Rules and Regulations. Direct final rule

Agency: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Action: Direct final rule
Citation: FR Doc. 2014-11487 · EPA-R05-OAR-2014-0274; FRL-9910-92-Region 5 · 40 CFR 52

Summary

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving Illinois' March 28, 2014, state implementation plan (SIP) revision to the 1997 8-hour ozone maintenance plan for the Illinois portion of the Chicago-Gary-Lake County, Illinois-Indiana area (the Greater Chicago Area). This SIP revision establishes new Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets (MVEB) for volatile organic compounds (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NO ^X ) for the year 2025. EPA is approving the allocation of a portion of the safety margin for VOC and NO ^X in the ozone maintenance plan to the 2025 MVEBs. Total year 2025 emissions of VOC and NO ^X for the area will remain below the attainment level required by the transportation conformity regulations.

Dates

This direct final rule is effective July 21, 2014, unless EPA receives adverse comments by June 23, 2014. If adverse comments are received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not take effect.

Supplementary Information

Throughout this document whenever “we,” “us,” or “our” is used, we mean EPA. This supplementary information section is arranged as follows: I. What is the background for this action? II. What is a safety margin? III. How does this action change the Chicago area's ozone maintenance plan? IV. What action is EPA taking? V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews I. What is the background for this action? On August 13, 2012 (77 FR 48062), EPA approved a request from the State of Illinois to redesignate the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area to attainment of the 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS). In addition to approving the ozone redesignation request, EPA approved the State's plan for maintaining the 1997 8-hour ozone standard in the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area through 2025. The ozone maintenance plan established MVEBs for VOC and NO ^X for the year 2025 to account for new transportation planning assumptions. MVEBs are the projected levels of controlled emissions from the transportation sector (mobile sources) that are estimated in the SIP to provide for maintenance of the ozone standard. The transportation conformity rule allows the MVEB to be changed as long as the total level of emissions from all sources remains below the attainment levels. II. What is a safety margin? A “safety margin”, as defined in the transportation conformity rule (40 CFR part 93 subpart A), is the amount by which the total projected emissions from all sources of a given pollutant are less than the total emissions that would satisfy the applicable requirement for reasonable further progress, attainment, or maintenance. The attainment level of emissions is the level of emissions during one of the years in which the area met the NAAQS. Table 1 gives detailed information on the safety margin for the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area. Table 1 includes a comparison of the VOC and NO ^X emissions in the year 2008 (Illinois' attainment year), to the projected emissions of VOC and NO ^X in the year 2025. The difference between the projected emissions in the year 2025 and the actual emissions in the year 2008 is referred to as the safety margin or the amount of excess emission reductions. Table 1—Safety Margin for Chicago's 1997 8-Hour Ozone Maintenance Plan Pollutant 2008 Attainment year emissions (tons/day) 2025 Projected year maintenance emissions (tons/day) Safety margin (tons/day) VOC 787.45 611.95 175.60 NO ^X 896.76 427.11 469.65 Illinois has requested the allocation of 12 tons/day of the VOC and 25 tons/day of NO ^X from the safety margins to the MVEBs. The revised maintenance plan will have a safety margin of 163.6 tons/day of VOC and 444.65 tons/day of NO ^X . The 2025 projected emissions, even with this allocation, will be below the 2008 attainment year emissions for both VOC and NO ^X . For this reason, EPA finds that the allocation of the safety margin to the 2025 MVEBs for the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area meets the requirements of the transportation conformity regulations at 40 CFR part 93, and is approvable. III. How does this action change the Chicago area's ozone maintenance plan? This action changes the MVEBs for mobile sources. The maintenance plan is designed to provide for future growth while still maintaining the ozone NAAQS. Growth in industries, population, and traffic is offset by reductions from cleaner cars and other emission reduction programs. Through the maintenance plan, the State and local agencies can manage and maintain clean air quality while providing for growth. In the submittal, Illinois requested to allocate a portion of the safely margins for VOC and NO ^X to the 2025 MVEBs. Table 2 details the updated MVEBs for the 1997 8-hour ozone maintenance plan for the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area. Table 2 shows the 2025 MVEBs for VOC and NO ^X (approved by EPA on August 13, 2012), the amount of excess emission reductions or safety margin to be allocated into the new MVEBs, and the new 2025 MVEBs for VOC and NO ^X . Table 2—Chicago 1997 8-Hour Ozone Maintenance Plan MVEBs Pollutant Approved 2025 MVEB (tons/day) Safety margin allocation (tons/day) New 2025 MVEB (tons/day) VOC 48.13 12.00 60.13 NO ^X 125.27 25.00 150.27 IV. What action is EPA taking? EPA is approving a revision to the 1997 8-hour ozone maintenance plan for the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area. The revision will change the MVEBs for VOC and NO ^X that are used for transportation conformity purposes. The revision will keep the total emissions for the area at or below the attainment level required by law. This action will allow State or local agencies to continue to maintain air quality while providing for transportation growth. We are publishing this action without prior proposal because we view this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipate no adverse comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this Federal Register publication, we are publishing a separate document that will serve as the proposal to approve the state plan if relevant adverse written comments are filed. This rule will be effective July 21, 2014 without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse written comments by June 23, 2014. If we receive such comments, we will withdraw this action before the effective date by publishing a subsequent document that will withdraw the final action. All public comments received will then be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on the proposed action. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time. Please note that if EPA receives adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the rule, EPA may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not the subject of an adverse comment. If we do not receive any comments, this action will be effective July 21, 2014. V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Clean Air Act and applicable Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve state choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act. Accordingly, this action merely approves state law as meeting Federal requirements and does not impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by state law. For that reason, this action: • Is not a “significant regulatory action” subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993); • Does not impose an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. ); • Is certified as not having a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. ); • Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4); • Does not have Federalism implications as specified in Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999); • Is not an economically significant regulatory action based on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997); • Is not a significant regulatory action subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001); • Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent with the Clean Air Act; and • Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994). In addition, this rule does not have tribal implications as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), because the SIP is not approved to apply in Indian country located in the state, and EPA notes that it will not impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law. The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the United States. EPA will submit a report containing this action and other required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior to publication of the rule in the Federal Register . A major rule cannot take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register . This action is not a “major rule” as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2). Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by July 21, 2014. Filing a petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect the finality of this action for the purposes of judicial review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such rule or action. Parties with objections to this direct final rule are encouraged to file a comment in response to the parallel notice of proposed rulemaking for this action published in the proposed rules section of today's Federal Register , rather than file an immediate petition for judicial review of this direct final rule, so that EPA can withdraw this direct final rule and address the comment in the proposed rulemaking. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).) List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52 Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Oxides of Nitrogen, Ozone, Volatile organic compounds, Incorporation by reference. Dated: May 2, 2014. Susan Hedman, Regional Administrator, Region 5. 40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows: PART 52—APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS 1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows: Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq. 2. Section 52.726 is amended by adding paragraph (oo) to read as follows: § 52.726 Control strategy; Ozone. (oo) Approval —On March 28, 2014, the State of Illinois submitted a revision to its State Implementation Plan for the Illinois portion of the Chicago-Gary-Lake County, Illinois-Indiana area (the Greater Chicago Area). The submittal established new Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets (MVEB) for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NO ^X ) for the year 2025. The MVEBs for the Illinois portion of the Greater Chicago Area are now: 60.13 tons per day of VOC emissions and 150.27 tons per day of NO ^X emissions for the year 2025. [FR Doc. 2014-11487 Filed 5-21-14; 8:45 am]