program protects air quality when factories, industrial boilers and power plants are newly built or modified. NSR permitting also assures that:

new or modified industries are as clean as possible, and
advances in pollution control occur concurrently with industrial expansion.

Basic
Information

Learn about New Source Review:
- NSR basics
- What are permits?
- Who issues permits?

Laws,
Regulatory Actions,
and Guidance

Where You Live

Types of
CAA Permits

Clean Air Act Permitting includes:

Outer Continental Shelf and Deepwater Permits
NSR Permitting (this website)
- GHG Permitting
Title V Operating Permits
Tribal Permits

News and Announcements

November 9, 2018 - Draft guidance for public comment: Revised Policy on Exclusions from "Ambient Air"

September 5, 2018 - Draft guidance for public comment: Interpreting Adjacent for New Source Review and Title V Source Determinations in All Industries other than Oil and Gas

April 17, 2018 - Memo to EPA Regional Air Division Directors: Guidance on Significant Impact Levels for Ozone and Fine Particles in the Prevention of Significant Deterioration Permitting Program

March 13, 2018 - Memo to EPA Regional Administrators: Project Emissions Accounting Under the New Source Review Preconstruction Permitting Program

December 7, 2017 - Memo to EPA Regional Administrators: New Source Review Preconstruction Permitting Requirements: Enforceability and Use of the Actual-to-Projected-Actual Applicability Test in Determining Major Modification Applicability

Reposted Ozone and PM2.5 SILs Guidance (PDF) (September 2016)(84 pp, 3 MB, About PDF)

Keys to Permitting Success

Plan. Communicate. Be flexible. Collaborate.

EPA has set a goal to make Agency permit decisions within six months by 2022. To that end, EPA’s Smart Sectors Program is discovering strategies that result in efficient environmental permitting processes. When Boeing decided to secure additional land for future growth in Charleston, SC, it received air and wetlands permits just a few months after submitting permit applications.