§ 60.27a - Actions by the Administrator.

§ 60.27a Actions by the Administrator.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 88 FR 80544, Nov. 17, 2023.

(a) The Administrator may, whenever he determines necessary, shorten amend the period for submission of any plan or plan revision or portion thereof.

(b) After determination that a plan or plan revision is complete per the requirements of § 60.27a(g), the Administrator will take action on the plan or revision. The Administrator will, within twelve months of finding that a plan or plan revision is complete, approve or disapprove such plan or revision or each portion thereof.

(1) Full and partial approval and disapproval. In the case of any plan or plan revision on which the Administrator is required to act under this paragraph (b), the Administrator shall approve such plan or plan revision as a whole if it meets all of the applicable requirements of this subpart. If a portion of the plan or plan revision meets all the applicable requirements of this subpart, the Administrator may approve the plan or plan revision in part and disapprove in part. The plan or plan revision shall not be treated as meeting the requirements of this chapter until the Administrator approves the entire plan or revision as complying with the applicable requirements of this subpart.

(2) Conditional approval. The Administrator may approve a plan or plan revision based on a commitment of the State to adopt and submit to the Administrator specific enforceable measures by a date certain, but not later than twelve months after the date of conditional approval of the plan or plan revision. Any such conditional approval shall be treated as a disapproval if the State fails to comply with such commitment.

(c) The Administrator will promulgate, through notice-and-comment rulemaking, a federal Federal plan, or portion thereof, at any time within two years twelve months after the Administrator:

(1) Finds that a The State fails to submit a required plan or plan revision within the time prescribed or finds that the plan or plan revision does not the State has failed to satisfy the minimum criteria under paragraph (g) of this section as of the time prescribed in paragraph (g)(1) of this section; or

(2) Disapproves The Administrator disapproves the required State plan or plan revision or any portion thereof, as unsatisfactory because the applicable requirements of this subpart or an applicable subpart emission guideline under this part have not been met.

(d) The Administrator will promulgate a final federal Federal plan, or portion thereof, as described in paragraph (c) of this section unless the State corrects the deficiency, and the Administrator approves the plan or plan revision, before the Administrator promulgates such federal Federal plan.

(e)

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (e)(2) of this section, a federal plan promulgated by the Administrator under this section will prescribe standards of performance of the same stringency as the corresponding emission guideline(s) specified in the final emission guideline published under § 60.22a(a) and will require compliance with such standards as expeditiously as practicable but no later than the times specified in the emission guideline.

(2) Upon application by the owner or operator of a designated facility to which regulations proposed and promulgated under this section will apply, the Administrator may provide for the application of less stringent standards of performance or longer compliance schedules than those otherwise required by this section in accordance with the criteria specified in § 60.24a(e).

(f) Prior to promulgation of a federal Federal plan under paragraph (d) of this section, the Administrator will conduct meaningful engagement with pertinent stakeholders and/or their representatives and provide the opportunity for at least one public hearing in either:

(1) Each State that failed to submit a required complete plan or plan revision, or whose required plan or plan revision is disapproved by the Administrator; or

(2) Washington, DC or an alternate location specified in the Federal Register.

(g) Each plan or plan revision that is submitted to the Administrator shall be reviewed for completeness as described in paragraphs (g)(1) through (3) of this section.

(1) General. Within 60 days of the Administrator's receipt of a state State submission, but no later than 6 months after the date, if any, by which a State is required to submit the plan or revision, the Administrator shall determine whether the minimum criteria for completeness have been met for a plan submission or revision. Any plan or plan revision that a State submits to the EPA, and that has not been determined by the EPA by the date 6 months after receipt of the within 60 days after the Administrator's receipt of a State submission to have failed to meet the minimum criteria, shall on that date be deemed by operation of law to meet such minimum criteria. Where the Administrator determines that a plan submission does not meet the minimum criteria of this paragraph (g), the State will be treated as not having made the submission and the requirements of § 60.27a this section regarding promulgation of a federal Federal plan shall apply.

(2) Administrative criteria. In order to be deemed complete, a State plan must contain each of the following administrative criteria:

(i) A formal letter of submittal from the Governor or her designee requesting EPA approval of the plan or revision thereof;

(ii) Evidence that the State has adopted the plan in the state code or body of regulations; or issued the permit, order, consent agreement (hereafter “document”) in final form. That evidence must include the date of adoption or final issuance as well as the effective date of the plan, if different from the adoption/issuance date;

(iii) Evidence that the State has the necessary legal authority under state law to adopt and implement the plan;

