[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 16, 2018)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 22593-22595]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-10456]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 80

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0114; FRL-9977-50-OAR]


Removal of the Federal Reformulated Gasoline Program from the 
Northern Kentucky Portion of the Cincinnati-Hamilton Ozone Maintenance 
Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notification of final action on petition.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final 
action in announcing its approval of the petition by Kentucky to opt-
out of the federal reformulated gasoline (RFG) program and remove the 
requirement to sell federal RFG for Boone, Campbell, and Kenton 
counties (the Northern Kentucky Area), which are part of the 
Cincinnati-Hamilton, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana maintenance area for the 
2008 ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) (Cincinnati-
Hamilton, OH-KY-IN Area). EPA has determined that this removal of the 
federal RFG program for the Northern Kentucky Area is consistent with 
the applicable provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's 
regulations.

DATES: The effective date for removal of the Northern Kentucky Area 
from the federal RFG program is July 1, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Dickinson, Office of 
Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 
343-9256; email address: [email protected] or Rudy Kapichak, 
Office of Transportation and Air Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, (2000 Traverwood, Ann Arbor, MI 48105); telephone number: 734-
214-4574; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    Entities potentially affected by this final action are fuel 
producers and distributors who do business in the Northern Kentucky 
Area.

[[Page 22594]]



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                                                             NAICS \1\
       Examples of potentially regulated entities              codes
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Petroleum refineries....................................          324110
                                                                  424710
Gasoline Marketers and Distributors.....................          424720
Gasoline Retail Stations................................          447110
Gasoline Transporters...................................          484220
                                                                  484230
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    The above table is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather 
provides a guide for readers regarding entities likely to be regulated 
by this action. The table lists the types of entities of which EPA is 
aware that potentially could be affected by this final action. Other 
types of entities not listed on the table could also be affected by 
this final action. To determine whether your organization could be 
affected by this final action, you should carefully examine the 
regulations in 40 CFR part 80, subpart D--Reformulated Gasoline. If you 
have questions regarding the applicability of this action to a 
particular entity, see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this preamble.
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    \1\ North American Industry Classification System.
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B. How can I get copies of this document and other related information?

    EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. 
EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0114. All documents in the docket are listed on the 
www.regulations.gov website. Although listed in the index, some 
information may not be publicly available, e.g., Confidential Business 
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted 
by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is 
not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard 
copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available 
electronically through www.regulations.gov.

II. Background

A. What is the RFG program?

    The 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments established specific 
requirements for the RFG program to reduce ozone levels in certain 
areas in the country experiencing ground-level ozone or smog problems 
by reducing vehicle emissions of compounds that form ozone, 
specifically volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The 1990 CAA 
amendments, specifically CAA section 211(k)(5), directed EPA to issue 
regulations that specify how gasoline can be ``reformulated'' so as to 
result in significant reductions in vehicle emissions of ozone-forming 
and toxic air pollutants relative to the 1990 baseline fuel, and to 
require the use of such reformulated gasoline in certain ``covered 
areas.'' The CAA defined certain nonattainment areas as ``covered 
areas'' which are required to use reformulated gasoline (RFG) and 
provided other areas with an ability to ``opt-in'' to the RFG program. 
CAA section 211(k)(6) provides an opportunity for an area classified as 
a Marginal, Moderate, Serious, or Severe ozone nonattainment area, or 
which is in the ozone transport region established by CAA section 
184(a), to ``opt-in'' to the RFG program upon application by the 
governor of the state (or his authorized representative) and subsequent 
action by EPA.
    As in other RFG covered areas, RFG opt-in areas are subject to the 
prohibition in CAA section 211(k)(5) on the sale or dispensing by any 
person of conventional (non-RFG) gasoline to ultimate consumers in the 
covered area. The prohibition also includes the sale or dispensing by 
any refiner, blender, importer, or marketer of conventional gasoline 
for resale in any covered areas, without segregating the conventional 
gasoline from RFG and clearly marking conventional gasoline as not for 
sale to ultimate consumers in a covered area. EPA first published 
regulations for the RFG program on February 16, 1994 (59 FR 7716).
    Kentucky voluntarily opted Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties 
into the RFG program in 1995. Kentucky also opted its portion of the 
Louisville ozone area (Jefferson County and parts of Bullitt and Oldham 
Counties) into the RFG program; however, today's action does not affect 
the use of RFG in the Louisville ozone area. A current listing of the 
RFG covered areas and a summary of RFG requirements can be found on 
EPA's website at: https://www.epa.gov/gasoline-standards/reformulated-gasoline.

