[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 148 (Friday, August 1, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 41275-41277]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-20366]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[ME47-01-7002a; A-1-FRL-5867-8]
Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;
Maine; (Hancock and Waldo Counties Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision--
Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets)
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision
submitted by the State of Maine. This revision establishes explicit
year 2006 motor vehicle emissions budgets [Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOC) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOX)] for the Hancock and Waldo
counties ozone maintenance area to be used in determining
transportation conformity. This action is being taken in accordance
with the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).
DATES: This action will become effective on September 30, 1997, unless
EPA receives adverse or critical comments by September 2, 1997. If the
effective date is delayed, timely notice will be published in the
Federal Register.
[[Page 41276]]
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Susan Studlien, Deputy Director,
Office of Ecosystem Protection (mail code CAA), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region I, JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA 02203.
Copies of the documents relevant to this action are available for
public inspection during normal business hours, by appointment at the
Office Ecosystem Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Region I, One Congress Street, 11th floor, Boston, MA; and the Bureau
of Air Quality Control, Department of Environmental Protection, 71
Hospital Street, Augusta, ME.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, (617) 565-3508.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 24, 1997, the State of Maine
submitted a formal revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP). The
SIP revision consists of explicit year 2006 motor vehicle emissions
budgets (VOC and NOX) for the Waldo and Hancock counties
ozone maintenance area as a SIP revision.
I. Summary of SIP Revision
When the Maine Department of Environmental Protection submitted
their redesignation request for Hancock and Waldo counties
nonattainment area to attainment for the National Ambient Air Quality
Standard for Ozone in May of 1996, they did not include explicit motor
vehicle emissions budgets for use in transportation conformity
determinations. Therefore, in accordance with EPA's Transportation
Conformity Rule, EPA interpreted the motor vehicle emissions
projections for the year 2006 (the last year of the submitted ten-year
maintenance plan) to be the motor vehicle emissions budgets. These 2006
motor vehicle emissions budgets established at 5.779 tons per summer
day of VOC, and 8.195 tons per summer day of NOX then serve
as a cap or ceiling of allowed highway and transit vehicle emissions
for all transportation conformity determinations made during the 1997-
2006 ten-year maintenance period. Approximately eight years into this
ten-year maintenance plan, the State of Maine will develop a second
ten-year maintenance plan to cover the ten-year period, 2007 through
2016, and will establish motor vehicle emissions budgets for the
transportation conformity determinations made during the second
maintenance period. Under all circumstances, transportation conformity
must be analyzed out to the last year of the area's twenty-year
transportation plan.
Projected VMT growth for Hancock and Waldo Counties is expected to
out-pace the benefits of lower vehicle emission rates (cleaner cars and
mobile source strategies) resulting in increased motor vehicle
emissions after the year 2006. Hence, the State of Maine has allocated
additional emissions to the motor vehicle component of the 2006
emissions budgets for transportation conformity purposes.
The new 2006 motor vehicle emissions budgets are now established
for the Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance area at 6.44 tons
per summer day of VOC, and 8.85 tons per summer day of NOX.
These established levels of VOC and NOX are acceptable
because when these levels of emissions are added to all the other
components of the 2006 emission inventory (the 2006 other mobile [off-
road] emissions, the 2006 stationary source emissions, and the 2006
area source emissions) the results are levels of emissions below the
1993 attainment year emission inventory. Please see the table below
which adds the new VOC and NOX motor vehicle emissions
budget to the other unchanged components of the 2006 emissions
inventory, and then compares the total 2006 emissions with the 1993
attainment year emission inventory.
Emissions for Maine's Hancock and Waldo Counties Ozone Maintenance Area
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993 Attainment 2006 maintenance
year VOC plan VOC
Emission Category emissions (in emissions (in
tons per summer tons per summer
day) day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motor Vehicle Emissions (On-road +
Transit Emissions)................. 7.010 6.440
Other Mobile Emissions.............. 1.327 0.946
Point Source Emissions.............. 1.412 1.500
Area Source Emissions............... 5.902 5.989
Total Emissions............... 15.651 14.875
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993 attainment 2006 maintenance
year NOX plan NOX
Emission category emissions (in emissions (in
tons per summer tons per summer
day) day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motor Vehicle Emissions (On-road +
Transit Emissions)................. 10.010 8.850
Other Mobile Emisssions............. 0.979 1.126
Point Source Emissions.............. 5.721 5.128
Area Source Emissions............... 0.543 0.485
Total Emissions............... 17.253 15.589
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This action, to establish new motor vehicle emission budgets into
the Maine SIP, will make it easier to demonstrate future transportation
conformity with the SIP. This action will not change conformity's
beneficial effect on air quality as the new motor vehicle emissions
budgets have been demonstrated to be consistent with EPA's ozone
attainment redesignation (see 62 FR 9081 (February 28, 1997) and the
Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance plan. No additional
emissions reductions are anticipated with the approval of the 2006 VOC
and NOX motor vehicle emissions budgets.
