April 28, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to disapprove revisions to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted to meet certain requirements under section 182(c) of the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) nonattainment area under the 1997 8-hour ozone standard. The revisions address the attainment demonstration submitted on January 17, 2012, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for the DFW Serious nonattainment area. The EPA is also proposing to determine that the DFW 8-hour ozone nonattainment area is currently attaining the 1997 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). This determination is based upon certified ambient air monitoring data that show the area has monitored attainment of the 1997 ozone NAAQS for the 2012-2014 monitoring period. If this proposed determination is made final, the requirements for this area to submit an attainment demonstration, a reasonable further progress (RFP) plan, contingency measures, and other planning SIPs related to attainment of the 1997 ozone NAAQS shall be suspended for so long as the area continues to attain the 1997 ozone NAAQS. This proposed action is consistent with the requirements of section 110 and part D of the CAA.

The Coast Guard is establishing temporary safety zones around each vessel associated with Royal Dutch Shell's (Shell) planned Arctic oil drilling and exploration operations, and any vessel actively engaged in towing or escorting those vessels, while located in the U.S. Territorial and Internal Waters of the Sector Puget Sound Captain of the Port Zone. In addition, the Coast Guard is establishing a regulated navigation area to designate a Voluntary First Amendment Area for individuals that desire to exercise their First Amendment free speech rights with regards to Shell's operations. The safety zones and regulated navigation area created by this rule are necessary to ensure the mutual safety of all waterways users including the specified vessels and those individuals that desire to exercise their First Amendment rights.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) proposes to amend the origin of livestock requirements for dairy animals under the USDA organic regulations. This proposed action would specify that a producer can transition dairy animals into organic production once. This proposed action would clarify that, after completion of this one-time transition, any new dairy animals that a producer adds to a dairy farm would need to be managed organically from the last third of gestation or sourced from dairy animals that already completed their transition into organic production. This proposed action would also clarify how breeder stock should be managed on organic livestock farms.

On May 27, 2014, the Coast Guard published a Notice of Availability and Request for Public Comment regarding a petition for a rulemaking action. The petition requested that the Coast Guard establish a load line-exempted route on Lake Michigan, along the eastern coast to Muskegon, MI. Upon review of the comments as well as analysis of safety considerations and other factors described in the discussion section, the Coast Guard has decided not to proceed with the requested rulemaking. The public comments, and the Coast Guard's reasoning for its decision, are discussed in this notice.

The Coast Guard has issued a temporary deviation from the operating schedule that govern three Multnomah County bridges: The Broadway Bridge, mile 11.7, the Morrison Bridge, mile 12.8, and the Hawthorne Bridge, mile 13.1, all crossing the Willamette River at Portland, OR. The deviation is necessary to accommodate the annual Rock `n' Roll Half Marathon event. This deviation allows the bridges to remain in the closed-to-navigation position to allow safe roadway movement of event participants.

This document corrects errors in the rule language of a final rule pertaining to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's requests to redesignate to attainment the Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle and York nonattainment areas for the 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) and the Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle-York 2006 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS nonattainment area, which was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, December 8, 2014 (79 FR 72552).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking direct final action to approve revisions to the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District (YSAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from solvent cleaning and degreasing operations. We are approving local rules that regulate these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

This document contains corrections to final regulations (TD 9718) that were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 (80 FR 16973). The final regulations relating to the exception to the general three-year period of limitations on assessment under section 6501(c)(10) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) for listed transactions that taxpayer failed to disclosed as required under section 6011.