Environmental Protection Agency June 29, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice that it has responded to petitions for reconsideration and/or administrative stay of a final action under the Clean Air Act (CAA) published in the Federal Register on December 13, 2016, titled, ``Air Quality Designations for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Primary National Ambient Air Quality StandardSupplement to Round 2 for Four Areas in Texas: Freestone and Anderson Counties, Milam County, Rusk and Panola Counties, and Titus County.'' The EPA has denied these petitions in letters to the petitioners for the reasons that the EPA explains in those documents.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hereby provides notice that the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) will meet on the dates and times described below. The meeting is open to the public. Members of the public are encouraged to provide comments relevant to the specific issues being considered by the NEJAC. For additional information about registering to attend the meeting or to provide public comment, please see ``Registration'' under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. Pre-registration is required.

This regulation establishes an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of Bacillus subtilis strain RTI477 in or on all food commodities when used in accordance with label directions and good agricultural practices. FMC Corporation submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), requesting an exemption from the requirement of a tolerance. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of Bacillus subtilis strain RTI477 under FFDCA when used in accordance with this exemption.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is withdrawing its August 22, 2019, proposed rule, which proposed both to determine that the EPA made an error in the area designations for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for portions of Freestone and Anderson Counties, Rusk and Panola Counties, and Titus County in Texas, and to correct the proposed error by modifying the designations of those areas to unclassifiable. The EPA is withdrawing the proposed rule because the EPA, informed in part by technical information received during the public comment period on the proposed rule that further supports the EPA's initial designations of these areas, no longer believes the bases identified in the proposed error correction support the proposed conclusion that an error correction is appropriate.

This final rule, issued pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the TSCA Health and Safety Data Reporting rule, requires manufacturers (including importers) of 50 specified chemical substances to report certain lists and copies of unpublished health and safety studies to EPA. The chemical substances subject to this rule are listed in this document and consist of the 20 designated by EPA as High-Priority Substances and the 30 organohalogen flame retardants being evaluated for risks by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA). EPA is taking this action because the TSCA Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) added these chemical substances to the Priority Testing List through its 69th and 74th Reports and EPA will use this information to inform the risk evaluations currently underway for 20 High-Priority Substances and for future prioritization.

This notice of proposed rulemaking includes corrections, clarifications, additional flexibilities, and adjustment factors to improve the Greenhouse gas Emissions Model (GEM) compliance tool for heavy-duty vehicles while more closely matching the outputs produced by the original GEM version 3.0 that was used to establish the CO2 standards for Model Years 2021 and later in the 2016 Heavy-duty Phase 2 final rule. This document supplements the proposed rule published on May 12, 2020, which included a larger set of proposed revisions to modify and improve GEM. Most of the proposed revisions from that notice of proposed rulemaking are addressed in a final rulemaking published elsewhere in the Final Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register. Given the nature of this proposal, there will be neither significant environmental impacts nor significant economic impacts for any sector.