[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17964-17968]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08660]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[EPA-R06-OAR-2017-0056; FRL-9976-75-Region 6]


Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Texas; 
Reasonable Further Progress Plan for the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria 
Ozone Nonattainment Area

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act), the 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a 
revision to the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) to meet the 
Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) requirements for the Houston-
Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) moderate 2008 8-hour ozone nonattainment area 
(HGB area). Specifically, EPA is proposing to approve the RFP 
demonstration, contingency measures, motor vehicle emissions budgets 
(MVEBs) and an updated 2011 base year emissions inventory.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 25, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket No. EPA-R06-OAR-
2017-0056, at http://www.regulations.gov or via email to 
[email protected]. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
Regulations.gov. 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 (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For 
additional submission methods, please contact Ms. Wendy Jacques, (214) 
665-7395, [email protected]. For the full EPA public comment 
policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general 
guidance on making effective comments, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
    Docket: The index to the docket for this action is available 
electronically at www.regulations.gov and in hard copy at the EPA 
Region 6, 1445 Ross Avenue, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas. While all 
documents in the docket are listed in the index, some information may 
be publicly available only at the hard copy location (e.g., copyrighted 
material), and some may not be publicly available at either location 
(e.g., CBI).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Wendy Jacques, 214-665-7395, 
[email protected]. To inspect the hard copy materials, please 
schedule an appointment with Ms. Wendy Jacques or Mr. Bill Deese at 
214-665-7253.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Throughout this document wherever

[[Page 17965]]

``we,'' ``us,'' or ``our'' is used, we mean the EPA.

I. Background

    In 2008, we revised the 8-hour ozone primary and secondary national 
ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) to a level of 0.075 parts per 
million (ppm) to provide increased protection of public health and the 
environment (73 FR 16436, March 27, 2008). The HGB area was classified 
as a marginal ozone nonattainment area for the 2008 8-hour ozone NAAQS 
and initially given an attainment date of no later than December 31, 
2015 (77 FR 30088 and 77 FR 30160, May 21, 2012). The HGB area consists 
of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, 
Montgomery and Waller counties.
    On December 23, 2014, the DC Circuit Court issued a decision 
rejecting, among other things, our attainment deadlines for the 2008 
ozone nonattainment areas, finding that we did not have statutory 
authority under the CAA to extend those deadlines to the end of the 
calendar year. NRDC v. EPA, 777 F.3d 456, 464-69 (DC Cir. 2014). 
Consistent with the court's decision we modified the attainment 
deadlines for all nonattainment areas for the 2008 ozone NAAQS, and set 
the attainment deadline for all 2008 ozone marginal nonattainment 
areas, including the HGB area as July 20, 2015 (80 FR 12264, March 6, 
2015). The HGB area qualified for a 1-year extension of the attainment 
deadline and we revised the attainment deadline to July 20, 2016 (81 FR 
26697, May 4, 2016). As the HGB area did not meet the revised 
attainment deadline of July 20, 2016, we reclassified the area to 
moderate and set a due date for a revised SIP of January 1, 2017 (81 FR 
90207, December 14, 2016). One moderate classification SIP requirement 
is reasonable further progress (RFP) reductions in volatile organic 
compound (VOC) and nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions (CAA 
sections 172(c)(2) and 182(b)(1) and 40 CFR 51.1110). VOCs and 
NOX are ozone precursors.
    RFP plans must include contingency measures that will take effect 
without further action by the state or EPA, which includes additional 
controls that would be implemented if the area fails to reach the RFP 
milestones (CAA 172(c)(9)). While the CAA does not specify the type of 
measures or quantity of emissions reductions required, EPA provided 
guidance interpreting the CAA that implementation of these contingency 
measures would provide additional emissions reductions of up to 3% of 
the adjusted base year inventory (or a lesser percentage that will make 
up the identified shortfall) in the year following the RFP milestone 
year. For more information on contingency measures, please, see the 
April 16, 1992 General Preamble (57 FR 13498, 13510) and the November 
29, 2005 Phase 2 8-hour ozone standard implementation rule (70 FR 
71612, 71650). RFP plans must also include MVEBs, which are the 
allowable on-road mobile emissions an area can produce and continue to 
demonstrate RFP (40 CFR 93.101 and 93.118(b)(1)(i)).
    On December 29, 2016, Texas submitted a RFP SIP revision for the 
HGB moderate area. The SIP revision (1) updates the 2011 base year 
emissions inventory that was approved by EPA (80 FR 9204, February 20, 
2015), (2) demonstrates a 15% emissions reduction in ozone precursors 
from the 2011 base year through the 2017 attainment year, (3) 
demonstrates a 3% emissions reduction for contingency in 2018 if the 
reductions for 2017 are missed and (4) sets the NOX and VOC 
MVEBs for transportation conformity purposes, for a 2017 attainment 
year.

II. The EPA's Evaluation

    We reviewed the Texas SIP submittal for consistency with the 
requirements of the CAA, EPA regulations, and EPA guidance. A summary 
of our analysis and findings are provided below. For a more detailed 
discussion of our evaluation, please see our Technical Support Document 
(TSD) found in regulations.gov (docket EPA-R06-OAR-2017-0056).

