[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]


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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.

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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 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]
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