Air Plan Approval; District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia; Update of the Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for the Washington-MD-VA 2008 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard Maintenance Area

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R03-OAR-2024-0162; FRL-11869-02-R3]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia; Update of the Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets for the Washington-MD-VA 2008 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard Maintenance Area</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving state implementation plan (SIP) revisions submitted by the District of Columbia (the District), State of Maryland (MD), and Commonwealth of Virginia (VA). The revisions update the motor vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs) and the onroad and nonroad (except for marine, airport, and railroad) mobile emissions for volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) for the years 2025 and 2030. EPA is approving the updated MVEBs and updates to the applicable onroad and nonroad mobile emissions for VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> for the years 2025 and 2030. EPA is also approving the allocation of a portion of the safety margins for VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> in the ozone maintenance plan to the 2025 and 2030 MVEBs. The MVEBs will be available for transportation conformity purposes, in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA). </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on November 4, 2024. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID Number EPA-R03-OAR-2024-0162. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">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">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. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Gregory Becoat, Planning & Implementation Branch (3AD30), Air & Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III, 1600 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. The telephone number is (215) 814-2053. Mr. Becoat can also be reached via electronic mail at <E T="03">Becoat.Gregory@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On November 14, 2023, September 6, 2023, and October 11, 2023, the District, Maryland, and Virginia, respectively, formally submitted requests to update the 2008 8-Hour Ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) maintenance plan for the Washington, DC-MD-VA 2008 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS Maintenance Area (hereafter “the Washington Area” or “the Area”). These revisions update the Area's maintenance plan to include revised onroad and nonroad MVEBs for VOCs and NO <E T="52">X</E> that reflect the updated EPA Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES3.04) model. On June 3, 2024 (89 FR 47474), EPA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the Area. The Area submitted SIP revisions that included an update to the MVEBs for VOCs and NO <E T="52">X</E> , that were initially developed using the MOVES2014a model, for the years 2025 and 2030. In the NPRM, EPA proposed approval of revisions to update the Area's maintenance plan to include revised onroad and nonroad MVEBs for VOCs and NO <E T="52">X</E> that reflect the updated EPA MOVES3.04 model and increased onroad vehicle emission rates. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Summary of SIP Revision and EPA Analysis</HD> EPA's analysis of the Area's SIP submittal indicates that maintenance of the 2008 8-Hour Ozone NAAQS will continue to be demonstrated for the Area, after updating the 2025 and 2030 MVEBs, for NO <E T="52">X</E> and VOC, using MOVES3.0.4 and updated planning assumptions. The details of the Area's submittal and the rationale for EPA's action are further explained in the NPRM and will not be restated here. Comments on the June 3, 2024 (89 FR 47474) NPRM were due on or before July 3, 2024. EPA received one comment that was not relevant to this action and will not be addressed here. The updated 2025 and 2030 MVEBs, for NO <E T="52">X</E> and VOC, will ensure that transportation emissions conform with each state's SIP. Table 1 in this document, provides the newly revised MVEBs for 2025 and 2030 along with the retained 2014 MVEBs from the 2017 plan (using MOVES2014a) in tons per day (tpd). The Area added only portions of the total available safety margins for VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> when developing the revised MVEBs for 2025 and 2030 for the projected onroad mobile VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> emissions. The allocation will add 5.58 tpd of VOC and 9.30 tpd of NO <E T="52">X</E> from the safety margins to the 2025 emission inventories, and 4.35 tpd of VOC and 6.85 tpd of NO <E T="52">X</E> from the safety margins to the 2030 emission inventories. <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s100,12,12"> <TTITLE>Table 1—Revised Onroad Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets using MOVES3.0.4</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Year</CHED> <CHED H="1"> VOC onroad emissions <ENT>61.25</ENT> <ENT>136.84</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2025 Predicted Emissions without Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>27.92</ENT> <ENT>46.52</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2025 Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>5.58</ENT> <ENT>9.30</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2025 Interim Budget with Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>33.50</ENT> <ENT>55.82</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2030 Predicted Emissions without Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>21.75</ENT> <ENT>34.26</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2030 Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>4.35</ENT> <ENT>6.85</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">2030 Final Budget with Safety Margin</ENT> <ENT>26.10</ENT> <ENT>41.11</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Final Action</HD> EPA has evaluated the Area's submittal and has determined that the updated MVEBs and the allocation of the safety margins to the 2025 and 2030 budgets for the Area meet the requirements of the transportation conformity regulations at 40 CFR part 93 and are approvable. Therefore, EPA is approving the Washington Area's SIP revision updating the MVEBs and the onroad and nonroad (except for marine, airport, and railroad) mobile emissions for VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> for the years 2025 and 2030. Additionally, EPA is approving the allocation of a portion of the safety margins for VOC and NO <E T="52">X</E> in the ozone maintenance plan to the 2025 and 2030 budgets. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. General Information Pertaining to SIP Submittals From the Commonwealth of Virginia</HD> In 1995, Virginia adopted legislation that provides, subject to certain conditions, for an environmental assessment (audit) “privilege” for voluntary compliance evaluations performed by a regulated entity. The legislation further addresses the relative burden of proof for parties either asserting the privilege or seeking disclosure of documents for which the privilege is claimed. Virginia's legislation also provides, subject to certain conditions, for a penalty waiver for violations of environmental laws when a regulated entity discovers such violations pursuant to a voluntary compliance evaluation and voluntarily discloses such violations to the Commonwealth and takes prompt and appropriate measures to remedy the violations. Virginia's Voluntary Environmental Assessment Privilege Law, Va. Code sec. 10.1198, provides a privilege that protects from disclosure documents and information about the content of those documents that are the product of a voluntary environmental assessment. The Privilege Law does not extend to documents or information that: (1) are generated or developed before the commencement of a voluntary environmental assessment; (2) are prepared independently of the assessment process; (3) demonstrate a clear, imminent, and substantial danger to the public health or environment; or (4) are required by law. On January 12, 1998, the Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Attorney General provided a legal opinion that states that the Privilege Law, Va. Code sec. 10.1-1198, precludes granting a privilege to documents and information “required by law,” including documents and information “required by Federal law to maintain program delegation, authorization or approval,” since Virginia must “enforce Federally authorized environmental programs in a manner that is no less stringent than their Federal counterparts. . . .” The opinion concludes that “[r]egarding § 10.1-1198, therefore, documents or other information needed for civil or criminal enforcement under one of these programs could not be privileged because such documents and information are essential to pursuing enforcement in a manner required by Federal law to maintain program delegation, authorization or approval.” Virginia's Immunity Law, Va. Code sec. 10.1-1199, provides that “[t]o the extent consistent with requirements imposed by Federal law,” any person making a voluntary disclosure of information to a state agency regarding a violation of an environmental statute, regulation, permit, or administrative order is granted immunity from administrative or civil penalty. The Attorney General's January 12, 1998 opinion states that the quoted language renders this statute inapplicable to enforcement of any Federally authorized programs, since “no immunity could be afforded from administrative, ci ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 27k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━