[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 47 (Friday, March 8, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16712-16714]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04792]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0568; FRL-11558-01-R9]


Air Plan Revision: California; South Coast Air Quality Management 
District

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to 
approve revisions to the South Coast Air Quality Management District 
(SCAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). 
These revisions concern emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 
and oxides of nitrogen (NOX) from refinery flares. We are 
proposing action on a local rule to regulate these emission sources 
under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act). We are taking comments on 
this proposal and plan to follow with a final action.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 8, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R09-
OAR-2023-0568 at https://www.regulations.gov. For comments submitted at 
Regulations.gov, follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public 
docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (e.g., 
audio or video) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written 
comment is considered the official comment and should include 
discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not 
consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary 
submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For 
additional submission methods, please contact the person identified in 
the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. For the full EPA public 
comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and 
general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets. If you need assistance in a 
language other than English or if you are a person with a disability 
who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please

[[Page 16713]]

contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donnique Sherman, EPA Region IX, 75 
Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105. By phone: (415) 947-4129 or by 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document, ``we,'' ``us'' and 
``our'' refer to the EPA.

Table of Contents

I. The State's Submittal
    A. What rule did the State submit?
    B. Are there other versions of this rule?
    C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule?
II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action
    A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?
    B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?
    C. The EPA's Recommendations To Further Improve the Rule
    D. Proposed Action and Public Comment
III. Incorporation by Reference
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. The State's Submittal

A. What rule did the State submit?

    Table 1 lists the rule addressed by this proposal with the dates 
that it was adopted by the local air agency and submitted by the 
California Air Resources Board (CARB).

                                             Table 1--Submitted Rule
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Local agency                  Rule No.            Rule title            Amended         Submitted
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCAQMD..............................            1118   Control of Emissions           01/06/23         05/11/23
                                                        from Refinery Flares.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On November 11, 2023, the submittal for SCAQMD Rule 1118 was deemed 
by operation of law to meet the completeness criteria in 40 CFR part 51 
Appendix V, which must be met before formal EPA review.

B. Are there other versions of this rule?

    On September 22, 2022, in a limited approval and limited 
disapproval action, the EPA finalized inclusion of an earlier version 
of Rule 1118 into the SIP (87 FR 57838). The SCAQMD adopted revisions 
to the SIP-approved version of Rule 1118 on January 6, 2023, and CARB 
submitted them to us on May 11, 2023. If we finalize our proposed 
approval, the January 6, 2023 version of Rule 1118 will replace the 
previously approved version of this rule in the SIP.

C. What is the purpose of the submitted rule?

    Emissions of NOX and VOCs contribute to the production 
of ground-level ozone, smog and particulate matter (PM), which harm 
human health and the environment. Section 110(a) of the CAA requires 
states to submit regulations that control NOX and VOC 
emissions. Rule 1118 Control of Emissions from Refinery Flares is 
designed to monitor and record data on refinery and related flaring 
operations, and to control and minimize flaring and flare related 
emissions. The EPA's technical support document (TSD) for this action 
has more information about this rule.

II. The EPA's Evaluation and Action

A. How is the EPA evaluating the rule?

    Rules in the SIP must be enforceable (see CAA section 110(a)(2)), 
must not interfere with applicable requirements concerning attainment 
and reasonable further progress or other CAA requirements (see CAA 
section 110(l)), and must not modify certain SIP control requirements 
in nonattainment areas without ensuring equivalent or greater emissions 
reductions (see CAA section 193).
    Generally, SIP rules must require reasonably available control 
technology (RACT) for each category of sources covered by a Control 
Techniques Guidelines (CTG) document as well as each major source of 
NOX and VOCs in ozone nonattainment areas classified as 
moderate or above (see CAA section 182(b)(2)). The SCAQMD regulates an 
ozone nonattainment area classified as ``Extreme'' for the 2015 8-hour 
ozone NAAQS (40 CFR 81.305). Therefore, this rule must ensure the 
applicable sources implement RACT-level controls for that ozone 
standard.
    Our September 22, 2022 action on Rule 1118 evaluated the rule using 
this criteria. We finalized a limited approval and limited disapproval 
of Rule 1118 (amended July 7, 2017) on the basis that the rule allowed 
the Executive Officer the authority to approve other test methods for 
determining compliance than those identified in the rule. This 
deficiency undermined the enforceability of the rule by allowing 
revisions to the requirements in the SIP without the EPA's approval. In 
this current action, Rule 1118 was amended by SCAQMD to solely address 
the limited disapproval. The changes to Rule 1118 in this submittal 
have not relaxed or removed any of the main stringency rule provisions, 
including control requirements, nor have we identified any new 
information to alter our prior evaluation of Rule 1118. Therefore, our 
evaluation of the January 6, 2023 amended version of Rule 1118 is 
focused on the correction of the previously identified deficiency.
    Guidance and policy documents that we used to evaluate 
enforceability and revision/relaxation requirements for the applicable 
criteria pollutants include the following:
    1. ``State Implementation Plans; General Preamble for the 
Implementation of Title I of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990,'' 57 
FR 13498 (April 16, 1992); 57 FR 18070 (April 28, 1992).
    2. ``Issues Relating to VOC Regulation Cutpoints, Deficiencies, and 
Deviations,'' EPA, May 25, 1988 (the Bluebook, revised January 11, 
1990).
    3. ``Guidance Document for Correcting Common VOC & Other Rule 
Deficiencies,'' EPA Region 9, August 21, 2001 (the Little Bluebook).

