    [Federal Register Volume 85, Number 168 (Friday, August 28, 2020)]
    [Notices]
    [Pages 53364-53365]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 2020-18933]

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    ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

    [FRL-10014-07-OAR]

    Administration of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Trading Program
    Assurance Provisions for 2019 Control Periods

    AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

    ACTION: Notice of data availability.

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    SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice
    of the availability of data on the administration of the assurance
    provisions of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) trading
    programs for the control periods in 2019. Total emissions of nitrogen
    oxides (NOX) reported by Mississippi units participating in
    the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program during
    the 2019 control period exceeded the state's assurance level under the
    program. Data demonstrating the exceedance and EPA's final calculations
    of the amounts of additional allowances that the owners and operators
    of certain Mississippi units must surrender have been posted in a
    spreadsheet on EPA's website.

    DATES: August 28, 2020.

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concerning this notice
    should be addressed to Garrett Powers at (202) 564-2300 or
    powers.jamesg@epa.gov.

    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations for each CSAPR trading
    program contain ``assurance provisions'' designed to ensure that the
    emissions reductions required from each state covered by the program
    occur within the state. If the total emissions from a given state's
    affected units exceed the state's assurance level under the program,
    then two allowances must be surrendered for each ton of emissions
    exceeding the assurance level (in addition to the ordinary obligation
    to surrender one allowance for each ton of emissions). In the quarterly
    emissions reports covering the 2019 control period, Mississippi units
    participating in the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading
    Program collectively reported emissions that exceed the state's
    assurance level under the program by 473 tons, resulting in a
    requirement for the surrender of 946 additional allowances.
        When a state's assurance level is exceeded, responsibility for
    surrendering the required additional allowances is apportioned among
    groups of units in the state represented by ``common designated

    [[Page 53365]]

    representatives'' based on the extent to which each such group's
    emissions exceeded the group's share of the state's assurance level.
    For the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program, the
    procedures are set forth at 40 CFR 97.802 (definitions of ``common
    designated representative,'' ``common designated representative's
    assurance level,'' and ``common designated representative's share''),
    97.806(c)(2), and 97.825. Applying the procedures in the regulations
    for the 2019 control period for Mississippi, EPA completed calculations
    preliminarily indicating that responsibility for surrendering 946
    additional allowances should be apportioned entirely to the group of
    units operated by Mississippi Power Company, all of which are
    represented by one common designated representative.
        On May 15, 2020, EPA published a document in the Federal Register
    providing notice of the data relied on to determine the amount of the
    exceedance of the Mississippi assurance level and the preliminary
    calculations of the amounts of additional allowances that the owners
    and operators of certain Mississippi units must surrender as a result
    of the exceedance and describing the process for submitting any
    objections (85 FR 29445). In response to the May 15, 2020 notice, EPA
    received one written submission which supported EPA's proposed
    administration of the assurance provisions.\1\ Accordingly, in this
    document, EPA is providing notice of the final calculations of the
    amounts of additional allowances that must be surrendered, which are
    unchanged from the preliminary calculations. Each set of owners and
    operators identified pursuant to this notice of the final calculations
    must hold the required additional allowances in an assurance account by
    November 2, 2020.
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        \1\ The submission also contained statements generally
    advocating for more stringent regulatory requirements. These
    additional statements are outside the scope of this ministerial
    action to administer the assurance provisions in the existing CSAPR
    regulations.
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        The data and final calculations are set forth in an Excel
    spreadsheet entitled
    ``2019_CSAPR_assurance_provision_calculations_final.xlsx'' available at
    http://www.epa.gov/csapr/csapr-assurance-provision-nodas. The
    spreadsheet contains data for the 2019 control period showing, for each
    Mississippi unit identified as affected under the CSAPR NOX
    Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program, the amount of NOX
    emissions reported by the unit and the amount of CSAPR NOX
    Ozone Season Group 2 allowances allocated to the unit, including any
    allowances allocated from a new unit set-aside. The spreadsheet also
    contains calculations for the 2019 control period showing the total
    NOX emissions reported by all such units and the amount by
    which the total reported NOX emissions exceeded the state's
    assurance level under the program. Finally, the spreadsheet also
    includes calculations for the 2019 control period showing, for each
    common designated representative for a group of such units in the
    state, the common designated representative's share of the total
    reported NOX emissions, the common designated
    representative's share of the state's assurance level, and the amount
    of additional CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 allowances that
    the owners and operators of the units in the group must surrender.

        Authority: 40 CFR 97.825(b).

    Reid P. Harvey,
    Director, Clean Air Markets Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs,
    Office of Air and Radiation.
    [FR Doc. 2020-18933 Filed 8-27-20; 8:45 am]
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