
[Federal Register: October 28, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 207)]
[Proposed Rules]               
[Page 55505-55506]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr28oc09-27]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Parts 9 and 63

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146; FRL-8972-3]
RIN 2060-AO55

 
National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants From 
Petroleum Refineries

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed partial withdrawal of final rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to withdraw the residual risk and technology 
review portions of the final rule amending the National Emission 
Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants From Petroleum Refineries, which 
was signed by then Administrator Stephen Johnson, on January 16, 2009.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before November 27, 
2009, unless a public hearing is requested by November 9, 2009. If a 
hearing is requested on the proposed partial withdrawal, written 
comments must be received by December 14, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2003-0146, by one of the following methods:
     E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) 
to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-
0146.
     Fax: Fax your comments to: (202) 566-9744, Attention 
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146.
     Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and 
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID 
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146. Please include a total of two copies. We 
request that a separate copy also be sent to the contact person 
identified below (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
     Hand Delivery: In person or by courier, deliver comments 
to: EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC 20004. Such deliveries are only accepted during the 
Docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be 
made for deliveries of boxed information. Please include a total of two 
copies.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2003-0146. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be 
confidential business information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://
www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site 
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your 
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of 
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without 
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be 
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is 
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you 
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name 
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any 
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA 
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid 
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of 
any defects or viruses.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the EPA Docket Center, 
Public Reading Room, EPA West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution 
Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading 
Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Air and 
Radiation Docket is (202) 566-1742.
    We request that you also send a separate copy of each comment to 
the contact persons listed below (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).
    CBI: Do not submit information containing CBI to EPA through http:/
/www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Send or deliver information identified 
as CBI only to the following address: Roberto Morales, OAQPS Document 
Control Officer (C404-02), Office of Air Quality Planning and 
Standards, Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 
27711, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2003-0146. Clearly mark the 
part of all of the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI 
information in a disk or CD-ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside 
of the disk or CD-ROM as CBI and then identify electronically within 
the disk or CD-ROM the specific information that is claimed as CBI. In 
addition to one complete version of the comment that includes 
information claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain 
the information claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the 
public docket. Information so marked will not be disclosed except in 
accordance with procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
    Public Hearing: If anyone contacts EPA requesting to speak at a 
public hearing by November 9, 2009, a public hearing will be held on 
November 12, 2009. Persons interested in presenting oral testimony or 
inquiring as to whether a public hearing is to be held should contact 
Mr. Bob Lucas, listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section, 
at least 2 days in advance of the hearing. If a public hearing is held, 
it will be held at 10 a.m. at the EPA's Environmental Research Center 
Auditorium, Research Triangle Park, NC, or an alternate site nearby.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Robert B. Lucas, Office of Air 
Quality Planning and Standards, Sector Policies and Programs Division, 
Coatings and Chemicals Group (E143-01), Environmental Protection 
Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, telephone number: (919) 541-
0884; fax number: (919) 541-0246; e-mail address: lucas.bob@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) 
establishes a two-stage regulatory process to address emissions of 
hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from stationary sources. In the first 
stage, after EPA has identified categories of sources emitting one or 
more of the HAP listed in section 112(b) of the CAA, section 112(d) 
calls for us to promulgate national emission standards for

[[Page 55506]]

hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for those sources. The EPA is then 
required to review these technology-based standards and to revise them 
``as necessary (taking into account developments in practices, 
processes, and control technologies)'' no less frequently than every 8 
years, under CAA section 112(d)(6). The second stage in standard-
setting focuses on reducing any remaining ``residual'' risk according 
to CAA section 112(f).
    On January 16, 2009, then Administrator Stephen Johnson signed a 
final rule amending the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air 
Pollutants From Petroleum Refineries and the signed rule was made 
publicly available on EPA's Web site. The signed rule included several 
different actions. First, it promulgated maximum achievable control 
technology (MACT) standards under sections 112(d)(2) and (3) for heat 
exchange systems, which EPA had not addressed in the original Refinery 
MACT 1 rule. Second, pursuant to CAA section 112(f)(2), the rule 
addressed residual risk for all Refinery MACT 1 sources, including heat 
exchange systems, and it addressed the technology review pursuant to 
CAA section 112(d)(6) for all sources addressed in the original 
Refinery MACT 1 rule. Additionally, we updated the table in the 
Refinery MACT 1 standards (Table 6) that cross-references the General 
Provisions in 40 CFR part 63, subpart A, and made a few additional 
clarifications to dates and cross-references in the Refinery MACT 1 
standards.
    The signed rule was submitted to the Office of the Federal Register 
for publication. Rahm Emanuel, Assistant to the President and Chief of 
Staff, issued a memorandum on January 20, 2009, directing Agencies to 
withdraw from the Office of the Federal Register ``all proposed or 
final regulations that have not been published in the Federal Register 
so that they can be reviewed and approved by a department or agency 
head.'' Although there was an exception for ``regulations subject to 
statutory or judicial deadlines,'' the Agency chose not to apply the 
exception in this case. One portion of the final rule, the CAA section 
112(d)(6) review, was performed pursuant to the terms of a Consent 
Decree, which, as modified, required that by January 16, 2009, EPA 
``shall sign and promptly forward to the Federal Register for 
publication either final revisions to the standards for petroleum 
refineries in 40 CFR Part 63, Subpart CC pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 
7412(d)(6) or a final determination that no revisions are necessary.'' 
Former Administrator Stephen Johnson signed the rule on January 16, 
2009, and promptly forwarded it to the Federal Register office, thus, 
fulfilling this obligation.\1\
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    \1\ We note that on January 30, 2009, the litigants notified EPA 
by letter that they believed the Agency had discharged its 
obligation under the consent decree and that ``further review of the 
rule pursuant to the Emanuel memo will not violate the consent 
decree.''
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    Upon further review, EPA has determined that the residual risk and 
technology reviews may not accurately characterize the risk posed by 
this source category. We recently responded to a Request for Correction 
under EPA's Information Quality Guidelines from the City of Houston. 
(Letter to U.S. EPA Information Quality Guidelines staff from the 
Honorable Bill White, Mayor of Houston, July 9, 2008.) In that 
response, we recognized that we are currently taking action (and plan 
to take additional action) to gather better emissions information from 
the refining industry. Additionally, we note that during the comment 
period on the proposed rule, similar issues were raised concerning the 
representativeness of the emissions data, and whether they provide an 
accurate basis for characterizing the risks posed. Accordingly, after 
additional consideration of these issues, we believe it is necessary to 
withdraw the rule that was signed on January 16, 2009, so that we may 
develop a more robust analysis based on the improved information we are 
developing.
    For these reasons, EPA is proposing to withdraw the signed final 
rule that included the residual risk and technology review for Refinery 
MACT 1 sources to provide the Agency with time to collect additional 
data and perform these analyses. Once EPA has undertaken these 
activities, we will provide the public with an opportunity to comment 
on a new proposed rule that would be issued.
    Simultaneous with the issuance of this proposal, we are publishing 
in the Federal Register a final rule identical in substance to that 
signed on January 16, 2009, for: (1) The technology-based MACT 
standards for heat exchange systems under section 112(d)(2) and (3) of 
the CAA; (2) revisions to Table 6 of the existing Refinery MACT 1 rule 
(subpart CC), which describes the application of the NESHAP General 
Provisions in 40 CFR part 63, subpart A to subpart CC; and (3) the 
other conforming changes and corrections that were included as part of 
the January 16, 2009 rule. The portions of the January 16, 2009 rule 
that are being published as a final rule are included in a new Federal 
Register notice signed by Administrator Jackson and, regarding those 
issues, are identical in substance to the final rule that was signed by 
former Administrator Stephen Johnson.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 63

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Hazardous 
substances, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: October 15, 2009.
Lisa P. Jackson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. E9-25453 Filed 10-27-09; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