B. Opt-Out Procedures

    The RFG regulations (40 CFR 80.72--Procedures for opting out of the 
covered areas) provide the process and criteria for a reasonable 
transition out of the RFG program if a state decides to opt-out.\2\ 
These opt-out regulations provide that the governor of the state must 
submit a petition to the Administrator requesting to opt-out of the RFG 
program. The petition must include specific information on how, if at 
all, the state has relied on RFG in a proposed or approved state 
implementation plan (SIP) or plan revision and, if RFG is relied upon, 
how the SIP will be revised to reflect the state's opt-out from RFG. 
The opt-out regulations also provide that EPA will notify the state in 
writing of the Agency's action on the petition and the date the opt-out 
becomes effective (i.e., the date RFG is no longer required in the 
affected area) when the petition is approved. The opt-out regulations 
also provide that EPA will publish a Federal Register notice announcing 
the approval of any opt-out petition and the effective date of such 
opt-out. If a SIP revision is required, the effective date of EPA's 
approval of the opt-out can be no less than 90 days from the effective 
date of EPA's approval of the revision to the SIP that removes RFG as a 
control measure. See 40 CFR 80.72(c)(7).
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    \2\ Pursuant to authority under CAA sections 211(c) and (k) and 
301(a), EPA promulgated regulations at 40 CFR 80.72 to provide 
criteria and general procedures for states to opt-out of the RFG 
program where the state had previously voluntarily opted into the 
program. The regulations were initially adopted on July 8, 1996 (61 
FR 35673) (the RFG ``Opt-out Rule''); and were revised on October 
20, 1997 (62 FR 54552).
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    EPA determined in the RFG ``Opt-out Rule'' that it would not be 
necessary to conduct a separate rulemaking for each future opt-out 
request. (See 61 FR 35673 at 35675 (July 8, 1996)). EPA established a 
petition process to address, on a case-by-case basis, future individual 
state requests to opt-out of the RFG program. The opt-out regulations 
establish clear and objective criteria for EPA to apply. These 
regulatory criteria address when a state's petition is complete and the 
appropriate transition time for opting out. As EPA stated in the 
preamble to the Opt-out Rule, this application of regulatory criteria 
on a case-by-case basis to individual opt-out requests does not require 
notice-and-comment rulemaking, either under CAA section 307(d) or the 
Administrative Procedure Act. Thus, in this action, EPA is applying the 
criteria and following the procedures specified in its opt-out 
regulations to approve Kentucky's petition.

C. Opt-out of RFG for the Northern Kentucky Portion of the Cincinnati-
Hamilton OH-KY-IN Maintenance Area

    On April 18, 2017, Kentucky submitted a petition to the EPA 
Administrator requesting to opt-out from the RFG program for Boone, 
Campbell and Kenton counties (the Northern Kentucky Area).\3\ In order 
to fulfill the requirements of the RFG opt-out regulations, on 
September 13, 2018, Kentucky submitted a revision to its maintenance 
plan for the Northern

[[Page 22595]]

Kentucky Area to remove the emissions reductions associated with the 
use of RFG in this area and to demonstrate that the RFG opt-out would 
not interfere with the area's ability to attain or maintain the 2008 
ozone NAAQS and any other NAAQS as required by CAA section 110(l). (See 
40 CFR 80.72(b)). EPA published a proposed approval of the SIP revision 
on February 14, 2018 (83 FR 6496) and a final approval of the SIP 
revision on April 2, 2018 (83 FR 13872). The final approval of the 
maintenance plan revision was effective upon publication, April 2, 
2018. The RFG opt-out regulations provide that the opt-out effective 
date shall be no less than 90 days from the EPA SIP approval effective 
date. (See 40 CFR 80.72(c)(7)). EPA is unaware of any reason that the 
effective date should be postponed, and therefore, is establishing an 
opt-out effective date of July 1, 2018 for the Northern Kentucky Area.
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    \3\ The Secretary of Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet 
submitted the opt-out petition on behalf of the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky. A copy of the opt-out petition is included in the docket.
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    As provided by the RFG Opt-out Rule and the opt-out regulations, 
EPA will publish a final rule at a later date to remove the three 
counties in the Northern Kentucky Area from the list of RFG covered 
areas in 40 CFR 80.70 after the effective date of the opt-out. EPA 
believes that it is prudent to complete this ministerial exercise to 
revise the list of covered areas in the Code of Federal Regulations 
after the effective date of the opt-out.

III. Action

    EPA is approving Kentucky's petition because it contained the 
information required by 40 CFR 80.72, including that Kentucky revised 
the approved maintenance plan for the 2008 ozone NAAQS for the Northern 
Kentucky Area to remove the emissions reductions associated with RFG. 
EPA is also determining the opt-out effective date by applying the 
criteria in 40 CFR 80.72(c)(7). As discussed in Section II.A. of this 
document, the opt-out regulations require that if a state included RFG 
as a control measure in an approved SIP, the state must revise the SIP, 
reflecting the removal of RFG as a control measure before an opt-out 
can be effective and the opt-out cannot be effective less than 90 days 
after the effective date of the approval of the SIP revision. EPA 
published a final approval of Kentucky's maintenance plan revision and 
noninterference demonstration on April 2, 2018 (83 FR 13872). The final 
approval was effective upon publication.
    In summary, EPA is today notifying the public that it has applied 
its regulatory criteria to approve the petition by Kentucky to opt-out 
of the RFG program for the Northern Kentucky Area of the Cincinnati-
Hamilton, OH-KY-IN ozone maintenance area and is thereby removing the 
prohibition on the sale of conventional gasoline in that area as of 
July 1, 2018. (See 40 CFR 80.72). This opt-out effective date applies 
to retailers, wholesale purchasers, consumers, refiners, importers, and 
distributors.

    Dated: May 9, 2018.
E. Scott Pruitt,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-10456 Filed 5-15-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P