[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 83 (Friday, April 29, 2022)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 25412-25413]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08925]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Chapter I
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0129; FRL-9735-01-OAR]
Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse
Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act; Final Action on
Petitions
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of final action denying petitions.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received four
petitions for reconsideration, rulemaking, or reopening of the
Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases
under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), published in the
Federal Register on December 15, 2009. The agency is providing
notification of its action denying all four petitions. The basis for
EPA's action is set out fully in the accompanying decision document,
available in the docket for this action.
DATES: Effective April 29, 2022.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jeremy Martinich, Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Air and Radiation, Office of Atmospheric
Programs, Climate Change Division, (202) 343-9871,
[email protected]. For additional information regarding this
Notice, please go to the website https://www.epa.gov/climate-change/endangerment-and-cause-or-contribute-findings-greenhouse-gases-under-section-202a.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. How can I get copies of this document and other related information?
A copy of this Federal Register document, the petitions,\1\ the
letters denying the four petitions and the decision document \2\
describing the full basis for the denial of these petitions, and other
materials related to this action are available in the docket for this
action (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0129). Publicly available docket
materials are available electronically through www.regulations.gov. In
addition, following signature, an electronic copy of this final action
and the decision document will be available on the internet at https://www.epa.gov/climate-change/2022-denial-petitions-reconsideration-rulemaking-or-reopening-endangerment-and-cause. Due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic, public access to the EPA Docket Center and Reading
Room may be limited: Please check the website at https://www.epa.gov/dockets for the most up to date information on operating status. Our
Docket Center staff will continue to provide remote customer service
via email, phone, and webform. We encourage the public to obtain docket
information via https://www.regulations.gov/. For further information
on EPA Docket Center services and the current status, please visit us
online at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
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\1\ The four petitions are styled respectively as: Petition for
Reconsideration of ``Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings
for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(A) of the Clean Air Act,''
submitted on behalf of the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers
Council (CHECC); Petition for Rulemaking on the Issue of Greenhouse
Gases and Public Health and Welfare, submitted on behalf of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Science and Environmental
Policy Project, and four individual members of the latter's Board of
Directors (CEI); Petition to Reopen and Reconsider ``Endangerment
and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section
202(a) of the Clean Air Act,'' filed by the FAIR Energy Foundation
(FAIR); and Petition to Reconsider Endangerment and Cause or
Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the
Clean Air Act, 74 FR. 66496 (December 15, 2009) Docket No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2009-0171; FRL-9091-8; RIN 2060-ZA14 (``Endangerment Finding'')
submitted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on behalf of Liberty
Packing Company LLC, Nuckles Oil Co., Inc. dba Merit Oil Company,
Norman R. ``Skip'' Brown, Dalton Trucking Company, Inc., Loggers
Association of Northern California, Construction Industry Air
Quality Coalition, and Robinson Industries, Inc (TPP).
\2\ See ``EPA's Denial of Petitions Relating to the Endangerment
and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section
202(a) of the Clean Air Act.''
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II. Judicial Review
The decision to deny the four petitions is a final agency action
for purposes of section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, which governs judicial
review of final actions by the EPA. This action is not a rulemaking and
is not subject to the various statutory and other provisions applicable
to a rulemaking.
Section 307(b)(1) provides, in part, that petitions for review must
be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit): (i) When the agency action consists of
``nationally applicable regulations promulgated, or final actions
taken, by the Administrator,'' or (ii) when such action is locally or
regionally applicable, but ``such action is based on a determination of
nationwide scope or effect and if in taking such action the
Administrator finds and publishes that such action is based on such a
determination.'' For locally or regionally applicable final actions,
the CAA reserves to the EPA complete discretion whether to invoke the
exception in (ii).
This final action is ``nationally applicable'' within the meaning
of CAA section 307(b)(1). In the alternative, to the extent a court
finds this final action to be locally or regionally applicable, the
Administrator is exercising the complete discretion afforded to him
under the CAA to make and publish a finding that this action is based
on a determination of ``nationwide scope or effect'' within the meaning
of CAA
[[Page 25413]]
section 307(b)(1).\3\ This action relates to the 2009 Endangerment and
Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a)
of the Clean Air Act (``2009 Endangerment Finding''), which are
nationally applicable, 74 FR 66496 (December 15, 2009). The 2009
Endangerment Finding concerns risks from greenhouse gas pollution and
contributions to such pollution that occur across the nation, and the
result of the denial of these four petitions is that the existing
nationally applicable 2009 Endangerment Finding remains in place and
undisturbed. Further, both the 2009 Endangerment Finding and EPA's
previous denial of petitions for reconsideration of that Finding were
previously reviewed by the D.C. Circuit, see Coal. for Responsible
Regul., Inc. v. EPA, 684 F.3d 102 (D.C. Cir. 2012) (per curiam)
(subsequent history omitted). Moreover, the 2009 Endangerment Finding
triggered EPA's statutory duty to promulgate motor vehicle standards
under section 202(a) of the CAA, for which judicial review is also only
available in the D.C. Circuit and which have effects in more than one
federal judicial circuit.\4\ For these reasons, this final action is
nationally applicable or, alternatively, the Administrator is
exercising the complete discretion afforded to him by the CAA and
hereby finds that this final action is based on a determination of
nationwide scope or effect for purposes of CAA section 307(b)(1) and is
hereby publishing that finding in the Federal Register.
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\3\ In deciding whether to invoke the exception by making and
publishing a finding that this final action is based on a
determination of nationwide scope or effect, the Administrator has
also taken into account a number of policy considerations, including
his judgment balancing the benefit of obtaining the D.C. Circuit's
authoritative centralized review versus allowing development of the
issue in other contexts and the best use of Agency resources.
\4\ In the report on the 1977 Amendments that revised section
307(b)(1) of the CAA, Congress noted that the Administrator's
determination that the ``nationwide scope or effect'' exception
applies would be appropriate for any action that has a scope or
effect beyond a single judicial circuit. See H.R. Rep. No. 95-294 at
323, 324, reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1402-03.
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Under section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, petitions for judicial review
of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit within 60 days from the date this
final action is published in the Federal Register.
Michael S. Regan,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2022-08925 Filed 4-28-22; 8:45 am]
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