[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 181 (Wednesday, September 22, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52674-52675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-20440]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-8956-01-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 final 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.

DATES: September 22, 2021.

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 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 2,438 tons, resulting

[[Page 52675]]

in a requirement for the surrender of 4,876 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.
    On May 17, 2021, EPA published a document in the Federal Register 
providing notice of the data relied on to determine the amount of the 
exceedances of the Mississippi and Missouri assurance levels and 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 and describing the process for 
submitting any objections (85 FR 29445). EPA received no written 
submissions objecting to the data and preliminary calculations.
    In this document, EPA is providing notice of the final calculations 
of the amounts of additional allowances that must be surrendered. 
Responsibility for surrendering 520 additional allowances for the 
Mississippi exceedance has been apportioned between the groups of units 
operated by Entergy Corporation (302 allowances) and Mississippi Power 
Company (218 allowances). Responsibility for surrendering 4,876 
additional allowances for the Missouri exceedance has been apportioned 
between the groups of units operated by Associated Electric 
Cooperative, Inc. (4,862 allowances), the municipal utility of 
Chillicothe (2 allowances), and the municipal utility of Higginsville 
(12 allowances). 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 1, 2021.
    The data and final calculations are set forth in an Excel 
spreadsheet entitled 
``2020_CSAPR_assurance_provision_calculations_final.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.

(Authority: 40 CFR 97.825(b).)

Rona Birnbaum,
Acting Director, Clean Air Markets Division, Office of Atmospheric 
Programs, Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2021-20440 Filed 9-21-21; 8:45 am]
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