Department of Agriculture August 31, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92463, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives notice of a public meeting of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). NACEPT provides advice to the EPA Administrator on a broad range of environmental policy, technology, and management issues. NACEPT members represent academia, industry, non-governmental organizations, and local, state, and tribal governments. The purpose of this meeting is for NACEPT to begin developing recommendations to the Administrator regarding actions that EPA can take in response to the agency's charge on citizen science. A copy of the meeting agenda will be posted at https://www2.epa.gov/faca/nacept.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that, in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. App 2. The Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) is a necessary committee which is in the public interest. Accordingly, CHPAC will be renewed for an additional two-year period. The purpose of CHPAC is to provide advice and recommendations to the Administrator of EPA on issues associated with the development of regulations, guidance and policies to address children's health risks. Inquiries may be directed to Martha Berger, Designated Federal Officer, CHPAC, U.S. EPA,MC 1107T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460 or 202-564-2191 or berger.martha@epa.gov.

This notice announces our approval of the Alternative Means of Emission Limitation (AMEL) requests for the operation of multi-point ground flares (MPGF) at The Dow Chemical Company's (Dow) Propane Dehydrogenation Plant and Light Hydrocarbons Plant located at its Texas Operations site in Freeport, Texas, and the ExxonMobil Chemical Company (ExxonMobil) Olefins Plant in Baytown, Texas, and its Plastics Plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas. This approval notice also specifies the operating conditions and monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements for demonstrating compliance with the AMEL that these facilities must follow. In addition, this notice solicits comments on an all aspects of an AMEL request from Occidental Chemical Corporation (OCC) in which long- term MPGF burner stability and destruction efficiency have been demonstrated on different pressure-assisted MPGF burners that OCC has proposed for use in controlling emissions at its Ingleside, Texas, ethylene plant. Lastly, this notice presents and solicits comments on all aspects of a framework of both MPGF burner testing and rule-specific emissions control equivalency demonstrations that we anticipate, when followed, would afford us the ability to approve future AMEL requests for MPGF in a more efficient and streamlined manner.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving two revisions to the New Mexico State Implementation Plan (SIP) to update the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) SIP permitting program consistent with federal requirements. New Mexico submitted the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County PSD SIP permitting revisions on July 26, 2013, and June 11, 2015, which includes a request for parallel processing of the submitted 2015 revisions. These submittals contain revisions to address the requirements of the EPA's May 2008, July 2010, and October 2012 PM2.5 PSD Implementation Rules and to incorporate revisions consistent with the EPA's March 2011 Fugitives Interim Rule, July 2011 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Biomass Deferral Rule, and July 2012 GHG Tailoring Rule Step 3 and GHG PALs Rule. The EPA finds that these revisions to the New Mexico SIP meet the Federal Clean Air Act (the Act or CAA) and EPA regulations, and are consistent with EPA policies. We are taking this action under section 110 and part C of title I of the Act. The EPA is not approving these rules within the exterior boundaries of a reservation or other areas within any Tribal Nation's jurisdiction.