National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the Polyether Polyols Production Industry: Removal of Affirmative Defense

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 63</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0509; FRL-11651-04-OAR]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2060-AW56</RIN> <SUBJECT>National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the Polyether Polyols Production Industry: Removal of Affirmative Defense</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 Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Polyether Polyols (PEPO) Production under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Specifically, for this NESHAP, the EPA is finalizing the removal of affirmative defense provisions associated with the violation of air emission standards due to malfunctions. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on September 2, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0509. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://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 as pdf versions that can only be accessed on the EPA computers in the docket office reading room. Certain databases and physical items cannot be downloaded from the docket but may be requested by contacting the docket office at (202) 566-1744. The docket office has up to 10 business days to respond to these requests. Except for such material, publicly available docket materials are available electronically on <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> or on the EPA computers in the docket office reading room 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 questions about this action, contact U.S. EPA, Attn. Dr. Michelle Bergin, Sector Policies and Programs Division (Mail Code D205-01), P.O. Box 12055, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, P.O. Box 12055, RTP, North Carolina 27711; telephone number: (919) 541-2726; email address: <E T="03">bergin.michelle@epa.gov.</E> </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">CAA Clean Air Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CBI Confidential Business Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CRA Congressional Review Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">D.C. Circuit United State Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">EPA Environmental Protection Agency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NAICS North American Industry Classification System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NTTAA National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NESHAP National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NSPS New Source Performance Standards</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PRA Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">PEPO Polyether Polyols</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">RFA Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">SSM Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">UMRA Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. General Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Does this action apply to me?</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 and Administrative Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. What action is the EPA finalizing?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Response to Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Summary of Cost, Environmental, and Economic Impacts</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive Order 13563: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Executive Order 14192: Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Executive Order 13132: Federalism</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Executive Order 13211: Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) and 1 CFR Part 51</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Congressional Review Act (CRA)</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. General Information</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Does this action apply to me?</HD> This final rule is applicable to facilities subject to the NESHAP for PEPO Production source category (referred to as the “PEPO NESHAP” in this document). Facilities associated with this rule are often referred to as “PEPO facilities.” There are approximately 23 PEPO facilities in the United States, largely in the eastern half of the nation. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for PEPO facilities is 325199 (All Other Basic Organic Chemical Manufacturing). This NAICS code does not preclude the applicability of this rule to other sources but rather provides a guide for readers regarding the entities that this action is likely to affect. To determine whether this action applies to your facility, you should examine the applicability criteria in the regulations. This final rule does not impact the Federal Government or state, local or Tribal governments. If you have any questions regarding the applicability of this action to a particular entity, please contact your Regional EPA office or the person listed in the preceding <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Where can I get a copy of this document and other related information?</HD> In addition to being available in the docket (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0509), an electronic copy of this final action is available on the internet at <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/polyether-polyols-production-national-emission-standards-hazardous.</E> Following publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> , the EPA will post the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> version of this action and of key related documents at this same website. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Judicial and Administrative Review</HD> Under CAA section 307(b)(1), judicial review of this final rule is available only by filing a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by November 3, 2025. Under CAA section 307(b)(2), the requirements established by this final rule may not be challenged separately in any civil or criminal proceedings brought by the EPA to enforce the requirements. CAA section 307(d)(7)(B) further provides that “[o]nly an objection to a rule or procedure which was raised with reasonable specificity during the period for public comment (including any public hearing) may be raised during judicial review.” This section provides a mechanism for the EPA to convene a proceeding for reconsideration “[i]f the person raising an objection can demonstrate to the EPA that it was impracticable to raise such objection within [the period for public comment] or if the grounds for such objection arose after the period for public comment, (but within the time specified for judicial review) and if such objection is of central relevance to the outcome of the rule.” Any person seeking to make such a demonstration should submit a Petition for Reconsideration to the Office of the Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Room 3000, WJC South Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460, with a copy to both the person listed in the preceding <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section, and the Associate General Counsel for the Air and Radiation Law Office, Office of General Counsel (Mail Code 2344A), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background</HD> In <E T="03">Sierra Club</E> v. <E T="03">EPA,</E> 551 F.3d 1019 (D.C. Cir. 2008), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) vacated portions of two provisions exempting the emissions of hazardous air pollutants during periods of Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction (SSM) in the EPA's CAA section 112 General Provisions regulations (40 CFR part 63, subpart A) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 40k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━