[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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