[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 96 (Monday, May 18, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 29628-29630]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-09072]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-R01-OAR-2019-0220; FRL-10008-77-Region 1]
Air Plan Approval; Massachusetts; Negative Declaration for the
Oil and Gas Industry
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Direct final rule.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is approving a State
Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. The revision provides Massachusetts' determination, via
a negative declaration, that there are no facilities within its borders
subject to EPA's 2016 Control Technique Guideline (CTG) for the oil and
gas industry. The intended effect of this action is to approve this
item into the Massachusetts SIP. This action is being taken in
accordance with the Clean Air Act (CAA).
DATES: This direct final rule will be effective July 17, 2020, unless
EPA receives adverse comments by June 17, 2020. If adverse comments are
received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal of the direct final rule
in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule will not
take effect.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R01-
OAR-2019-0220 at https://www.regulations.gov, or via email to
garcia.ariel@epa.gov. For comments submitted at Regulations.gov, follow
the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted,
comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. For either
manner of submission, 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
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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 (i.e., on the web,
cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission
methods, please contact the person identified in the For Further
Information Contact section. For the full EPA public comment policy,
information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance
on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets. Publicly available docket materials are
available at https://www.regulations.gov or at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, EPA Region 1 Regional Office, Air and Radiation
Division, 5 Post Office Square--Suite 100, Boston, MA. EPA requests
that if at all possible, you contact the contact listed in the FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section to schedule your inspection. The
Regional Office's official hours of business are Monday through Friday,
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding legal holidays and facility closures
due to COVID-19.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ariel Garcia, Environmental Protection
Specialist, Air and Radiation Division (Mail Code 05-2), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1, 5 Post Office Square, Suite
100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109-3912; (617) 918-1660.
garcia.ariel@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Throughout this document whenever ``we,'' ``us,'' or ``our'' is
used, we mean EPA.
Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Summary of SIP Revision and EPA Analysis
III. Final Action
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Background
On October 27, 2016, EPA published in the Federal Register the
``Final Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and Natural Gas
Industry.'' See 81 FR 74798. The CTG provided information to state,
local, and tribal air agencies to assist them in determining reasonably
available control technology (RACT) for volatile organic compounds
(VOC) emissions from select oil and natural gas industry emission
sources. CAA section 182(b)(2)(A) requires that for ozone nonattainment
areas classified as Moderate or above, states must revise their SIPs to
include provisions to implement RACT for each category of VOC sources
covered by a CTG document. CAA section 184(b)(1)(B) extends the RACT
obligation to all areas of states within the Ozone Transport Region
(OTR). Pursuant to CAA section 184(a), Massachusetts is a member state
of the OTR. States subject to RACT requirements are required to adopt
controls that are at least as stringent as those found within the CTG
either via the adoption of regulations, or by issuance of single source
Orders or Permits that outline what the source is required to do to
meet RACT. If no source for a particular CTG exists within a state, the
state must submit as a SIP revision a negative declaration documenting
this fact.
II. Summary of SIP Revision and EPA Analysis
Negative Declaration for the 2016 Oil and Natural Gas Industry CTG
On October 18, 2018, Massachusetts submitted a SIP revision to
address its RACT requirements set forth by the CAA for the 2008 and
2015 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). As
part of that October 18, 2018 SIP revision, Massachusetts submitted a
negative declaration for the 2016 Oil and Natural Gas Industry CTG. The
term ``negative declaration'' means that the state has explored whether
any facilities subject to the applicability requirements of the CTG
exist within the state and concluded that there are no such sources
within its borders. This is consistent with EPA's understanding of
where sources subject to the Oil and Natural Gas Industry CTG are
located, and so we are approving Massachusetts' negative declaration
into the SIP. Other aspects of Massachusetts' October 18, 2018 SIP
submittal, pertaining to all other RACT requirements, are not addressed
in this direct final rulemaking and will be addressed in a separate
rulemaking.
