96-17645. Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles and New Motor Vehicle Engines; Voluntary Standards for Light-Duty Vehicles

[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 134 (Thursday, July 11, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36559-36560]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-17645]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5534-5]


Control of Air Pollution From New Motor Vehicles and New Motor 
Vehicle Engines; Voluntary Standards for Light-Duty Vehicles

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of a contractor's final 
report on testing to compare evaporative emissions test procedures of 
the Environmental Protection Agency with those of the California Air 
Resources Board (CARB). The information is relevant to policy decisions 
EPA anticipates making as part of any final rulemaking to adopt the 
National Low Emission Vehicle program, a voluntary program of emission 
standards and related provisions applicable to light-duty vehicles and 
light, light-duty trucks.

DATES: The status report has been released and is currently available 
to the public.

ADDRESSES: Materials relevant to this study are contained in Docket No. 
A-95-26. The docket is located at the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Air Docket Section, Air Docket Room, Room M-1500, Waterside 
Mall, 401 M Street SW, Washington, DC 20460 (Telephone [phone]; 
FAX [phone]). The docket may be inspected between the hours of 
8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. A reasonable fee may be 
charged by EPA for copying docket materials.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rob French, Vehicle Programs and 
Compliance Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National 
Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, 2565 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, 48105. Telephone [phone], FAX [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 10, 1995, EPA proposed 
regulations under sections 202(a) and 301(a) of the Clean Air Act to 
establish a National Low Emission Vehicle (National LEV) program. 60 FR 
52734. Under these regulations, auto manufacturers would be able to 
volunteer to comply with more stringent tailpipe standards for cars and 
light, light-duty trucks. Once a manufacturer opted into the program, 
the standards would be enforced in the same manner as any other federal 
motor vehicle pollution control requirement. The Agency further 
proposed that the National LEV program, once found to be in effect, 
would relieve the 13 states in the Northeast Ozone Transport Region 
(OTR), of their regulatory obligation to adopt the OTC-LEV program, (a 
state-by-state implementation of California's LEV program requirements 
in the Northeast OTR states by February 15, 1996. 60 FR 4712.
    The proposed National LEV program is based in part on the 
California motor vehicle program, whose light-duty exhaust emissions 
standards are more stringent than the federal counterparts. In an 
effort to reduce duplicative testing burdens for the vehicle 
manufacturers, and to provide added incentive for vehicle manufacturers 
to opt into the National LEV program, EPA stated its intent in the 
National LEV proposal to harmonize certain elements of the California 
and federal requirements, including the federal and California 
requirements for evaporative emissions testing. In the proposal, EPA 
noted that an investigative program was underway, with support from 
CARB and the vehicle manufacturers, to examine the relative stringency 
of the test fuel and test temperature provisions of the federal and 
California evaporative emission testing requirements. The investigative 
program has been completed, and today's notice announces the 
availability of the contractor's final report on the testing. The 
specific relevance of this test program to policy decisions in the 
National LEV program will be addressed in a subsequent final action to 
implement that program.
    The contractor's final report is available to the public and may be 
inspected in the public docket, No. A-95-26, at the location provided 
above in ADDRESSES. In addition, electronic copies of the contractor's 
report are available from the EPA internet site and via dial-up modem 
on the Technology Transfer Network (TTN) electronic bulletin board 
system (BBS).

Internet:
    http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW/
 gopher://gopher.epa.gov Menus-->Offices:Air:OMS
    ftp://ftp.epa.gov Directory-->pub/gopher/OMS
TTN BBS:
    919-541-5742 (1,200-14,400 bps, no parity, eight data bits, one 
stop bit) (Off-line Mondays 8:00-12:00 Noon ET). Voice help: 919-541-
5384

    Use the following menu choices from the Top Menu to access the 
[technical report].

     GATEWAY TO TTN TECHNICAL AREAS
     OMS - Mobile Sources Information
     Rulemaking & Reporting
    <1> Light Duty
    <7> File area #7 Evaporative Emissions

    Download file ATL-RPT.ZIP using a transfer protocol supported by 
your own software. Information on handling ``ZIP'' files can be found 
at System Utilities (Command: 1 from Top Menu). Note that differences 
between the software used to develop the document and the software into 
which the document may be downloaded can result in changes in format, 
page length, etc.


[[Page 36560]]


    Dated: July 1, 1996.
Mary D. Nichols,
Assistant Administrator.
[FR Doc. 96-17645 Filed 7-10-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P