Environmental Protection Agency January 25, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

EPA is proposing partial approval and partial disapproval of State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions regarding the Air Pollutant Emission Notice (APEN) regulations submitted by the State of Colorado on September 16, 1997, June 20, 2003, July 11, 2005, August 8, 2006 and August 1, 2007. The APEN provisions in Sections II.A. through II.D., Part A of Colorado's Regulation Number 3, specify the APEN filing requirements for stationary sources and exemptions from such requirements. This action is being taken under section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

EPA is proposing to partially approve and partially disapprove State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the State of Colorado on June 20, 2003. The intended effect of this proposal is to approve and make federally enforceable those portions of the revisions to Colorado's Common Provisions that are consistent with the Clean Air Act (CAA). Primarily, the revisions involved changes designed to fix ambiguous language, to make the definitions more readable or to delete obsolete definitions. In addition, a number of definitions were revised to reflect developments in federal law or were deleted to eliminate duplicative provisions that appear in other Colorado regulations. EPA is proposing to approve parts of the revision that delete duplicative or obsolete definitions, or that clarify existing definitions in a manner consistent with the CAA. In addition, EPA proposes to disapprove those portions of the rule revisions that EPA determined are inconsistent with the CAA. This action is being taken under section 110 of the CAA.

EPA is notifying the public that it has found that the motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Texas (HGB) Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) and Attainment Demonstration State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions, submitted on April 1st and April 6th, 2010 respectively, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) are adequate for transportation conformity purposes. As a result of EPA's finding, the HGB area must use these budgets for future conformity determinations for the 1997 8-hour ozone standard.

EPA is announcing that Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review, will convene an independent panel of experts and organize and conduct an external peer review workshop to review the external review draft document titled, ``A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the Chesapeake Bay'' (EPA/600/R-10/096a). The draft document was prepared by EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), which is situated in the Office of Research and Development. EPA will forward public comments that were submitted in accordance with a previous notice (Federal Register Volume 75, Number 168 [Tuesday, August 31, 2010]) to the external peer-review panel for consideration prior to the meeting. When finalizing the draft document, EPA will consider any public comments that EPA received in accordance with the August 31, 2010 Federal Register Notice. EPA released this draft document solely for the purpose of peer review under applicable information quality guidelines. This document has not been formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. EPA invites the public to register and attend this workshop and to give oral and/or provide written comments of the draft document under review. The draft document and EPA's peer review charge are available via the Internet on NCEA's home page under the Recent Additions and the Data and Publications menus at https://www.epa.gov/ncea. In preparing a final report, EPA will consider the comments and recommendations from the external peer review workshop and any public comments received in accordance with this notice.