Air Plan Approval; California; Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District; Oxides of Nitrogen

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0563; FRL-12442-02-R9]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; California; Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District; Oxides of Nitrogen</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 taking final action to approve a revision to the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). This revision concerns emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) from industrial, institutional, and commercial boilers, steam generators, and process heaters. We are approving a local rule that regulates these emission sources under the Clean Air Act (CAA or “Act”). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective June 18, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-R09-OAR-2024-0563. 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> La Kenya Evans-Hopper, EPA Region IX, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, CA 94105; telephone number: (415) 972-3245; email address: <E T="03">evanshopper.lakenya@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-1">I. Proposed Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">III. EPA Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">IV. Incorporation by Reference</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Proposed Action</HD> On December 26, 2024 (89 FR 104944), the EPA proposed to approve the following rule into the California SIP. <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s50,12,r50,12,12"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Local agency</CHED> <CHED H="1">Rule No.</CHED> <CHED H="1">Rule title</CHED> <CHED H="1">Amended</CHED> <CHED H="1">Submitted</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">MDAQMD</ENT> <ENT>1157</ENT> <ENT>Boilers and Process Heaters</ENT> <ENT>09/25/23</ENT> <ENT>01/10/24</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> We proposed to approve this rule because we determined that it complies with the relevant CAA requirements. Our proposed action contains more information on the rule and our evaluation. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Public Comments and EPA Responses</HD> The EPA's proposed action provided a 30-day public comment period. During this period, we received no comments. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. EPA Action</HD> No comments were submitted. Therefore, as authorized in section 110(k)(3) of the Act, the EPA is approving this rule into the California SIP. The September 25, 2023 version of Rule 1157 will replace the previously approved version of this rule in the SIP. This approval resolves all deficiencies that served as the basis for our June 16, 2023 (88 FR 39366) limited disapproval of the prior version of Rule 1157. We find that submitted Rule 1157 fully satisfies the relevant requirements of section 110 and part D of the Act and cures the deficiencies identified in that document. This action also permanently terminates all sanctions clocks and federal implementation plan clocks triggered by our June 16, 2023 limited disapproval action. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Incorporation by Reference</HD> In this rule, the EPA is finalizing regulatory text that includes incorporation by reference. In accordance with requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is finalizing the incorporation by reference of Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, Rule 1157, “Boilers and Process Heaters,” amended on September 25, 2023, which regulates NO <E T="52">X</E> and CO emissions from industrial, institutional, and commercial boilers, steam generators, and process heaters. The EPA has made, and will continue to make, these documents available through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and at the EPA Region IX Office (please contact the person identified in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section of this preamble for more information). <HD SOURCE="HD1">V. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</HD> Under the CAA, the Administrator is required to approve a SIP submission that complies with the provisions of the Act and applicable federal regulations 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in reviewing SIP submissions, the EPA's role is to approve State choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. Accordingly, this action merely approves State law as meeting federal requirements and does not impose additional requirements beyond those imposed by State law. For that reason, this action: • Is not a significant regulatory action subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993); • Is not subject to Executive Order 14192 (90 FR 9065, February 6, 2025) because SIP actions are exempt from review under Executive Order 12866; • Does not impose an information collection burden under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ); • Is certified as not having a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ); • Does not contain any unfunded mandate or significantly or uniquely affect small governments, as described in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-4); • Does not have federalism implications as specified in Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999); • Is not subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997) because it approves a State program; • Is not a significant regulatory action subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001); and • Is not subject to requirements of section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because application of those requirements would be inconsistent with the CAA. In addition, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian reservation land or in any other area where the EPA or an Indian Tribe has demonstrated that a Tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of Indian country, the rule does not have Tribal implications and will not impose substantial direct costs on Tribal governments or preempt Tribal law as specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000). This action is subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA), and the EPA will submit a rule report to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the United States. This action is not a “major rule” as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2). Under section 307(b)(1) of the CAA, petitions for judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by July 18, 2025. Filing a petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule does not affect the finality of this action 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)). <LSTSUB> <HD SOURCE="HED">List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52</HD> Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Carbon monoxide, Incorporation by reference, Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen oxides, Ozone, Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements. </LSTSUB> <SIG> <DATED>Dated: April 25, 2025.</DATED> <NAME>Joshua F.W. Cook,</NAME> Regional Administrator, Region IX. </SIG> For the reasons stated in the preamble, the Environmental Protection Agency amends part 52, chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">PART 52—APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS</HD> <REGTEXT TITLE="40" PART="52"> 1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows: <HD SOURCE="HED">Authority: </HD> 42 U.S.C. 7401 <E T="03">et seq.</E> <SUBPART> <HD SOURCE="HED">Subpart F-California</HD> </SUBPART> </REGTEXT> <REGTEXT TITLE="40" PART="52"> 2. Section 52.220 is amended by adding paragraphs (c)(518)(i)(A)( <E T="03">11</E> ) and (c)(626) to read as follows: <SECTION> <SECTNO>§ 52.220</SECTNO> <SUBJECT>Identification of plan—in part.</SUBJECT> ) Previously approved on June 16, 2023, in paragraph (c)(518)(i)(A)( <E T="03">10</E> ) of this section and now deleted with replacement in (c)(626)(i)(A)( <E T="03">1</E> ): Rule 1157, “Boilers and Process Heaters,” amended on January 22, 2018. <STARS/> (626) The following regulations were submitt ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 10k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━