Environmental Protection Agency December 23, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document announces the Agency's receipt of several initial filings of pesticide petitions requesting the establishment or modification of regulations for residues of pesticide chemicals in or on various commodities.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's (ADEQ) portion of the Arizona State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions are primarily intended to make corrections to the ADEQ's SIP- approved rules for the issuance of New Source Review (NSR) permits for stationary sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or Act). This proposed action will update the ADEQ's NSR rules in the SIP and correct the remaining deficiencies in the ADEQ's NSR program that we identified in final EPA rulemaking actions in 2015 and 2016. Additionally, we are proposing a finding that the ADEQ's SIP-approved NSR permitting program meets requirements for visibility protection for major NSR sources under the Act and are proposing to remove Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs) related to these requirements. We are seeking comment on our proposed action and plan to follow with a final action.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating this final rule to adjust the level of the maximum (and minimum) statutory civil monetary penalty amounts under the statutes the EPA administers. This action is mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended through the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (``the 2015 Act''). The 2015 Act prescribes a formula for annually adjusting the statutory maximum (and minimum) amount of civil monetary penalties to reflect inflation, maintain the deterrent effect of statutory civil monetary penalties, and promote compliance with the law. The rule does not establish specific civil monetary penalty amounts the EPA may seek in particular cases, as appropriate given the facts of particular cases and applicable agency penalty policies. The EPA's civil penalty policies, which guide enforcement personnel on how to exercise the EPA's discretion within statutory penalty authorities, take into account a number of fact-specific considerations, e.g., the seriousness of the violation, the violator's good faith efforts to comply, any economic benefit gained by the violator as a result of its noncompliance, and a violator's ability to pay.