Environmental Protection Agency May 17, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) trading program regulations, EPA allocates emission allowances to existing electricity generating units as provided in a notice of data availability (NODA). In the Revised CSAPR Update promulgated earlier this year, EPA finalized default allocations of CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 3 allowances to existing units in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia from the new state emissions budgets for the control periods in 2021 and subsequent years. In the same rule, EPA also finalized a formula for determining supplemental amounts of allowances to be issued for the 12 states for the 2021 control period and a methodology for allocating each state's supplemental allowances among the state's existing units. Through this NODA, EPA is providing notice of the availability of data on the allowance allocations to existing units from both the state emissions budgets and the supplemental allowances, as well as the data upon which the allocations are based.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, EPA announces an upcoming meeting of the Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS), which is a subcommittee under the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC). This is a virtual meeting and open to the public. The meeting will include discussion of current topics and presentations about activities being conducted by EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. MSTRS listserv subscribers will receive notification when the agenda is available on the Subcommittee website. To subscribe to the MSTRS listserv, send an email to MSTRS@epa.gov.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve revisions to the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submitted by the State of Nebraska on July 16, 2020. This proposed action will amend the SIP to revise title 129 of the Nebraska Administrative Code by removing a portion of the SIP that addresses general conformity. General Conformity ensures that the actions taken by federal agencies do not interfere with a state's plan to attain and maintain national standards for air quality. Since states are no longer required to include general conformity requirements in SIPs, these proposed revisions remove unnecessary language and do not substantively change any existing statutory or regulatory requirement. The proposed revisions do not impact the stringency of the SIP or air quality nor do they impact the State's ability to attain or maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The EPA's proposed approval of this rule revision is in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).