National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings Amendments

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 59</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0971; FRL-7966-03-OAR]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2060-AU94</RIN> <SUBJECT>National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings Amendments</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing amendments to the National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings. This action revises national emission standards for the aerosol coatings (aerosol spray paints) category under the Clean Air Act (CAA), which requires control of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from certain categories of consumer and commercial products for purposes of reducing VOC emissions contributing to ozone formation and ozone nonattainment. The regulation employs a relative reactivity-based approach to control aerosol coating products' contribution to ozone formation by encouraging the use of less reactive VOC ingredients in formulations. In this final rule, the EPA is updating coating category product-weighted reactivity (PWR) limits, adding new compounds and reactivity factors, updating existing reactivity factors, revising the rule's default reactivity factor, amending thresholds for VOC regulated by the rule, amending reporting requirements, updating test methods to reflect more recent versions, adding a new compliance date, and making clarifying edits. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective date.</E> The effective date of this final rule is January 17, 2025. The incorporation by reference of certain material listed in this rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of January 17, 2025. The incorporation by reference of certain other material listed in this rule was approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of March 24, 2008. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0971. All documents in the dockets are listed on the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed, 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 either electronically through <E T="03">www.regulations.gov,</E> or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West Building, Room Number 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The Public Reading Room hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), Monday through Friday. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the EPA Docket Center is (202) 566-1742. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For information about the National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings, contact Kaye Whitfield, U.S. EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Sector Policies and Programs Division, Minerals and Manufacturing Group (D243-02), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711; telephone number: (919) 541-2509; fax number (919) 541-4991; and email address: <E T="03">whitfield.kaye@epa.gov.</E> For questions related to enforcement, contact John Cox, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. EPA WJC South Building (2221A), Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (202) 564-1395 and email address: <E T="03">cox.john@epa.gov.</E> For questions related to reporting, contact the EPA Regional Office where the regulated entity is located. For a complete list, see Addresses of EPA regional offices in 40 CFR 59.512. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <E T="03">Preamble acronyms and abbreviations.</E> Throughout this document the use of “we,” “us,” or “our” is intended to refer to the EPA. We use multiple acronyms and terms in this preamble. While this list may not be exhaustive, to ease the reading of this preamble and for reference purposes, the EPA defines the following terms and acronyms here: <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ACA American Coatings Association</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CARB California Air Resources Board</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CAA Clean Air Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CBI Confidential Business Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CDX Central Data Exchange</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CEDRI Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CRA Congressional Review Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EJ Environmental Justice</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> EPA Environmental Protection Agency </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> FR  <E T="04">Federal Register</E> </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> g 0 <E T="52">3</E> /g product grams of ozone per grams of product </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IBR incorporation by reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">ICR Information Collection Request</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">MIR maximum incremental reactivity</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NTTAA National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">OMB Office of Management and Budget</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PRA Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PWR product-weighted reactivity</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RF reactivity factor</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RFA Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">UMRA Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">VOC volatile organic compound</FP> </EXTRACT> <E T="03">Background information.</E> The EPA promulgated “The National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings,” on March 24, 2008 (73 FR 15604) and codified the action at 40 CFR part 59, subpart E (§§ 59.500 through 59.516). The rule establishes nationwide VOC reactivity-based standards for the aerosol coatings source category under the statutory authority of section 183(e) of the CAA (42 U.S.C. 7401 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). Section 183(e) requires the EPA to control VOC emissions from certain categories of consumer and commercial products for purposes of reducing VOC emissions that contribute to ozone formation and nonattainment of the ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The EPA has amended the original aerosol coatings rule several times to respond to petitions and to make rule clarifications. Many of the amendments were in accordance with a provision in 40 CFR 59.511(j) that allows regulated entities who elect not to use the default reactivity factors (RF) to calculate PWR to “. . . petition the Administrator to add a compound to table 2A, 2B, or 2C of this subpart. Petitions must include the chemical name, [Chemical Abstract Services] (CAS) number, a statement certifying the intent to use the compound in an aerosol coatings product, and adequate information for the Administrator to evaluate the reactivity of the compound and assign a RF . . .” Accordingly, the EPA has amended the aerosol coatings rule to add 131 compounds, corresponding RFs, and CAS numbers for each compound or class of compounds listed in 40 CFR part 59, table 2 (79 FR 29604). As for rule clarifications, the EPA has made revisions that clarify which VOC are to be quantified in compliance determinations (79 FR 29604); to inform regulated entities that VOC normally exempt by definition under 40 CFR 51.100(s)(1) and (s)(5) must be counted as VOC for the purposes determining compliance with the aerosol coatings rule (74 FR 29595); and, to ensure that both the certifying entity and the regulated entity have full knowledge of responsibilities assumed by the certifying entity (74 FR 29595). More recently, on September 17, 2021, in response to petitions from American Coatings Association (ACA), the EPA proposed amendments to the aerosol coatings rule that promote consistency and uniformity between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) aerosol coating product regulation and the national aerosol coatings emission limitations, where appropriate (86 FR 51851). This action finalizes the Agency's response to the ACA petitions and makes additional revisions based on public comments the EPA received on the proposed action. For more information, see the docket for this action, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2006-0971, and section IV. of this preamble. <E T="03">Organization of this document.</E> The information in this preamble is organized as follows: <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. General Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Entities Potentially Affected by This Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Where can I get a copy of this document and other related information?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Judicial Review and Administrative Reconsideration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. What amendments have been made since promulgation of the original rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. What changes did we propose for the National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Aerosol Coatings source category on September 21, 2021?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Summary of the Final Standards and Changes Since Proposal</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Table 1 to Subpart E of Part 59: Product-Weighted Reactivity Limits by Coatings Category</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Table 2A, 2B, and 2C to Subpart E of Part 59: Reactivity Factors, Aliphatic Hydrocarbon Solvent Mixtures, and Aromatic Hydrocarbon Solvent Mixtures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. The Default Reactivity Factor</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. VOC Regulated by ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 149k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━