[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 34 (Friday, February 20, 2015)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 9204-9207]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-03449]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R06-OAR-2014-0554; FRL-9923-19-Region 6]


Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Texas; 
Emissions Inventories for the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston-
Brazoria Ozone Nonattainment Areas

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving 
revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted to 
meet Emissions Inventory (EI) requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) 
for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria 
(HGB) nonattainment areas. EPA is approving the SIP revisions because 
they satisfy the CAA EI requirements for the DFW and HGB nonattainment 
areas under the 2008 eight-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality 
Standards (NAAQS). EPA is approving the revisions pursuant to section 
110 and part D of the CAA and EPA's regulations.

DATES: This direct final rule will be effective April 21, 2015 without 
further notice, unless EPA receives adverse comment by March 23, 2015. 
If EPA receives adverse comment, we will publish a timely withdrawal of 
the direct final rule in the Federal Register informing the public that 
the rule will not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-
2014-0554, by one of the following methods:
     www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions.
     Email: Ms. Nevine Salem at [email protected].
     Mail or delivery: Mr. Guy Donaldson, Chief, Air Planning 
Section (6PD-L), Environmental Protection Agency, 1445 Ross Avenue, 
Suite 1200, Dallas, Texas 75202-2733.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-2014-
0554. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in 
the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
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 www.regulations.gov or email. The 
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 email comment 
directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov your email 
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.
    Docket: The index to the docket for this action is available 
electronically at www.regulations.gov and in hard copy at EPA Region 6, 
1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas. While all documents in the 
docket are listed in the index, some information may be publicly 
available only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted material), 
and some may not be publicly available at either location (e.g., CBI).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Nevine Salem, (214) 665-7222,

[[Page 9205]]

[email protected]. To inspect the hard copy materials, please 
schedule an appointment with Ms. Salem or Mr. Bill Deese at 214-665-
7253.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document wherever ``we,'' 
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean the EPA.

Table of Contents

I. Background
II. EPA's Evaluation
III. Final Action
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. Background

A. The 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and 
Emissions Inventory Requirements

    On March 12, 2008 EPA revised the eight-hour ozone NAAQS from 0.08 
parts per million (ppm) to 0.075 ppm. (73 FR 16436, March 27, 2008). On 
July 12, 2012 EPA designated nonattainment areas for the 2008 ozone 
NAAQS (2008 ozone nonattainment areas) (77 FR 30088, May 21, 2012). The 
DFW and HGB areas were designated as nonattainment areas for the 2008 
ozone NAAQS. Id. The DFW area consists of Collin, Dallas, Denton, 
Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise counties. 
The HGB area consists of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, 
Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties.
    CAA sections 172(c)(3) and 182(a)(1) require states to develop and 
submit as a SIP revision an emissions inventory for all areas 
designated as nonattainment for the ozone NAAQS. 42 U.S.C. 172(c) and 
182(a). An emissions inventory is an estimation of actual emissions of 
air pollutants in an area. Ground-level ozone, O3, is a gas 
that is formed by the reaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and 
oxides of nitrogen (NOX) in the atmosphere in the presence 
of sunlight. These precursor emissions are emitted by many types of 
pollution sources, including power plants and industrial emissions 
sources, on-road and off-road motor vehicles and engines, and smaller 
sources, collectively referred to as area sources. The EIs provide data 
for a variety of air quality planning tasks including establishing 
baseline emission levels, calculating federally required emission 
reduction targets, emission inputs into air quality simulation models, 
and tracking emissions over time. The total EI of VOC and 
NOX for an area are summarized from the estimates developed 
for five general categories of emissions sources: Point, area, on-road 
mobile, non-road mobile, and biogenic. EPA's proposed 2008 ozone 
standard SIP requirements rule suggested that states use 2011 as a base 
year to address EI requirements (78 FR 34178, 34190, June 6, 2013).

B. SIP Revision Submitted on July 16, 2014

    Texas adopted a SIP revision addressing the emissions inventory 
requirements for the DFW and HGB areas on July 2, 2014 and submitted it 
to EPA on July 16, 2014. Tables 1 and 2 are the DFW and HGB emissions 
inventories in the SIP revision.

                  Table 1--DFW 2011 Emissions Inventory
                          [tons per day or tpd]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Source type                       NOX          VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point.........................................        39.95        29.80
Area..........................................        42.64       292.49
On-road Mobile................................       238.87        98.36
Non-road Mobile...............................       120.61        55.00
                                               -------------------------
    Total.....................................       442.08       475.65
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                  Table 2--HGB 2011 Emissions Inventory
                                  [tpd]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Source type                       NOX          VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point.........................................       108.44        94.83
Area..........................................        21.14       308.73
On-road Mobile................................       196.21        82.62
Non-road Mobile...............................       121.11        49.93
                                               -------------------------
    Total.....................................       446.90       536.12
------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. CAA Requirements for the SIP Revision

    The primary CAA requirements pertaining to the SIP revision 
submitted by Texas are found in CAA sections 110(l), 172(c)(3) and 
182(a)(1). 42 U.S.C. 110(l), 172(c)(3), and 182(a). CAA section 110(l) 
requires that a SIP revision submitted to EPA be adopted after 
reasonable notice and public hearing. Section 110(l) also requires that 
EPA not approve a SIP revision if the revision would interfere with any 
applicable requirement concerning attainment and reasonable further 
progress, or any other applicable requirement of the CAA. CAA sections 
172(c)(3) and 182(a) requires a SIP revision that contains a 
comprehensive, accurate, current inventory of actual emissions from all 
sources.

