[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 16 (Friday, January 24, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 4231-4233]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-00541]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R05-OAR-2019-0311; FRL-10004-21-Region 5]
Air Plan Approval; Illinois; Emissions Statement Rule
Certification for the 2015 Ozone Standard
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a State
Implementation Plan (SIP) submission from the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency (IEPA) dated May 16, 2019. The submission provides
IEPA's certification that its existing emissions statement program,
titled ``Annual Emissions Report'', remains in effect and satisfies the
Clean Air Act (CAA) emissions statement requirement for the Illinois
portions of the Chicago, Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin (IL-IN-WI) and St.
Louis, Missouri-Illinois (MO-IL) nonattainment areas under the 2015
ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). Under the CAA,
states' SIPs must require stationary sources in ozone nonattainment
areas classified as marginal or above to annually report emissions of
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Oxides of Nitrogen
(NOX).
DATES: This direct final rule will be effective March 24, 2020, unless
EPA receives adverse comments by February 24, 2020. If adverse comments
are received by EPA, 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.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R05-
OAR-2019-0311 at http://www.regulations.gov or via email to
[email protected]. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov, follow
the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted,
comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either
manner of submission, EPA may publish any comment received to its
public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you
consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia
submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written
comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and
should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will
generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of
the primary submission (i.e. on the web, cloud, or other file sharing
system). For additional submission methods, please contact the person
identified in the For Further Information Contact section. For the full
EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia
submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please
visit http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen D'Agostino, Attainment
Planning and Maintenance Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J),
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard,
Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 886-1767, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, whenever ``we,''
``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean EPA. This supplementary information
section is arranged as follows:
I. Background
II. IEPA's Emissions Statement Certification and EPA's Evaluation of
the State's Submission
III. Final Action
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Background
On October 1, 2015, EPA promulgated a revised 8-hour ozone NAAQS of
0.070 parts per million (ppm). See 80 FR 65292 (October 26, 2015).
Effective August 3, 2018, EPA designated nonattainment areas for the
2015 ozone NAAQS. See 83 FR 25776 (June 4, 2018). The Chicago, IL-IN-WI
and St. Louis, MO-IL areas were designated as marginal nonattainment
areas for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.
Section 182(a)(3)(B) of the CAA requires states with ozone
nonattainment areas classified as marginal and above to submit
revisions to their SIPs to require the owner or operator of each
stationary source of NOX or VOC to provide the state with an
annual statement documenting the actual emissions of NOX and
VOC from their source. Under section 182(a)(3)(B)(ii), a state may
waive the emissions statement requirement for any class or category of
stationary sources which emits less than 25 tons per year of VOC or
NOX if the state, in its base year emissions inventory,
provides an inventory of emissions from such class or category of
sources. States and EPA have generally interpreted this waiver
provision to apply to sources (without specification of a specific
source class or source category) emitting less than 25 tons per year of
VOC or NOX.
Many states, including Illinois, adopted emissions statement rules
for stationary sources in nonattainment areas under the 1-hour ozone
NAAQS, which EPA approved as part of each state's SIP. In cases where
an existing emissions statement requirement is still adequate to meet
the requirements under the 2015 ozone NAAQS, states may provide the
rationale for that determination to EPA in a written statement for
approval in the SIP to meet the requirements of section 182(a)(3)(B).
See 83 FR 62998, 63001, 63023 (December 6, 2018) and 80 FR 12264, 12291
(March 6, 2015).
II. IEPA's Emissions Statement Certification and EPA's Evaluation of
the State's Submission
IEPA submitted a SIP revision on May 16, 2019 certifying that the
previously SIP-approved emissions statement regulations meet the
emissions statement requirement for areas
[[Page 4232]]
designated as nonattainment for the 2015 ozone standard pursuant to
sections 110 and 182 of the CAA. In its submission, IEPA stated that it
has information collection authority under Section 4 of the Illinois
Environmental Protection Act, and that IEPA collects NOX and
VOC emissions statements under 35 IAC Part 254, titled ``Annual
Emissions Report,'' which applies to any source located in an ozone
nonattainment area that has the potential to emit 25 tons per year or
more of VOC or NOX from all emission units during the
reporting year. IEPA further stated that these regulations also apply
to permitted smaller sources which are required to submit and certify
source-wide totals of actual emissions from all regulated air
pollutants emitted. Finally, IEPA confirmed, that in general,
facilities subject to Part 254 must submit actual emissions data for
NOX and VOC on an annual basis and must certify that the
information provided is accurate to the best of the certifier's
knowledge.
EPA approved the ``Annual Emissions Report'' rules into the
Illinois SIP on May 15, 2002 (67 FR 34614). Based on this approval and
IEPA's certification, the regulations at 35 IAC Part 254 are sufficient
to meet the emissions statement requirements of CAA section
182(a)(3)(B) for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.
III. Final Action
EPA is approving, as a SIP revision, IEPA's certification that
Illinois' ``Annual Emissions Report'' rules at 35 IAC Part 254 meet the
requirements of CAA section 182(a)(3)(B) under the 2015 ozone standard
for the Illinois portions of the Chicago, IL-IN-WI and St. Louis, MO-IL
ozone nonattainment areas.
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 March 24, 2020
without further notice unless we receive relevant adverse written
comments by February 24, 2020. 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 March 24, 2020.
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 CAA 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);
Is not expected to be an Executive Order 13771 (82 FR
9339, February 2, 2017) regulatory action because this action is not
significant under Executive Order 12866;
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 and will not impose
substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal law as
specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000).
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 CAA, petitions for judicial review
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for
the appropriate circuit by March 24, 2020. 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 this issue of the 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) of the
CAA.)
[[Page 4233]]
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Oxides of nitrogen, Ozone,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile organic compounds.
Dated: December 30, 2019.
Cheryl L Newton,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 5.
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.
0
2. In Sec. 52.720, the table in paragraph (e) is amended by adding an
entry for ``Ozone (8-hour, 2015) certification of emissions statement
regulations'' following the entry for ``Ozone (8-hour, 2008)
Nonattainment New Source Review Requirements'' to read as follows:
Sec. 52.720 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
EPA-Approved Illinois Nonregulatory and Quasi-Regulatory Provisions
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Applicable State
Name of SIP provision geographic or submittal EPA approval date Comments
nonattainment area date
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* * * * * * *
Ozone (8-hour, 2015) Chicago and St. 5/16/2019 1/24/2020, [insert Certification that
certification of emissions Louis areas. Federal Register Illinois'
statement regulations. citation]. previously approved
regulations at 35
IAC Part 254 meet
the emissions
statement
requirements for
the 2015 ozone
NAAQS.
* * * * * * *
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[FR Doc. 2020-00541 Filed 1-23-20; 8:45 am]
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