[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 5, 2008)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11846-11848]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-4233]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[Docket No. EPA-R02-OAR-2008-0005; FRL-8537-8]


Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Motor Vehicle 
Emissions Budgets; State of New Jersey

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the 
State of New Jersey. This revision updates the direct PM2.5 
and NOX motor vehicle emissions budgets for Mercer County, 
located within the New Jersey portion of the New York-Northern New 
Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT, PM2.5 nonattainment area. The 
intended effect of this rulemaking is to approve budgets that will be 
used to determine transportation conformity.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 4, 2008.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R02-

[[Page 11847]]

OAR-2008-0005, by one of the following methods:
    http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
    E-mail: [email protected].
    Fax: 212-637-3901.
    Mail: Raymond Werner, Chief, Air Programs Branch, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region 2 Office, 290 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York, 
New York 10007-1866.
    Hand Delivery: Raymond Werner, Chief, Air Programs Branch, 
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2 Office, 290 Broadway, 25th 
Floor, New York, New York 10007-1866. Such deliveries are only accepted 
during the Regional Office's normal hours of operation. The Regional 
Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday, 8:30 to 
4:30 excluding Federal holidays.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-R02-OAR-
2008-0005. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your 
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of 
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without 
going through http://www.regulations.gov your e-mail address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you 
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA 
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public 
docket visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region II Office, Air Programs Branch, 290 Broadway, 
25th Floor, New York, New York 10007-1866. EPA requests, if at all 
possible, that you contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section to view the hard copy of the docket. You 
may view the hard copy of the docket Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 
p.m., excluding Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Matthew Laurita, 
[email protected] at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 
Air Programs Branch, 290 Broadway, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10007-1866, 
telephone number (212) 637-3895, fax number (212) 637-3901.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This action is being proposed under a 
procedure called parallel processing. Under parallel processing, EPA 
proposes action on a state submission before it has been formally 
adopted and submitted to EPA, and then takes final action if: (1) The 
state's final submission is substantially unchanged from the submission 
on which this proposal is based, or (2) if significant changes in the 
state's final submission are anticipated and adequately described in 
EPA's proposal as a basis for EPA's proposed action.

Table of Contents

I. Analysis of the State's Submittal
II. Proposed EPA Action
III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. Analysis of the State's Submittal

    On December 17, 2007, New Jersey submitted a state implementation 
plan (SIP) revision to EPA updating the existing motor vehicle 
emissions budgets (MVEBs) for the Mercer County, New Jersey portion of 
the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT, 
PM2.5 nonattainment area. MVEBs represent a cap that 
projected emissions from existing and planned highway and transit 
projects may not exceed. The emissions from transportation projects are 
evaluated through a metropolitan planning organization's (MPO's) 
process for determining the long-range transportation needs of a 
region, and its process for scheduling projects to be completed in the 
short term.
    New Jersey is revising the budgets for Mercer County to incorporate 
new planning assumptions. Since the original PM2.5 MVEBs 
were approved by EPA (71 FR 38770, July 10, 2006), New Jersey 
discovered an error that underestimated the fraction of all vehicle 
miles traveled attributable to the heaviest category of heavy-duty 
trucks. The MPO responsible for transportation planning in Mercer 
County, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), is 
required to incorporate this updated assumption in its emissions 
modeling process. Approval of the revised MVEB will ensure consistency 
between the budget and DVRPC's planning process.
    EPA allows for the establishment of MVEBs for PM2.5 
prior to a state submitting its first required PM2.5 SIP (69 
FR 40004, July 1, 2004, specifically see 69 FR 40028). These budgets 
are set through the establishment of an early SIP, which meets all the 
requirements of a SIP submittal, in which emissions from all sources, 
when projected from the base to a future year, show some progress 
toward attainment. EPA has interpreted the phrase ``some progress 
toward attainment'' to mean a 5% to 10% reduction in emissions from all 
sources (see 69 FR 40019). In New Jersey's original early progress SIP, 
the State demonstrated an overall 6.5% reduction in direct 
PM2.5 and 32.3% reduction in NOX, a 
PM2.5 precursor, from 2002 to 2009 within the New Jersey 
portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT 
PM2.5 nonattainment area. Using the new assumptions, the 
State has shown reductions of 6.3% and 32.0% from 2002 to 2009 for 
direct PM2.5 and NOX, respectively; therefore, 
EPA has determined that the revised MVEBs still satisfy the early 
progress requirements and are approvable. Once approved, the revised 
MVEBs will supersede the existing PM2.5 MVEBs for Mercer 
County, New Jersey (Table 1).

   Table 1.--Existing and Proposed 2009 PM2.5 Motor Vehicle Emissions
                  Budgets for Mercer County, New Jersey
                             [Tons per year]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      Direct
                     Pollutant                        PM2.5       NOX
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Existing..........................................         89      4,328
Proposed..........................................        108      5,056
------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 11848]]

II. Proposed EPA Action

    EPA is proposing to approve revisions to the PM2.5 motor 
vehicle emissions budgets for Mercer County, New Jersey.

III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993), this 
proposed action is not a ``significant regulatory action'' and 
therefore is not subject to review by the Office of Management and 
Budget. For this reason, this action is also not subject to Executive 
Order 13211, ``Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect 
Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use'' (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001). This 
proposed action merely proposes to approve state law as meeting Federal 
requirements and imposes no additional requirements beyond those 
imposed by state law. Accordingly, the Administrator certifies that 
this proposed rule will not have a significant economic impact on a 
substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility 
Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.). Because this rule proposes to approve pre-
existing requirements under state law and does not impose any 
additional enforceable duty beyond that required by state law, it 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).
    This proposed rule also does not have tribal implications because 
it will not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian 
tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian 
tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between 
the Federal Government and Indian tribes, as specified by Executive 
Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000). This action also does not 
have Federalism implications because it does not have substantial 
direct effects on the States, on the relationship between the national 
government and the States, or on the distribution of power and 
responsibilities among the various levels of government, as specified 
in Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999). This action 
merely proposes to approve a state rule implementing a Federal 
standard, and does not alter the relationship or the distribution of 
power and responsibilities established in the CAA. This proposed rule 
also is not subject to Executive Order 13045 ``Protection of Children 
from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks'' (62 FR 19885, April 
23, 1997), because it is not economically significant.
    In reviewing SIP submissions, EPA's role is to approve state 
choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. In this 
context, in the absence of a prior existing requirement for the State 
to use voluntary consensus standards (VCS), EPA has no authority to 
disapprove a SIP submission for failure to use VCS. It would thus be 
inconsistent with applicable law for EPA, when it reviews a SIP 
submission, to use VCS in place of a SIP submission that otherwise 
satisfies the provisions of the CAA. Thus, the requirements of section 
12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 
(15 U.S.C. 272 note) do not apply. This proposed rule does not impose 
an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen dioxide, Particulate 
matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.

    Dated: February 25, 2008.
Alan J. Steinberg,
Regional Administrator, Region 2.
 [FR Doc. E8-4233 Filed 3-4-08; 8:45 am]
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