Air Plan Approval; New Jersey; Memorandum of Agreement To Address NOX SIP Call Requirements

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R02-OAR-2025-0088; FRL-12760-01-R2]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT> Air Plan Approval; New Jersey; Memorandum of Agreement To Address NO <E T="0735">X</E> SIP Call Requirements </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 to approve a revision in the New Jersey State Implementation Plan (SIP) that includes a signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) developed between the EPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The MOA demonstrates how the State will maintain compliance with its nitrogen oxides (NO <E T="52">X</E> ) emission control obligations for the types of large non-electricity generating units (non-EGUs) that were previously regulated under the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program. This action is being taken in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before July 3, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R02-OAR-2025-0088, at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) (formerly referred to as 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 electronically through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> . The EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be CUI 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). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CUI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Fausto Taveras, Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, Air Programs Branch, 290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007-1866, telephone number: (212) 637-3378, email address: <E T="03">taveras.fausto@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> The <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section is arranged as follows: <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. What did NJDEP submit?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. What is the EPA's evaluation of NJ's SIP revision?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. What is the EPA's proposed 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. Background</HD> On September 3, 2024, the EPA approved removal of the New Jersey Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) NO <E T="52">X</E> Trading Program (N.J.A.C. 7:27-Subchapter 30) from the New Jersey SIP. <E T="03">See</E> 89 FR 71185. The State rule established allowance allocations for use under the Federal CAIR trading programs. Because the EPA no longer administers the Federal CAIR trading programs, removing Subchapter 30 from the SIP had no consequences for any sources' operations, nor for the attainment or maintenance of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in any area within the State. In the September 2024 final rulemaking, the EPA also conditionally approved the removal of the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program (N.J.A.C. 7:27-Subchapter 31) from the New Jersey SIP. <E T="03">See</E> 89 FR 71185. Although the EPA no longer administers the NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Trading Program and approved the sunset provision of the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget program in a previous action (see 72 FR 55672), New Jersey continues to have obligations under the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Specifically, the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call regulation at 40 CFR 51.121(r)(2) and anti-backsliding provisions at 40 CFR 51.905(f) require New Jersey and other States to continue to meet NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call requirements associated with the 1979 1-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> Under 40 CFR 51.121(f)(2) of the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call regulations, where a State's SIP contains control measures for EGUs and large non-EGU boilers and combustion turbines, the SIP must contain enforceable limits on the ozone season NO <E T="52">X</E> emissions from these sources. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> In addition, 40 CFR 51.121(i) of the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call regulations requires the SIP to contain legally enforceable procedures for affected sources to monitor emissions, maintain records, and periodically report information to enable the state to determine that those sources are in compliance with the applicable portions of the control measures. The provisions of 40 CFR 51.122 in turn require States to submit information to EPA to demonstrate compliance with the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  In 1998, the EPA finalized the “Finding of Significant Contribution and Rulemaking for Certain States in the Ozone Transport Assessment Group Region for Purposes of Reducing Regional Transport of Ozone” (NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call) to address the good neighbor provisions for the 1979 ozone NAAQS (63 FR 57356; October 27, 1998). The NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call required Eastern States, including New Jersey, to submit SIPs that prohibit excessive emissions of ozone season NO <E T="52">X</E> by implementing statewide emissions budgets. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Affected non-EGUs include industrial boilers and combustion turbines, with a rated heat input greater than 250 million British thermal units per hour (MMBtu/hr). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Participation by a State's EGUs in the trading programs for ozone season NO <E T="52">X</E> under CSAPR, the CSAPR Update, the Revised CSAPR Update, or the Good Neighbor Plan addresses the state's obligation under the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call for EGUs. </FTNT> On March 7, 2024, and May 31, 2024, NJDEP submitted letters committing the State to submit a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by March 7, 2025, that would outline how NJDEP intended to comply with the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call for the types of non-EGUs previously regulated by the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program. In the State's March 7, 2024, commitment letter, New Jersey committed to develop an MOA between the EPA and NJDEP that would outline how NJDEP intended to comply with the NO <E T="52">X</E> SIP Call, specifically for the types of non-EGUs that were previously regulated by the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program (N.J.A.C. 7:27-Subchapter 31), and that were not covered under the subsequent CAIR Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) Trading Program. On May 31, 2024, New Jersey submitted a revised commitment letter, replacing the earlier letter from March 7, 2024. The update reflected NJDEP's additional analysis to determine which units would have met the applicability criteria for non-EGUs under the New Jersey NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program (N.J.A.C. 7:27-31), which was in effect as of September 30, 2008. As a result of this analysis, the value of the non-EGU budget was adjusted. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> The revised letter adjusted the non-EGU budgets for the affected units' aggregated emissions during the ozone season and revised the date by which the State would submit the MOA to the EPA. In New Jersey's May 31, 2024, letter the State committed to submitting a final version of the MOA to the EPA by no later than March 7, 2025. New Jersey provided a date certain for purposes of CAA section 110(k)(4), which authorizes the EPA to conditionally approve a plan revision based on a commitment by the State to adopt specific enforceable measures by a date certain, but no later than one year after the date of the plan approval. As indicated in New Jersey's commitment letter, the EPA would take action to incorporate by reference the finalized MOA as an enforceable SIP revision by no later than one year from the date the EPA conditionally approved the removal of New Jersey's NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> no later than September 3, 2025. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  NJDEP analysis determined that the natural gas turbine unit located at cogeneration facility, EF Kenilworth, was subject to the NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program as a small EGU ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> an EGU serving an electricity generator with nameplate capacity of at least 15 MW but not greater than 25 MW). </FTNT> The specific details of New Jersey's request to remove its NO <E T="52">X</E> Budget Program and CAIR NO <E T="52">X</E> Trading Program, subsequent commitment letters, and the rationale for the EPA's approval to remove t ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 29k characters. 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