Environmental Protection Agency December 27, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under section 211(k)(6) of the Clean Air Act, the Administrator of EPA shall require the sale of reformulated gasoline (RFG) in an ozone nonattainment area upon the application of the Governor of the State in which the nonattainment area is located. This notice proposes to extend the Act's prohibition against the sale of conventional (i.e., non-reformulated) gasoline in RFG areas to the Illinois portion of the St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois 8-hour ozone nonattainment area hereafter referred to as the East St. Louis, Illinois nonattainment area. The Agency proposes to implement this prohibition on May 1, 2007, for all persons other than retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers (i.e., refiners, importers, and distributors). For retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers, EPA proposes to implement the prohibition on June 1, 2007. On June 1, 2007, the East St. Louis ozone nonattainment area would be a covered area for all purposes in the federal RFG program. EPA seeks comment on alternative implementation dates it could establish if unexpected delays in issuing the final rule render the proposed implementation dates impractical.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public teleconference of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Ozone Review Panel (CASAC Panel) to review EPA's Final Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: Policy Assessment of Scientific and Technical Information (Final Ozone Staff Paper, January 2007), focusing on Chapter 6 (The Primary O3 NAAQS) and Chapter 8 (The Secondary O3 NAAQS).

The EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is announcing four public teleconferences of the SAB Hypoxia Advisory Panel to discuss preparation of a Draft Advisory on the science concerning hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

This regulation establishes a tolerance for combined residues of fluthiacet-methyl in or on cotton, gin byproducts and cotton, undelinted seed. K-I Chemical U.S.A. Inc. requested this tolerance under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA).

This notice announces receipt of applications to register pesticide products containing new active ingredients not included in any previously registered products pursuant to the provisions of section 3(c)(4) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing changes to the methods used to calculate the fuel economy estimates that are posted on window stickers of all new cars and light trucks sold in the United States. This final rule will greatly improve the EPA fuel economy estimates to more accurately inform consumers about the fuel economy they can expect to achieve in the real world. The new test methods take into account several important factors that affect fuel economy in the real world, but are missing from the existing fuel economy tests. Key among these factors are high speeds, aggressive accelerations and decelerations, the use of air conditioning, and operation in cold temperatures. Under the new methods, the city miles per gallon (mpg) estimates for the manufacturers of most vehicles will drop by about 12 percent on average relative to today's estimates, and city mpg estimates for some vehicles will drop by as much as 30 percent. The highway mpg estimates for most vehicles will drop on average by about 8 percent, with some estimates dropping by as much as 25 percent relative to today's estimates. These changes will take effect starting with 2008 model year vehicles, available at dealers in 2007. We also are adopting a new fuel economy label design with a new look and updated information that should be more useful to prospective car buyers. The new label features more prominent fuel cost information, an easy-to-use graphic for comparing the fuel economy of different vehicles, clearer text, and a Web site address for more information. Manufacturers will be phasing in the new design during the 2008 model year. Finally, for the first time we are requiring fuel economy labeling of certain passenger vehicles between 8,500 and 10,000 lbs gross vehicle weight rating. Because of the Department of Transportation's recent regulation that brings medium-duty passenger vehicles into the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program starting in 2011, EPA is now statutorily obligated to include these vehicles in the fuel economy labeling program. Medium-duty passenger vehicles are a subset of vehicles between 8,500 and 10,000 lbs gross vehicle weight that includes large sport utility vehicles and vans, but not pickup trucks. Vehicle manufacturers are required to post fuel economy labels on medium-duty passenger vehicles beginning with the 2011 model year.