[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 93 (Monday, May 17, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26720-26721]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-10303]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-10023-68-OAR]


Administration of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Trading Program 
Assurance Provisions for 2020 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 2020. Total emissions of nitrogen 
oxides (NOX) reported by Mississippi and Missouri units 
participating in the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading 
Program during the 2020 control period exceeded the respective states' 
assurance levels under the program. Data demonstrating the exceedances 
and EPA's preliminary calculations of the amounts of additional 
allowances that the owners and operators of certain Mississippi and 
Missouri units must surrender have been posted in a spreadsheet on 
EPA's website. EPA will consider timely objections to the data and 
calculations before making final determinations of the amounts of 
additional allowances that must be surrendered.

DATES: Objections to the information referenced in this notice must be 
received on or before June 16, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Submit your objections via email to [email protected]. Include 
``2020 CSAPR Assurance Provisions'' in the email subject line and 
include your name, title, affiliation, address, phone number, and email 
address in the body of the email.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concerning this action 
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

[[Page 26721]]

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 2020 control period, 
Mississippi and Missouri units participating in the CSAPR 
NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program reported emissions 
that exceed the respective states' assurance levels under the program. 
Mississippi units exceeded that state's assurance level by 260 tons, 
resulting in a requirement for the surrender of 520 additional 
allowances, and Missouri units exceeded that state's assurance level by 
2,448 tons, resulting in a requirement for the surrender of 4,896 
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 
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 2020 control period, EPA has completed preliminary calculations 
indicating that responsibility for surrendering 520 additional 
allowances in Mississippi should be apportioned between the groups of 
units operated by Entergy Corporation and Mississippi Power Company, 
while responsibility for surrendering 4,896 additional allowances in 
Missouri should be apportioned almost entirely to the group of units 
operated by Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., with much smaller 
shares apportioned to the groups of units operated by the municipal 
utilities of Chillicothe and Higginsville.
    In this document, EPA is providing notice of the data relied on to 
determine the amounts of the exceedances of the Mississippi and 
Missouri assurance levels discussed above, as required under 40 CFR 
97.825(b)(1)(ii), and notice of the preliminary calculations of the 
amounts of additional allowances that the owners and operators of 
certain Mississippi and Missouri units must surrender as a result of 
the exceedances, as required under 40 CFR 97.825(b)(2)(ii).\1\ By 
October 1, 2021, EPA will provide notice of the final calculations of 
the amounts of additional allowances that must be surrendered, 
incorporating any adjustments made in response to objections received, 
as required under 40 CFR 97.825(b)(2)(iii)(B). Each set of owners and 
operators identified pursuant to the notice of the final calculations 
must hold the required additional allowances in an assurance account by 
November 1, 2021.
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    \1\ The regulations allow the notice under Sec.  
97.825(b)(2)(ii) to be published approximately two months after the 
notice under Sec.  97.825(b)(1)(ii), but in this instance EPA 
already has all the information needed to prepare both notices and 
therefore is publishing them together.
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    The data and preliminary calculations are set forth in an Excel 
spreadsheet entitled 
``2020_CSAPR_assurance_provision_calculations_prelim.xlsx'' available 
at http://www.epa.gov/csapr/csapr-assurance-provision-nodas. The 
spreadsheet contains data for the 2020 control period showing, for each 
Mississippi and Missouri 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 2020 control period 
showing the total NOX emissions reported by all such units 
in each state and the amounts by which the total reported 
NOX emissions exceeded the respective states' assurance 
levels under the program. Finally, the spreadsheet also includes 
calculations for the 2020 control period showing, for each common 
designated representative for a group of such units in each 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.
    Any objections should be strictly limited to whether EPA has 
identified the data and performed the calculations in the spreadsheet 
correctly in accordance with the regulations. Objections must include 
(1) precise identification of the specific data or calculations the 
commenter believes are inaccurate, (2) new proposed data or 
calculations upon which the commenter believes EPA should rely instead, 
and (3) the reasons why EPA should rely on the commenter's proposed 
data or calculations and not the data and calculations referenced in 
this notice.

(Authority: 40 CFR 97.825(b))

Reid Harvey,
Director, Clean Air Markets Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs, 
Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2021-10303 Filed 5-14-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P