Air Plan Approval; Ohio; Regional Haze Plan for the Second Implementation Period

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 52</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-R05-OAR-2021-0544; FRL-12175-02-R5]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Air Plan Approval; Ohio; Regional Haze Plan for the Second Implementation Period</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 approving the Regional Haze State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio or Ohio EPA) on July 30, 2021, as supplemented on August 6, 2024, and clarified by Ohio on June 16, 2025, as satisfying applicable requirements under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA's Regional Haze Rule for the program's second implementation period. Together, Ohio's 2021 SIP submission, 2024 SIP supplement, and 2025 clarification address the requirement that States must periodically revise their long-term strategies for making reasonable progress towards the national goal of preventing any future, and remedying any existing, anthropogenic impairment of visibility, including regional haze, in mandatory Class I Federal areas. Ohio's complete SIP submission also addresses other applicable requirements for the second implementation period of the Regional Haze Program. EPA is taking this action pursuant to sections 110 and 169A of the CAA. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on August 7, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-R05-OAR-2021-0544. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> Confidential Business Information (CBI), Proprietary Business Information (PBI), 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 through <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> or at the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604. This facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays. We recommend that you telephone Alisa Liu, Environmental Engineer, at (312) 353-3193 before visiting the Region 5 office. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Alisa Liu, Air and Radiation Division (AR-18J), Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, 77 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60604, (312) 353-3193, <E T="03">liu.alisa@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> Throughout this document whenever “we,” “us,” or “our” is used, we mean EPA. <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On July 30, 2021, Ohio EPA submitted a revision to its SIP to address regional haze for the second implementation period, supplemented it on August 6, 2024, and clarified it on June 16, 2025. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Ohio EPA made this SIP submission to satisfy the requirements of the CAA's Regional Haze Program  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> pursuant to CAA sections 169A and 169B and 40 CFR 51.308. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Ohio EPA's letter dated June 16, 2025, is included in the docket for this rulemaking. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The Regional Haze Rule is codified at 40 CFR 51.308. </FTNT> On August 30, 2024, EPA proposed to approve Ohio's Regional Haze SIP revision. A detailed analysis of Ohio's plan and EPA's evaluation are contained in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), dated August 30, 2024 (89 FR 71124), and will not be restated here. In the NPRM, EPA proposed to find that Ohio's Regional Haze SIP submission as supplemented satisfied the regional haze requirements for the second implementation period contained in 40 CFR 51.308(f), including the incorporation by reference of Director's Final Findings and Orders (DFFOs) with specific emissions rates in Ohio's long-term strategy into the SIP at 40 CFR 52.1870(d) at three power plants (Cardinal Power Plant, General James M. Gavin Power Plant, and Ohio Valley Electric Corp.—Kyger Creek Station) and retirements by 2028 at two power plants (Miami Fort Power Station and Zimmer Power Station). On June 16, 2025, Ohio clarified in a letter that Zimmer Power Station Unit B006 retired in 2022 and that Miami Fort Power Station is considering converting Units B015 and B016 to natural gas in lieu of permanently shutting down. As such, Ohio stated that the DFFOs for these two facilities are not necessary for reasonable progress and are no longer part of its SIP submittal. Ohio EPA confirmed the past retirement of Zimmer Power Station Unit B006 is already permanent and federally enforceable. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Additionally, Ohio EPA also concluded that the DFFO for Miami Fort Power Station is not necessary for reasonable progress. Although not relied upon for reasonable progress, Ohio EPA affirms that Miami Fort Power Station continues to be required through Ohio EPA-issued Orders at the State level to either permanently shut down B015 and B016 or convert to natural gas in 2028. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  For Zimmer Power Station, the Retired Unit Exemption form, title V Permit P0135965, and list of retired generators from the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) documenting the facility's retirement are included in the docket. Permit P0135965 is also publicly available at <E T="03">https://edocpub.epa.ohio.gov/publicportal/edochome.aspx.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Public Comment Process</HD> The public comment period on EPA's proposed rule opened August 30, 2024, was extended until October 15, 2024, was reopened on a limited basis on February 28, 2025, and finally closed on March 17, 2025. 89 FR 71124, August 30, 2024; 89 FR 76442, September 18, 2024; 90 FR 10876, February 28, 2025. During this period, EPA received relevant comments from the following individuals, businesses, agencies, and organizations: Buckeye Power, Inc. and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (Comment 1); Anonymous (Comment 2); Anonymous (Comment 3); U.S. Forest Service (USFS) (Comment 4); National Park Service (NPS) (Comment 5); Coalition to Protect America's National Parks (Comment 6); Black Environmental Leaders, Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Junction Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Ohio Environmental Council, and Sierra Club (Environmental Groups) (Comment 7); and National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Ohio Environmental Council (Conservation Groups) (Comments 8-21); and Buckeye Power, Inc. and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (Comment 22). <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Summary of Public Comments and EPA's Responses</HD> All comments received are included in the rulemaking docket for this action. In the June 17, 2025, Response to Comments document, which is included in the docket for this rulemaking, EPA provides full detailed responses to all significant comments received that further explain the basis for our final action. EPA received comments on the NPRM addressing topics including, but not limited to, new emission limits, docket organization, cost considerations, visibility, enforceability of retirements, enforceability of permit conditions, existing effective controls, four-factor analyses, <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> CAA considerations, Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART), enforceability of Ohio's administrative orders, State-to-State consultations, Federal Land Manager (FLM) consultation, environmental justice, regional planning organization work products, incorporation by reference, Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) considerations, and renewable and nuclear energy options. The comments, while partially summarized below, are available in full in the docket for this rulemaking and are fully addressed in the June 17, 2025, Response to Comments document. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Under CAA 169A(g)(1), the four statutory factors are the costs of compliance, the time necessary for compliance, the energy and non-air quality environmental impacts of compliance, and the remaining useful life of any potentially affected sources. See also 40 CFR 51.308(f)(2)(i). An evaluation of potential control options for sources of visibility impairing pollutants based on applying the four statutory factors in CAA section 169A(g)(1) is referred to as a “four-factor” analysis. </FTNT> Comments received from Buckeye Power Inc., which operates Cardinal Power Plant, and Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, which operates Kyger Creek Station, were supportive of the proposed rulemaking and of the new emission limits for those facilities that Ohio EPA effectuated through DFFOs. USFS expressed concern regarding EPA's consideration of costs/sales ratios as well as the comparison of emission reductions from already implemented shutdowns and fuel conversions to potential additional emission reductions. NPS provided alternative considerations regarding the four-factor analyses and effective controls demonstrations submitted by Ohio for General James M. Gavin Power Plant, Cardinal Power Plant, Ohio Valley Electric Corp.—Kyger Creek Station, and Carmeuse Lime, Inc.—Maple Grove Operations. NPS also asserted that, at times, Ohio's implementation of the FLM consultation process did not follow the requirements of 40 CFR 51.308(i)(2) and (3). The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks raised concerns about the number of industrial facilities in Ohio, their disproportionate impact on communiti ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 32k characters. 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