EPA is publishing this action without prior proposal because the
Agency views this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipates no
adverse comments. However, in a separate document in this Federal
Register publication, EPA is proposing to approve the SIP revision
should adverse
[[Page 41277]]
or critical comments be filed. This action will be effective September
30, 1997 unless adverse or critical comments are received by September
2, 1997.
If the EPA receives such comments, this action will be withdrawn
before the effective date by simultaneously publishing a subsequent
notice that will withdraw the final action. All public comments
received will then be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on
this action serving as a proposed rule. The EPA will not institute a
second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in
commenting on this action should do so at this time. If no such
comments are received, the public is advised that this action will be
effective on September 30, 1997.
II. Final Action
EPA is approving the establishment of the year 2006 motor vehicle
emissions budgets for the Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance
area at 6.44 tons per summer day of VOC, and 8.85 tons per summer day
of NOX.
III. Administrative Requirements
A. Executive Order 12866
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has exempted this
regulatory action from E.O. 12866 review.
B. Regulatory Flexibility Act
Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 600 et. seq., EPA
must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis assessing the impact of
any proposed or final rule on small entities. 5 U.S.C. 603 and 604.
Alternatively, EPA may certify that the rule will not have a
significant impact on a substantial number of small entities. Small
entities include small businesses, small not-for-profit enterprises,
and government entities with jurisdiction over populations of less than
50,000.
SIP approvals under section 110 and subchapter I, part D of the
Clean Air Act do not create any new requirements but simply approve
requirements that the State is already imposing. Therefore, because the
Federal SIP approval does not impose any new requirements, the
Administrator certifies that it does not have a significant impact on
any small entities affected. Moreover, due to the nature of the
Federal-State relationship under the CAA, preparation of a flexibility
analysis would constitute Federal inquiry into the economic
reasonableness of state action. The Clean Air Act forbids EPA to base
its actions concerning SIPs on such grounds. Union Electric Co. v. U.S.
EPA, 427 U.S. 246, 255-66 (1976); 42 U.S.C. 7410(a)(2).
C. Unfunded Mandates
Under Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995
(``Unfunded Mandates Act''), signed into law on March 22, 1995, EPA
must prepare a budgetary impact statement to accompany any proposed or
final rule that includes a Federal mandate that may result in estimated
costs to State, local, or tribal governments in the aggregate; or to
the private sector, of $100 million or more. Under Section 205, EPA
must select the most cost-effective and least burdensome alternative
that achieves the objectives of the rule and is consistent with
statutory requirements. Section 203 requires EPA to establish a plan
for informing and advising any small governments that may be
significantly or uniquely impacted by the rule.
EPA has determined that the approval action proposed does not
include a Federal mandate that may result in estimated costs of $100
million or more to either State, local, or tribal governments in the
aggregate, or to the private sector. This Federal action approves pre-
existing requirements under State or local law, and imposes no new
requirements. Accordingly, no additional costs to State, local, or
tribal governments, or to the private sector, result from this action.
D. Submission to Congress and the General Accounting Office
Under section 801(a)(1)(A) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act as
added by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of
1996, EPA submitted a report containing this rule and other required
information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and
the Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office prior to
publication of the rule in today's Federal Register. This rule is not a
``major rule'' as defined by section 804(2).
E. Petitions for Judicial Review
Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for
judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court
of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by September 30, 1997. Filing a
petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule
does not affect the finality of this rule for the purposes of judicial
review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial
review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such
rule or action. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings
to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).) EPA encourages
interested parties to comment in response to the proposed rule rather
than petition for judicial review, unless the objection arises after
the comment period allowed for in the proposal.
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Carbon monoxide,
Hydrocarbons, Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone,
Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Sulfur
oxides.
Dated: July 20, 1997.
John P. DeVillars,
Regional Administrator, Region I.
Part 52 of chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations
is amended as follows:
PART 52--[AMENDED]
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q
Subpart U--Maine
2. Section 52.1036 is amended by adding paragraph (e) to read as
follows:
Sec. 52.1036 Emission inventories.
* * * * *
(e) On June 24, 1997 the Maine Department of Environmental
Protection submitted a revision to establish explicit year 2006 motor
vehicle emissions budgets [6.44 tons per summer day of VOC, and 8.85
tons per summer day of NOX] for the Hancock and Waldo
counties ozone maintenance area to be used in determining
transportation conformity.
[FR Doc. 97-20366 Filed 7-31-97; 8:45 am]
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