Air Plan Revisions; California; Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Contingency Measure

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0524; FRL-11525-02-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Revisions; California; Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Contingency Measure</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> Under the Clean Air Act (CAA or “Act”), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to approve revisions to the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). These revisions concern an amendment to the California motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) program (also referred to as “Smog Check”) to include a contingency measure that, if triggered, would narrow the Smog Check inspection exemption for newer model year vehicles in certain California nonattainment areas. The EPA is taking final action to approve, as part of the California SIP, the contingency measure and a related statutory provision that authorizes the contingency measure because they meet all the applicable requirements. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective August 8, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0524. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> or please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section for additional availability information. If you need assistance in a language other than English or if you are a person with a disability who needs a reasonable accommodation at no cost to you, please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Jeffrey Buss, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105; phone: (415) 947-4152; email: <E T="03">buss.jeffrey@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document, “we,” “us” and “our” refer to the EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents </HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Summary of Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Environmental Justice Considerations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. EPA Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Summary of Proposed Action</HD> On December 20, 2023 (88 FR 87981) (“proposed rule”), the EPA proposed to approve a SIP revision concerning an amendment to the California Smog Check program to include a contingency measure to address in part the requirements of CAA sections 172(c)(9) and 182(c)(9) and 40 CFR 51.1014 for certain nonattainment areas in California. This contingency measure, if triggered, would narrow the existing Smog Check inspection exemption for newer model year vehicles in certain California nonattainment areas. The SIP revision is titled “California Smog Check Contingency Measure State Implementation Plan Revision” (Released: September 15, 2023) (“Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP”). The Smog Check Contingency Measure itself is presented in Section 4 of the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP. Other sections of the submission address the contingency measure requirements, discuss the opportunities for the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt contingency measures, provide the background on the California Smog Check program, and present the emission reductions estimates for the ten California nonattainment areas for which the Smog Check Contingency Measure was developed. The appendices included with the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP include an infeasibility analysis, documentation of emissions estimates, and California Health & Safety Code (H&SC) section 44011(a)(4)(A) and (B), effective October 10, 2017. In Table 1, we list the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP and the related statutory provision with the dates they were adopted and submitted by CARB. <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,p7,7/8,i1" CDEF="xs30,r50,r50,xs80,xs72"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Submitted Measure and Statutory Provision</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Agency</CHED> <CHED H="1">Statute No.</CHED> <CHED H="1">Measure/statutory provision title</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Adopted/amended/ revised </CHED> <CHED H="1">Submitted</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">CARB</ENT> <ENT>Not Applicable</ENT> <ENT>California Smog Check Contingency Measure State Implementation Plan Revision</ENT> <ENT>October 26, 2023</ENT> <ENT>November 13, 2023.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">CARB</ENT> <ENT>California H&SC section 44011(a)(4)(A) and (B)</ENT> <ENT>Certificate of compliance or noncompliance; biennial requirement; exceptions; inspections; exemption from testing for collector motor vehicle</ENT> <ENT>Effective on October 10, 2017</ENT> <ENT>November 13, 2023.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> In our December 20, 2023 proposed rule, we provided a discussion of the regulatory background leading to CARB's adoption and submission of the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP. In short, CARB submitted the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP to address, in part, the contingency measure requirements under CAA sections 172(c)(9) and 182(c)(9) and 40 CFR 51.1014 for certain nonattainment areas with respect to certain ozone and fine particulate matter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> ) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The applicable nonattainment areas and NAAQS are Coachella Valley (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS), Eastern Kern County (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS), Mariposa County (2015 ozone NAAQS), Sacramento Metro Area (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS), San Diego County (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS), San Joaquin Valley (1997, 2008, and 2015 ozone NAAQS; 1997 annual, 2006 24-hour, and 2012 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), South Coast Air Basin (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS; 2012 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), Ventura County (2015 ozone NAAQS), Western Mojave Desert (2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS) and Western Nevada County (2015 ozone NAAQS). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP, Table 1, at page 3. The Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP lists the various NAAQS by their associated concentration level rather than by the year the EPA promulgated the standard. The various ozone NAAQS addressed by the Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP include the 70 parts per billion (ppb) ozone NAAQS (2015 ozone NAAQS), the 75 ppb ozone NAAQS (2008 ozone NAAQS), the 80 ppb ozone NAAQS (1997 ozone NAAQS), the 15 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m <SU>3</SU> ) PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS (the 1997 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), the 35 µg/m <SU>3</SU> PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS (the 2006 24-hour PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS), and the 12 µg/m <SU>3</SU> PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS (the 2012 annual PM <E T="52">2.5</E> NAAQS). </FTNT> In our proposed rule, we explained that, under the current California Smog Check program, certain vehicles are exempt from the biennial inspection requirement, including vehicles eight or fewer model years old. The Smog Check Contingency Measure, if triggered, will reduce this exemption to vehicles seven or fewer model years old in the nonattainment area(s) at issue upon the first triggering event and to vehicles six or fewer model years old in the nonattainment area(s) at issue upon a second triggering event. Reducing the inspection exemption will increase the number of inspected and repaired vehicles and therefore result in additional emission reductions. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  88 FR 87981, page 87983. </FTNT> Under the Smog Check Contingency Measure, within 30 days of the EPA's determination that a nonattainment area covered by the measure has failed to meet a reasonable further progress (RFP) milestone, meet a qualitative milestone, submit a required quantitative milestone report or milestone compliance demonstration, or attain the relevant NAAQS by the applicable attainment date, CARB will be obligated to transmit a letter to the California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) and the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). CARB's letter will include the necessary finding that providing an exemption from Smog Check for certain vehicles in the area(s) (defined by specified ZIP Codes) at issue will prohibit the State from meeting the State's commitments with respect to the SIP required by the CAA, effectuating a reduction in the Smog Check vehicle inspection exemption to begin with the new calendar year. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Smog Check Contingency Measure SIP, at pages 16-17. </FTNT> Upon receipt of the CARB letter and the applicable ZIP Codes, CARB, BAR and DMV staff will begin implementation of the change in exemption length to Smog Check and take the following actions:  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Id. </FTNT> • DMV will update their Smog Check renewal programing to require a Smog Check inspection for the eight model years old vehicles (or seven model years old vehicles in the case of a second trigger) in the ZIP Codes provided by CARB staff; • The eight to seven model years old (or seven to six model years old) exemption change will begin for regis ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 70k characters. 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