Air Plan Approval; Texas; Interstate Transport Requirements for the 2010 SO2 NAAQS

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R06-OAR-2013-0388; FRL-12796-01-R6]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT> Air Plan Approval; Texas; Interstate Transport Requirements for the 2010 SO <E T="0735">2</E> NAAQS </SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve the portion of the State Implementation Plan (SIP) submittal from the State of Texas demonstrating that the State satisfies the interstate transport requirements, also known as the “good neighbor” provision of the Clean Air Act, for the 2010 1-hour sulfur dioxide (SO <E T="52">2</E> ) primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). The good neighbor provision requires each State's implementation plan to contain adequate provisions prohibiting the interstate transport of air pollution in amounts that will contribute significantly to nonattainment, or interfere with maintenance, of a NAAQS in any other State. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments must be received on or before July 18, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R06-OAR-2013-0388, at <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 Confidential Business Information (CBI) 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, please contact Nevine Salem, (214) 665-7222, <E T="03">salem.nevine@epa.gov.</E> For the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.</E> <E T="03">Docket:</E> The index to the docket for this action is available electronically at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> While all documents in the docket are listed in the index, some information may not be publicly available due to docket file size restrictions or content ( <E T="03">e.g.,</E> CBI). <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Nevine Salem, telephone number: (214) 665-7222, email address: <E T="03">salem.nevine@epa.gov.</E> We encourage the public to submit comments via <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Please call or email the contact listed above if you need alternative access to material indexed but not provided in the docket. Copyrighted materials are available for review in person at EPA Region 6 office located at 1201 Elm Street, Suite 500, Dallas, Texas 75270. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document wherever “we,” “us,” or “our” is used, we mean the EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Infrastructure SIPs</HD> On June 2, 2010, the EPA established a revised primary 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS with a level of 75 parts per billion (ppb), based on a 3-year average of the annual 99th percentile of daily maximum 1-hour average concentrations. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> CAA section 110(a)(1) requires all states to submit, within three years after promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, SIP submissions to provide for the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of the NAAQS. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA has historically referred to these SIPs as “infrastructure SIPs.” Specifically, section 110(a)(1) provides the procedural and timing requirements for SIP submissions. Section 110(a)(2) lists specific elements that all states must meet related to a newly established or revised NAAQS, such as requirements for monitoring, basic program requirements, and legal authority that are designed to assure attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 75 FR 35520 (June 22, 2010). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  In 2012, the EPA retained the current secondary NAAQS for SO <E T="52">2</E> . Thus, the CAA section 110(a)(1) requirement to submit an infrastructure SIP for this secondary standard was not triggered. The secondary SO <E T="52">2</E> standard is 500 ppb averaged over three hours, not to be exceeded more than once per year. <E T="03">See</E> 77 FR 20218 (April 3, 2012). </FTNT> Section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I) of the CAA requires a state's SIP to include provisions prohibiting any source or other type of emissions activity in the state from emitting any air pollutant in amounts that will contribute significantly to nonattainment, or interfere with maintenance, of the NAAQS in any other state. The EPA has long interpreted this language to enact a “functional prohibition” on certain emissions from upwind states, necessitating the EPA's independent assessment of whether those emissions will occur or have been adequately controlled in the state where they originate. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The EPA often refers to these requirements as Prong 1 (significant contribution to nonattainment of the NAAQS) and Prong 2 (interference with maintenance of the NAAQS). We are addressing Prongs 1 and 2 in this action. All other applicable infrastructure SIP requirements of the Texas SIP submission are addressed in separate rulemakings. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See Genon Rema LLC</E> v. <E T="03">EPA,</E> 722 F.3d 513, 520-24 (3d Cir. 2013); <E T="03">Appalachian Power Co.</E> v. <E T="03">EPA,</E> 249 F.2d 1032, 1045-47 (D.C. Cir. 2001); <E T="03">see also</E> 71 FR 25328, 25335 (April 28, 2006) (explaining that the SIP/FIP process under section 110 and the petitioning process for direct federal regulation under section 126 provide independent means of effectuating the same “functional prohibition” found in CAA section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I)). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. 2010 1-Hour SO2 NAAQS Designations Background</HD> In this proposed action, the EPA has considered information from the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS designations process which is discussed in more detail in section III.C. of this document. For this reason, a brief summary of the EPA's designations process for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS is included here. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  While designations may provide useful information for purposes of analyzing transport, particularly for a more source-specific pollutant such as SO <E T="52">2</E> , EPA notes that designations themselves are not dispositive of whether upwind emissions are impacting areas in downwind states. EPA has consistently taken the position that CAA section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I) requires elimination of significant contribution and interference with maintenance in other states, and this analysis is not limited to designated nonattainment areas. Nor must designations for nonattainment areas have first occurred before states or the EPA can act under section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I). <E T="03">See, e.g.,</E> Clean Air Interstate Rule, 70 FR 25162, 25265 (May 12, 2005); Cross State Air Pollution Rule, 76 FR 48208, 48211 (August 8, 2011); Final Response to Petition from New Jersey Regarding SO <E T="52">2</E> Emissions From the Portland Generating Station, 76 FR 69052 (November 7, 2011) (finding facility in violation of the prohibitions of CAA section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I) with respect to the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS prior to issuance of designations for that standard). </FTNT> After the promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS, the EPA is required to designate areas as “nonattainment,” “attainment,” or “unclassifiable” pursuant to section 107(d)(1)-(2) of the CAA. The process for designating areas following promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS is contained in section 107(d) of the CAA. The CAA requires the EPA to complete the initial designations process within two years of promulgating a new or revised standard. If the Administrator has insufficient information to make these designations by that deadline, the EPA has the authority to extend the deadline for completing designations by up to one year. The EPA promulgated the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS on June 2, 2010. <E T="03">See</E> 75 FR 35520 (June 22, 2010). The EPA Administrator signed the first round  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> of designations (“Round 1”)  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS on July 25, 2013, designating 29 areas in 16 States as nonattainment for the 2010 1-hour SO <E T="52">2</E> NAAQS. <E T="03">See</E> 78 FR 47191 (August 5, 2013). The EPA Administrator signed <E T="04">Federal Register</E> documents for Round 2 designations  <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> on June 30, 2016 (81 FR 45039 (July 12, 2016)) and on November 29, 2016 (81 FR 89870 (December 13, 2016)). Round 3 designations  <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> were signed on December 21, 2017 (83 FR 1098 (January 9, 2018)) and March 28, 2018 (83 FR 14597(April 5, 2018)). Round 4 designations  <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> were signed on December 21, 2020 (86 FR 16055 (March 26, 2021))  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> and April 8, 2021 (86 FR 19576 (April 14, 2021)). <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  The term “ro ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 46k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━