B. Does the rule meet the evaluation criteria?

    The revisions to Rule 1118 in this submittal correct the deficiency 
identified in the EPA's previous limited approval and limited 
disapproval of the rule. The new version of Rule 1118 improves the SIP 
by including the EPA as an approving authority for use of alternative 
test methods when determining rule compliance. The rule is now largely 
consistent with CAA requirements and relevant guidance regarding 
enforceability, RACT, and SIP revisions, and fully approvable.

C. The EPA's Recommendations To Further Improve the Rule

    The TSD includes recommendations for the next time SCAQMD modifies 
the rule.

D. Public Comment and Proposed Action

    As authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA proposes to 
fully approve the submitted rule because it fulfill(s) all relevant 
requirements. We will accept comments from the public on this proposal 
until April 8, 2024. If we approve the submitted rule in our final 
action, then will incorporate this rule into the federally enforceable 
SIP.

[[Page 16714]]

III. Incorporation by Reference

    In this rule, the EPA is proposing to include in a final EPA rule, 
regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance 
with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is proposing to incorporate by 
reference the SCAQMD rule listed in Table 1 of this preamble, which is 
designed to decrease NOX and VOC emissions from industries 
such as petroleum refineries, sulphur recovery plants, and hydrogen 
production plants by controlling and minimizing flaring and flare 
related emissions in the South Coast Air Basin. The EPA has made, and 
will continue to make, these materials available through https://www.regulations.gov and at the EPA Region IX Office (please contact the 
person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this preamble for more information).

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator is required to approve a 
SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and 
applicable federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). 
Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, the EPA's role is to approve state 
choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act. 
Accordingly, this proposed action merely proposes to approve state law 
as meeting federal requirements and does not impose additional 
requirements beyond those imposed by state law. For that reason, this 
proposed action:
     Is not a significant regulatory action subject to review 
by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Orders 12866 (58 
FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 14094 (88 FR 21879, April 11, 2023);
     Does not impose an information collection burden under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
     Is certified as not having a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);
     Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or 
uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded 
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4);
     Does not have federalism implications as specified in 
Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
     Is not subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 19885, 
April 23, 1997) because it proposes to approve a state program;
     Is not a significant regulatory action subject to 
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001); and
     Is not subject to requirements of Section 12(d) of the 
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 
note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent 
with the Clean Air Act.
    In addition, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian 
reservation land or in any other area where the EPA or an Indian tribe 
has demonstrated that a tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of 
Indian country, the rule does not have tribal implications and will not 
impose substantial direct costs on tribal governments or preempt tribal 
law as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 
2000).
    Executive Order 12898 (Federal Actions To Address Environmental 
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, 59 FR 7629, 
Feb. 16, 1994) directs Federal agencies to identify and address 
``disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental 
effects'' of their actions on minority populations and low-income 
populations to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law. 
The EPA defines environmental justice (EJ) as ``the fair treatment and 
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, 
national origin, or income with respect to the development, 
implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and 
policies.'' The EPA further defines the term fair treatment to mean 
that ``no group of people should bear a disproportionate burden of 
environmental harms and risks, including those resulting from the 
negative environmental consequences of industrial, governmental, and 
commercial operations or programs and policies.''
    The State did not evaluate environmental justice considerations as 
part of its SIP submittal; the CAA and applicable implementing 
regulations neither prohibit nor require such an evaluation. The EPA 
did not perform an EJ analysis and did not consider EJ in this action 
Consideration of EJ is not required as part of this action, and there 
is no information in the record inconsistent with the stated goal of 
Executive Order 12898 of achieving environmental justice for people of 
color, low-income populations, and Indigenous peoples.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, 
Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Volatile 
organic compounds.

    Dated: February 29, 2024.
Martha Guzman Aceves,
Regional Administrator, Region IX.
[FR Doc. 2024-04792 Filed 3-7-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P