Regional Haze Third Implementation Period; Extension of the State Implementation Plan Due Date

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 51</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0262; FRL-12160-01-OAR] </DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2060-AW41 </RIN> <SUBJECT>Regional Haze Third Implementation Period; Extension of the State Implementation Plan Due Date</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing revisions to the Regional Haze Rule under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to change the due date for the next round of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for the third implementation period. Under the Regional Haze Rule, States must submit plans to protect visibility in mandatory Class I Federal areas (Class I areas) to continue reasonable progress towards natural visibility. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before February 6, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0262, by any of the following methods: via the Federal eRulemaking Portal, <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov</E> (our preferred method). Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> All submissions received must include the Docket ID No. for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> including personal information provided. For detailed instructions on sending comments and additional information on the rulemaking process, see the “Public Participation” heading of the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ms. Paige Wantlin, Air Quality Policy Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mailcode C539-01), Environmental Protection Agency, 109 TW Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: (919) 541-5760; email address: <E T="03">Wantlin.Paige@epa.gov</E> or Mr. Brian Timin, Air Quality Policy Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (Mailcode C539-01), Environmental Protection Agency, 109 TW Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: (919) 541-1850; email address: <E T="03">Timin.Brian@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Public Participation</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Written Comments</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0262, at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> (our preferred method), or the other methods identified in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from the docket. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit to the EPA's docket at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI), Proprietary Business Information (PBI), or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). Please visit <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets</E> for additional submission methods; the full the EPA public comment policy; information about CBI, PBI, or multimedia submissions; and general guidance on making effective comments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. General Information</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Preamble Glossary of Terms and Acronyms</HD> The following are abbreviations of terms used in this document. <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> CAA Clean Air Act </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EGU Electric generating unit</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EPA Environmental Protection Agency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FLM(s) Federal Land Managers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NAAQS National Ambient Air Quality Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> NO <E T="52">X</E>  Nitrogen oxides </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OMB Office of Management and Budget</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PM Particulate matter</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> PM <E T="52">2.5</E>  Particulate matter equal to or less than 2.5 microns in diameter (fine particulate matter) </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> PM <E T="52">10</E>  Particulate matter equal to or less than 10 microns in diameter </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PRA Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RPG Reasonable progress goal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">SIP State implementation plan</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> SO <E T="52">2</E>  Sulfur dioxide </FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Does this action apply to me?</HD> Entities potentially affected directly by this proposed rule include State, local and Tribal governments, as well as Federal Land Managers (FLMs) responsible for protection of visibility in mandatory Class I areas. Entities potentially affected indirectly by this proposed rule include owners and operators of sources that emit particulate matter equal to or less than 10 microns in diameter (PM <E T="52">10</E> ), particulate matter equal to or less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM <E T="52">2.5</E> or fine PM), sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ), oxides of nitrogen (NO <E T="52">X</E> ), volatile organic compounds and other pollutants that may cause or contribute to visibility impairment. Others potentially affected indirectly by this proposed rule include members of the general public who live, work or recreate nearby or in mandatory Class I areas affected by visibility impairment. Because emissions sources that contribute to visibility impairment in Class I areas also may contribute to air pollution in other areas, members of the general public may also be affected by this proposed rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for the EPA?</HD> When submitting comments, remember to identify the rulemaking docket by docket number and other identifying information (such as subject heading and <E T="04">Federal Register</E> date and page number). Commenters should follow directions described in the proposed rule by responding to specific questions or by organizing comments by referencing a Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number. Commenters should also explain why they agree or disagree, suggest alternatives, or substitute language for requested changes. To support comments, described any assumptions and provide any technical information and/or data that you used to support your comment. If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be reproduced. Please provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns wherever possible, suggest alternatives, and explain your views as clearly as possible while avoiding profanity or personal threats. Finally, make sure to submit your comments by the comment period deadline. Please note that this proposed rulemaking is narrow in scope. Please focus your comments on only those sections of the CFR affected by our proposed changes. Comments that are outside the scope of this proposed action will not be considered. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Where can I obtain a copy of this document and other related information?</HD> In addition to being available in the docket, an electronic copy of this <E T="04">Federal Register</E> document will be posted at <E T="03">http://www.epa.gov/visibility.</E> <HD SOURCE="HD2"> E. How is this <E T="7462">Federal Register</E> document organized? </HD> The information presented in this document is organized as follows: <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Public Participation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. General Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Preamble Glossary of Terms and Acronyms</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Does this action apply to me?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for the EPA?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Where can I obtain a copy of this document and other related information?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> E. How is this <E T="04">Federal Register</E> document organized? </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. What action is the EPA proposing to take?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. What is the background for the EPA's proposed action?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Regional Haze</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Requirements for Regional Haze SIPs for the Second Implementation Period</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Proposed Rule Changes</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Environmental Justice Considerations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive Order 14094: Modernizing Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental Health & Safety Risks</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Executive Order 13211: Actions that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-I ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 43k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━