Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee

The Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee (MWAQC) is the entity certified, under the Clean Air Act, to prepare an air quality plan for the Washington region. This air quality plan comprises the Washington region's portion of three federally required State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for the attainment of air quality standards for Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. MWAQC is certified by the mayor of Washington and the governors of Maryland and Virginia. It includes local elected officials, representatives of the state and D.C. air management and transportation agencies, state legislators and the chair of the TPB. The regional air quality plan includes an emissions ceiling ("an emissions budget") for mobile sources of emissions (vehicles), as well as emissions reduction requirements for other sources of air pollution, such as power plants. The TPB must show that the CLRP and TIP will conform to the mobile source emissions ceilings for the specific milestone years established in the regional air quality plan.