[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 135 (Friday, July 15, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42459-42460]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-15120]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8956-02-OAR]
Administration of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Trading Program
Assurance Provisions for 2021 Control Periods
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of data availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 2021. Total emissions of nitrogen
oxides (NOX) reported by Missouri units participating in the
CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program during the
2021 control period exceeded the state's assurance level under the
program. Data demonstrating the exceedance and EPA's preliminary
calculations of the amounts of additional allowances that the owners
and operators of certain 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 August 15, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Submit your objections via email to [email protected]. Include
``2021 CSAPR Assurance Provisions'' in the email subject line and
include your name, title, affiliation, address, phone
[[Page 42460]]
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 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 2021
control period, Missouri units participating in the CSAPR
NOX Ozone Season Group 2 Trading Program reported emissions
that exceed the state's assurance level under the program by 1,295
tons, resulting in a requirement for the surrender of 2,590 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 2021 control period, EPA has completed preliminary calculations
indicating that responsibility for surrendering 1,295 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 exceedance of the Missouri assurance level
discussed above and notice of the preliminary calculations of the
amounts of additional allowances that the owners and operators of
certain Missouri units must surrender as a result of the exceedance, as
required under 40 CFR 97.825(b)(1)(ii). By October 1, 2022, 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)(ii). 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, 2022.
The data and preliminary calculations are set forth in an Excel
spreadsheet entitled
``2021_CSAPR_assurance_provision_calculations_prelim.xlsx'' available
at http://www.epa.gov/csapr/csapr-assurance-provision-nodas. The
spreadsheet contains data for the 2021 control period showing, for each
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 2021 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 2021
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).)
Rona Birnbaum,
Director, Clean Air Markets Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs,
Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2022-15120 Filed 7-14-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P