II. EPA's Evaluation

    EPA has reviewed the revision for the consistency with the 
requirements of EPA regulations. A summary of EPA's analysis is 
provided below. For a full discussion of our evaluation, please see our 
Technical Support Document (TSD).
    CAA sections 172 (c)(3) and 182(a)(1) require a current inventory 
of actual emissions from all sources of relevant pollutants in the 
nonattainment areas. EPA Air Emissions Reporting regulations call for 
states to provide an emissions inventory from all sources every 3 years 
and required a complete inventory for 2011 (40 CFR 51.30). 
Additionally, in proposed rulemaking for the 2008 ozone standard we 
proposed that the states use 2011 as the base year for EI for the 
reasonable further progress emissions reduction SIP requirement (June 
6, 2013, 78 FR 34178,

[[Page 9206]]

34190). Texas has developed a 2011 base year emissions inventory for 
the DFW and HGB nonattainment areas. The 2011 base year emissions 
includes all point, area, non-road mobile, and on-road mobile source 
emissions. EPA is approving the emission inventory for DFW and HGB 
because it contains a comprehensive, accurate, current inventory of 
actual emissions from all sources in accordance with CAA sections 
172(c)(3) and 182(a). Additionally we find that (1) Texas adopted the 
EI for DFW and HGB after reasonable notice and public hearing and (2) 
approval would not interfere with any applicable requirement concerning 
attainment and reasonable further progress or any other applicable 
requirement of the CAA in accordance with CAA Section 110(1). A 
technical support document (TSD) was prepared which details our 
evaluation. Our TSD may be accessed online at www.regulations.gov, 
Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-2014-0554.

III. Final Action

    We are approving a Texas SIP revision submitted to address the 
emissions inventory requirements for the DFW and HGB 2008 ozone 
nonattainment areas. The inventories we are approving are listed in 
Tables 1 and 2 above.
    EPA is publishing this rule without prior proposal because we view 
this as a non-controversial 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 SIP revision if relevant adverse 
comments are received. This rule will be effective on April 21, 2015 
without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse comment by 
March 23, 2015. If we receive relevant adverse comments, we will 
publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register informing the 
public that the rule will not take effect. We will address all public 
comments in a subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. We will 
not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties 
interested in commenting must do so now. Please note that if we receive 
relevant adverse comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this 
rule and if that provision may be severed from the remainder of the 
rule, we may adopt as final those provisions of the rule that are not 
the subject of an adverse comment.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP 
submission that complies with the provisions of the 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 CAA. 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 Orders 
12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 
2011);
     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 CAA; 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, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian 
reservation land or in any other area where EPA or an Indian tribe has 
demonstrated that a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian 
country, the rule does not have tribal implications as specified by 
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000), nor will it 
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 rule 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 CAA, petitions for judicial review 
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for 
the appropriate circuit by April 21, 2015. Filing a petition for 
reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect 
the finality of this rule 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. 
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, Incorporation by 
reference, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements, Volatile organic compounds.

    Dated: February 9, 2015.
Ron Curry,
Regional Administrator, Region 6.

    40 CFR part 52 is amended as follows:

PART 52--APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS

0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

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

Subpart SS--Texas

0
2. In Sec.  52.2270 (e), the second table titled ``EPA Approved 
Nonregulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures in the Texas 
SIP'' is amended by adding an entry at the end for ``2011 Emissions 
Inventory for the 2008 Ozone NAAQS.''
    The addition reads as follows:


Sec.  52.2270  Identification of plan.

* * * * *
    (e) * * *

[[Page 9207]]



              EPA Approved Non-regulatory Provisions and Quasi-Regulatory Measures in the Texas SIP
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                               Applicable geographic
    Name of SIP provision        or  nonattainment     State submittal/    EPA approval date        Comments
                                        area            effective date
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                                                  * * * * * * *
2011 Emissions Inventory for   Dallas-Fort Worth and          7/16/2014  2/20/2015 [Insert
 the 2008 Ozone NAAQS.          Houston-Galveston-                        Federal Register
                                Brazoria Ozone                            citation].
                                Nonattainment Areas.
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[FR Doc. 2015-03449 Filed 2-19-15; 8:45 am]
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