The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) oversees emission inventories through their Office of Air Resources. All counties in the state are designated by the EPA as attainment for criteria pollutants under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Rhode Island, however, is located the Northeast Ozone Transport Region (OTR), and as such, nonattainment new source reviews still apply to all new major stationary sources or any major modification at stationary sources.
In Rhode Island stationary sources must obtain ERCs to satisfy the offset ratio requirements for the proposed emissions increase. Major sources must obtain ERCs if they emit more than:
- 50 tpy of NOx
- 50 tpy of VOC
- 100 tpy of SO2
- 100 tpy of CO
- 100 tpy of PM
In Rhode Island the current offset ratio for NOx and VOC is 1.2 to 1 tons of ERCs to each ton of emissions. For all other criteria pollutants, the offset ratio is 1.1 to 1 tons of ERCs to each ton of emissions.