[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 4, 1998)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 5734-5735]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-2719]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 73

[FRL-5961-4]


Acid Rain Program; Auction Offerors to Set Minimum Prices in 
Increments of $0.01

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: Title IV of the Clean Air Act, as amended by the Clean Air Act 
Amendments of 1990 (the Act), authorized the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) to establish the Acid Rain Program to reduce the adverse 
health and ecological effects of acidic deposition. The program 
utilizes an innovative system of marketable allowances that are 
allocated to electric utilities. Title IV mandates that EPA hold yearly 
auctions of allowances for a small portion of the total allowances 
allocated each year. Private parties may also offer their allowances 
for sale in the EPA auctions and specify a minimum sales price. 
Currently, the regulations require that an offeror's minimum sales 
price be in whole dollars (see 40 CFR part 73, Subpart E, Sec. 73.70 ). 
No such restriction applies to auction bidders and since 1995, EPA has 
allowed bidders to submit bids in increments of less than a dollar. The 
restriction on minimum offer prices was originally intended to 
facilitate administrative ease, but allowing minimum sales prices in 
increments of $0.01 would not change the design, operation, or 
administrative burden of the auctions in any way. In addition, it would 
be consistent with the flexibility afforded auction bidders. Thus, EPA 
is proposing to amend the current regulations to allow offerors to 
submit their minimum offer price in increments of $0.01.
    Because this rule revision was discussed in an Advance Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking (see the June 6, 1996 Federal Register, Vol. 61, 
Number 110, pp. 28995-28998) and EPA received no adverse comments, this 
revision is being issued as a direct final rule.

DATES: This direct final rule will be effective on March 11, 1998, 
unless significant, adverse comments are received by March 6, 1998. If 
significant, adverse comments are received on this direct final rule, 
the direct final rule will be withdrawn through a notice in the Federal 
Register.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kenon Smith, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Acid Rain Division (6204J), 401 M Street SW, 
Washington, DC 20460, (202) 564-9164.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Any significant adverse comments received on 
this direct final rule, by the date listed above, will be addressed in 
a subsequent final rule. That final rule will be based on the rule 
revision that is noticed as a proposed rule in the Proposed Rule 
Section of this Federal Register and that is identical to this direct 
final rule.
    EPA's Acid Rain Program established an innovative, market-based 
allowance trading system to reduce SO2 emissions, one of the 
primary precursors of acid rain. Under this system, fossil fuel-fired 
power plants, the principal emitters of SO2, were allotted 
tradeable allowances based on their past fuel usage and emissions. Each 
allowance entitles a boiler unit in a plant to emit 1 ton of 
SO2 during or after the year specified in the allowance 
serial number. At the end of the year, the number of allowances a unit 
holds must equal or exceed the total emissions at that unit; otherwise, 
stringent penalties will apply. After the year 2000, the total number 
of allowances allocated each year will be about half of what the 
utility industry emitted in 1980.
    Allowances may be bought, sold, or banked like any other commodity. 
If a unit has surplus allowances, it may sell them to units whose 
emissions levels exceed their allowance supply, or it may bank the 
allowances for future years.
    Because the availability of allowances and allowance price 
information is crucial to ensure the economic efficiency of the 
emissions limitation program and facilitate the addition of new 
electric-generating capacity, title IV mandates that EPA hold or 
sponsor yearly auctions for a small portion of the total allowances 
allocated each year. The Act also allows private holders of allowances 
to use the auctions as a vehicle to sell excess allowances. Offerors 
can set a minimum sales price to insure that their allowances will not 
sell for less than that price. Both the auction bid prices and minimum 
offer prices are revealed to the public each year to better inform the 
allowance market.

Administrative Requirements

A. Executive Order 12866

    Under Executive Order 12866, 58 FR 51735 (October 4, 1993), the 
Administrator must determine whether the regulatory action is 
``significant'' and therefore subject to Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) review and the requirements of the Executive Order. The 
Order defines ``significant regulatory action'' as one that is likely 
to result in a rule that may:
    (1) Have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or 
adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the 
economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public 
health or safety, or State, local or tribal governments or communities;
    (2) Create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an 
action taken or planned by another agency;
    (3) Materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlement, grants, 
user fees, or loan programs or the rights and obligations of recipients 
thereof; or
    (4) Raise novel legal or policy issues arising out of legal 
mandates, the President's priorities, or the principles set forth in 
the Executive Order.
    Pursuant to the terms of Executive Order 12866, it has been 
determined that this rule is not a ``significant regulatory action'' 
because the rule does not meet any of the criteria listed above. As 
such, this action was not submitted to OMB for review.

[[Page 5735]]

B. Unfunded Mandates Act

    Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (``Unfunded 
Mandates Act'') requires that the Agency prepare a budgetary impact 
statement before promulgating a rule that includes a Federal mandate 
that may result in expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments, 
in aggregate, or by the private sector, of $100 million or more in any 
one year. Section 203 requires the Agency to establish a plan for 
obtaining input from and informing, educating, and advising any small 
governments that may be significantly or uniquely affected by the rule.
    Under section 205 of the Unfunded Mandates Act, the Agency must 
identify and consider a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives 
before promulgating a rule for which a budgetary impact statement must 
be prepared. The Agency must select from those alternatives the least 
costly, most cost-effective, or least burdensome alternative that 
achieves the objectives of the rule, unless the Agency explains why 
this alternative is not selected or the selection of this alternative 
is inconsistent with law.
    Because this direct final rule is estimated to result in the 
expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments or the private 
sector of less than $100 million in any one year, the Agency has not 
prepared a budgetary impact statement or specifically addressed the 
selection of the least costly, most cost-effective, or least burdensome 
alternative. Because small governments will not be significantly or 
uniquely affected by this rule, the Agency is not required to develop a 
plan with regard to small governments.

C. Paperwork Reduction Act

    This rule does not provide for any new collection of information.
    Send comments regarding this collection of analysis or any other 
aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for 
reducing the burden, to Chief, Information Policy Branch, EPA, 401 M 
Street, S.W. (Mail Code 2136), Washington, DC 20460; and to the Office 
of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 
Washington, DC 20503, marked ``Attention: Desk Officer for EPA.''

D. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    EPA has determined that it is not necessary to prepare a regulatory 
flexibility analysis in connection with this final rule. EPA has also 
determined that this rule will not have a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities. Because this rule only 
affects the minimum price one may specify when offering allowances for 
sale in the allowance auction, the maximum economic impact it could 
have is $0.99 per allowance offered. In the 1997 allowance auction, no 
allowances were offered for sale in the private auction, so the 
economic impact was nil.

E. Submission to Congress

    Under 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A) as added by the Small Business 
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, EPA submitted a report 
containing this rule and other required information to the U.S. Senate, 
the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the 
General Accounting Office prior to publication of the rule in today's 
Federal Register. This rule is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 
U.S.C. 804(2).

F. Miscellaneous

    In accordance with section 117 of the Act, issuance of this rule 
was preceded by consultation with any appropriate advisory committees, 
independent experts, and federal departments and agencies.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 73

    Environmental protection, Acid rain, Air pollution control, 
Electric utilities, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Sulfur 
dioxide.

    Dated: January 29, 1998.
Carol M. Browner,
Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, chapter I of title 40 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:

PART 73--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for part 73 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7601 and 7651, et seq.

    2. Section 73.70 is amended by revising paragraph (c)(3) to read as 
follows:


Sec. 73.70  Auctions.

* * * * *
    (c) * * *
    (3) Any minimum price; and
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 98-2719 Filed 2-3-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P