III. Final Action
We are approving a negative declaration for EPA's 2016 CTG entitled
``Control Techniques Guidelines for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry''
into the Massachusetts SIP.
The EPA is publishing this action without prior proposal because
the Agency views this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipates
no adverse comments. However, in the proposed rules section of this
Federal Register publication, EPA is publishing a separate document
that will serve as the proposal to approve the SIP revision should
relevant adverse comments be filed. This rule will be effective July
17, 2020 without further notice unless the Agency receives relevant
adverse comments by June 17, 2020.
If the EPA receives such comments, then EPA will publish a notice
withdrawing the final rule and informing the public that the rule will
not take effect. All public comments received will then be addressed in
a subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. The EPA will not
institute a second comment period on the proposed rule. All parties
interested in commenting on the proposed rule should do so at this
time. If no such comments are received, the public is advised that this
rule will be effective on July 17, 2020 and no further action will be
taken on the proposed rule. Please note that if EPA receives adverse
comment on an amendment, paragraph, or section of this rule and if that
provision may be severed from the remainder of the rule, EPA may adopt
as final those provisions of the rule that are not the subject of an
adverse comment.
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
Under the Clean Air Act, 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, EPA's role is to approve state
choices, provided that they meet the criteria of the Clean Air Act.
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 Orders 12866 (58
FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, January 21, 2011);
Is not an Executive Order 13771 regulatory action because
this action is not significant under Executive Order 12866;
Does not impose an information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.);
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 et seq.);
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);
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Does not have Federalism implications as specified in
Executive Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 1999);
Is not an economically significant regulatory action based
on health or safety risks subject to Executive Order 13045 (62 FR
19885, April 23, 1997);
Is not a significant regulatory action subject to
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001);
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 Clean Air Act; and
Does not provide EPA with the discretionary authority to
address, as appropriate, disproportionate human health or environmental
effects, using practicable and legally permissible methods, under
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994).
In addition, the SIP is not approved to apply on any Indian
reservation land or in any other area where 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).
The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule,
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the
United States. Section 804, however, exempts from section 801 the
following types of rules: Rules of particular applicability; rules
relating to agency management or personnel; and rules of agency
organization, procedure, or practice that do not substantially affect
the rights or obligations of non-agency parties. 5 U.S.C. 804(3).
Because this is a rule of particular applicability, EPA is not required
to submit a rule report regarding this action under section 801.
Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for
judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court
of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by July 17, 2020. 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. Parties with objections to this direct final
rule are encouraged to file a comment in response to the parallel
notice of proposed rulemaking for this action published in the proposed
rules section of today's Federal Register, rather than file an
immediate petition for judicial review of this direct final rule, so
that EPA can withdraw this direct final rule and address the comment in
the proposed rulemaking. This action may not be challenged later in
proceedings to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).)
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by
reference, Ozone, Volatile organic compounds.
Dated: April 21, 2020.
Dennis Deziel,
Regional Administrator, EPA Region 1.
Part 52 of chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations
is amended as follows:
PART 52--APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
Subpart W--Massachusetts
0
2. In Sec. 52.1120, amend the table in paragraph (e) by adding the
entry for ``Negative declaration for the 2016 Control Techniques
Guideline for the Oil and Natural Gas Industry'' at the end of the
table, to read as follows:
Sec. 52.1120 Identification of plan.
* * * * *
(e) * * *
Massachusetts Non Regulatory
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Applicable State
Name of nonregulatory SIP geographic or submittal date/ EPA approved date Explanations
provision nonattainment area effective date \3\
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* * * * * * *
Negative declaration for the 2016 Statewide.......... 10/18/2018 5/18/2020, [Insert Negative
Control Techniques Guidelines Federal Register declaration.
for the Oil and Natural Gas citation].
Industry.
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\3\ To determine the EPA effective date for a specific provision listed in this table, consult the Federal
Register notice cited in this column for the particular provision.
[FR Doc. 2020-09072 Filed 5-15-20; 8:45 am]
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