ubmit plans, for providing inadequate plans, or for failure to implement approved SIPs. The range of possible sanctions included "a ban on approval of new highway projects and a loss of highway funding, as well as a requirement for 2 to 1 offsets of existing pollution before new construction projects may be approved."
In addition, the 15 years for full implementation of most portions of the amendments meant that all parties were working under the constraint of very tight deadlines. In the first years of the EPA often missed the scheduled implementation dates and various parties, including Public Citizen and the Sierra Club, routinely sued the EPA and the courts established deadlines which, according to the Air Policy Office director, "the agency has just never missed." This, however, produced further contention as the EPA was "criticized for ignoring statutorily-imposed deadlines in favor of meeting court-ordered deadlines." The rules delays were also quite serious because the States were required to meet the pre-set deadlines for implementat
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