Environmental Protection Agency July 16, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action finalizes changes to EPA's regulations specifying the public hearing requirements for State Implementation Plan (SIP) submissions, identifying the method for submission of SIPs and preliminary review of plans; and the criteria for determining the completeness of plan submission requirements to reflect the changes to the public hearing and plan submission requirements. It also updates the addresses to several Regional offices.

This action proposes a national reactivity-based volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions regulation for the aerosol coatings (aerosol spray paints) category under section 183(e) of the Clean Air Act (CAA). The proposed standards implement section 183(e) of the CAA, as amended in 1990, which requires the Administrator to control VOC emissions from certain categories of consumer and commercial products for purposes of minimizing VOC emissions contributing to ozone formation and causing non-attainment. This regulation will establish a nationwide reactivity-based standard for aerosol coatings. States have promulgated rules for the aerosol coatings category based upon reductions of VOC by mass; however, the Agency believes that a national rule based upon the relative reactivity approach may achieve more reduction in ozone formation than can be achieved by a mass-based approach for this specific product category. EPA believes that this rule will better control a product's contribution to ozone formation by encouraging the use of less reactive VOC ingredients, rather than treating all VOC in a product alike through the traditional mass-based approach. We are also proposing to revise EPA's regulatory definition of VOC exempt compounds for purposes of this regulation in order to account for all the reactive compounds in aerosol coatings that contribute to ozone formation. Therefore, compounds that would not be VOC under the otherwise applicable definition will count towards a product's reactivity limits under this proposed regulation. The initial listing of product categories and schedule for regulation was published on March 23, 1995 (60 FR 15264). This proposed action announces EPA's final decision to list aerosol coatings for regulation under group III of the consumer and commercial product category for which regulations are mandated under section 183 (e) of the Act.