(iv) A copy of the actual regulation, or document submitted for approval and incorporation by reference into the plan, including indication of the changes made (such as redline/strikethrough) to the existing approved plan, where applicable. The submittal must be a copy of the official state regulation or document signed, stamped and dated by the appropriate state official indicating that it is fully enforceable by the State. The effective date of the regulation or document must, whenever possible, be indicated in the document itself. The State's electronic copy must be an exact duplicate of the hard copy. If the regulation/document provided by the State for approval and incorporation by reference into the plan is a copy of an existing publication, the State submission should, whenever possible, include a copy of the publication cover page and table of contents;

(v) Evidence that the State followed all of the procedural requirements of the state's laws and constitution in conducting and completing the adoption and issuance of the plan;

(vi) Evidence that public notice was given of the proposed change with procedures consistent with the requirements of § 60.23a, including the date of publication of such notice;

(vii) Certification that public hearing(s) were held in accordance with the information provided in the public notice and the State's laws and constitution, if applicable and consistent with the public hearing requirements in § 60.23a;

(viii) Compilation of public comments and the State's response thereto; and

(ix) Documentation of meaningful engagement, including a list of pertinent stakeholders or their representatives, a summary of the engagement conducted, and a summary of stakeholder input received, and a description of how stakeholder input was considered in the development of the plan or plan revisions; and

(x) Such other criteria for completeness as may be specified by the Administrator under the applicable emission guidelines.

(3) Technical criteria. In order to be deemed complete, a State plan must contain each of the following technical criteria:

(i) Description of the plan approach and geographic scope;

(ii) Identification of each designated facility, identification of standards of performance for the designated facilities, and monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting requirements that will determine compliance by each designated facility;

(iii) Identification of compliance schedules and/or increments of progress;

(iv) Demonstration that the State plan submittal is projected to achieve emissions performance under the applicable emission guidelines;

(v) Documentation of state recordkeeping and reporting requirements to determine the performance of the plan as a whole; and

(vi) Demonstration that each emission standard is quantifiable, non-duplicative, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable.

(h) The requirements of this paragraph (h) apply to parallel processing. A State may submit a plan requesting parallel processing prior to adoption and to completion of public outreach and engagement by the State in order to expedite review and to provide an opportunity for the State to consider EPA comments prior to submission of a final plan for final review and action. Under these circumstances and at the discretion of the EPA, the following exceptions to the completeness criteria under paragraph (g)(2) of this section apply to plans submitted explicitly for parallel processing:

(1) The letter required by paragraph (g)(2)(i) of this section must request that EPA propose approval of the proposed plan by parallel processing;

(2) In lieu of paragraph (g)(2)(ii) of this section, the State must submit a schedule for final adoption or issuance of the plan;

(3) In lieu of paragraph (g)(2)(iv) of this section, the plan must include a copy of the proposed/draft regulation or document, including indication of the proposed changes to be made to the existing approved plan, where applicable;

(4) In lieu of paragraph (g)(2)(ix) of this section, the plan must include documentation of the engagement conducted prior to the parallel processing submittal and of any planned additional meaningful engagement to be conducted prior to adoption of the final plan; and

(5) The requirements of paragraphs (g)(2)(v) through (viii) of this section do not apply to plans submitted for parallel processing. The exceptions granted in the preceding sentence apply only to EPA's determination of proposed action and all requirements of paragraph (g)(2) of this section must be met prior to publication of EPA's final determination of plan approvability.

(i) The requirements of this paragraph (i) apply to calls for plan revisions. Whenever the Administrator finds that the applicable plan is substantially inadequate to meet the requirements of the applicable emission guidelines in this part, to provide for the implementation of the applicable requirements, or to otherwise comply with any applicable requirement of this subpart or the Clean Air Act, the Administrator shall require the State to revise the plan as necessary to correct such inadequacies. The Administrator must notify the State of the inadequacies and such plan revisions shall be submitted to the Administrator within twelve months or as determined by the Administrator. Such findings and notice must be public.

(1) Any finding under this paragraph (i) shall, to the extent the Administrator deems appropriate, subject the State to the requirements of this part to which the State was subject when it developed and submitted the plan for which such finding was made, except that the Administrator may adjust any dates applicable under such requirements as appropriate.

(2) If the Administrator makes this finding on the basis that a State is failing to implement an approved plan, or part of an approved plan, the State may submit a demonstration to the Administrator it is adequately implementing the requirements of the approved State plan in lieu of submitting a plan revision. Such demonstration must be submitted by the deadline established under this paragraph (i).

(j) The requirements of this paragraph (j) apply to error corrections. Whenever the Administrator determines that the Administrator's action approving, disapproving, or promulgating any plan or plan revision (or portion thereof) was in error, the Administrator may in the same manner as the approval, disapproval, or promulgation revise such action as appropriate without requiring any further submission from the State. Such determination and the basis thereof shall be provided to the State and public.

[84 FR 32575, July 8, 2019, as amended at 88 FR 80544, Nov. 17, 2023]