[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 
[email protected].

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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