A. Update to the 2011 Base Year Emissions Inventory

    An emissions inventory is a comprehensive, accurate, and current 
inventory of actual emission from all sources. CAA sections 172(c)(3) 
and 182(b)(1) require that ozone nonattainment SIP revisions include an 
inventory of NOX and VOC emissions from all sources in the 
nonattainment area. As noted above we previously approved the 2011 base 
year. Since that submittal, Texas further refined the inventory to more 
accurately reflect actual 2011 emissions. We determined that the 
revised inventory was developed in accordance with EPA guidance and 
regulations and propose to approve the update. Table 1 summarizes the 
update to the inventory. For more information, please see the TSD and 
the Texas SIP submittal.

                         Table 1--HGB RFP Previous and Updated 2011 Base Year EIs (tpd)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Previous NOX     Updated NOX
                   Source type                                                     Previous VOC     Updated VOC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point...........................................          108.44          108.33           94.83           95.99
Area............................................           21.14           21.15          308.73          304.90
Non-road Mobile.................................          121.11          142.44           49.93           49.78
On-road Mobile..................................          196.21          188.02           82.62           80.73
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................          446.90          459.94          536.12          531.40
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Reasonable Further Progress Demonstration

    Texas developed emissions projections for 2017 to demonstrate that 
NOX and VOC emissions would be reduced by 15%. Table 2 shows 
the calculations and reductions required to achieve RFP. For more 
information, please see the TSD and the Texas SIP submittal.

    Table 2--Calculation of NOX and VOC Reductions through 2017 (tpd)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Description                      NOX             VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. 2011 Emissions Inventory (from Table           459.94          531.40
 1 above)...............................
b. Percent of NOX and VOC to meet 15%              14.5%            0.5%
 reduction..............................
c. 15% NOX and VOC reduction, 2011-2017            66.69            2.66
 (row a multiplied by row b)............

[[Page 17966]]

 
d. 2017 Target Level of Emissions (a-c).          393.25          528.74
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Texas has provided sufficient control measures in their RFP plan to 
offset growth in emissions by estimating the amount of growth that will 
occur between 2011 and 2017. The control measures used to achieve the 
necessary emission reductions to meet the RFP requirements are listed 
in Table 3.

 Table 3--NOX and VOC Control Measures and Expected Emission Reductions
                    (tpd) for the HGB Area, 2011-2017
------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Control Strategy Description              NOX             VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locomotive engine certification                    18.41            0.65
 standards and fuel programs............
Commercial marine vessel (CMV) engine               9.39            0.06
 certification standards and fuel
 programs...............................
Small non-road Spark Ignition (SI              \1\ -3.10           24.29
 engines) (Phase 1).....................
Heavy duty non-road engines.............           21.54           11.26
Tiers 2 and 3 non-road diesel engines...           27.33            3.95
Small non-road SI engines (Phase 2).....            2.17           22.48
Large non-road SI & recreational marine.           33.49           13.71
Non-road Texas Low Emission Diesel                  1.74            0.00
 (TxLED)................................
Non-road Reformulated Gasoline (RFG)....            0.03            0.08
Tier 4 non-road diesel engines..........           11.41            0.59
Diesel recreational marine..............            0.00            0.01
Small SI (Phase 3)......................            1.91           13.14
Drilling rig Tier2, 3 and 4 non-road                0.68            0.15
 diesel engines.........................
Drilling rig low emission diesel........            0.04            0.01
RFG with Tier 3 sulfur standard and                85.13           16.87
 federal ultralow sulfur diesel.........
Federal Motor Vehicle Control Program             464.25          198.54
 (FMVCP)................................
Inspection and Maintenance (I/M)........            6.89            7.94
On-road TxLED \2\.......................            2.81            0.00
                                         -------------------------------
    Total Reductions Projected..........          684.12          313.73
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The increase in emissions is due to engine modifications to meet the
  standards for VOC and carbon monoxide.
\2\ The TxLED fuel rules apply to highway (on-road) and non-road
  vehicles and were approved into the Texas SIP on November 14, 2001 (66
  FR 57196). Subsequent revisions were approved April 6, 2005 (70 FR
  17321), October 6, 2005 (70 FR 58325), October 24, 2008 (73 FR 63378),
  and May 6, 2013 (78 FR 26255).

    The projections of growth are labeled as the ``Uncontrolled 
Emissions'' for 2017 under (a) in the table below. The State followed 
our standard guidelines in estimating the growth in emissions and are 
described in greater detail in the TSD.

    Table 4--Summary of RFP Demonstration for HGB Through 2017 (tpd)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Description                   NOX                  VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017 Uncontrolled Emissions...  1018.21............  829.50.
Projected Emission Reductions   684.12.............  313.73.
 between 2011 and 2017 (from
 Table 3 above).
Projected Emissions after       334.09.............  515.77.
 Reductions.
2017 RFP Targets (from Table 2  393.25.............  528.74.
 above).
Surplus or (shortfall)........  59.16..............  12.97.
RFP Met?......................  yes................  Yes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. Contingency Measure Demonstration

    As noted earlier in this action, RFP plans for moderate and above 
nonattainment areas must include contingency measures to be implemented 
in the event an RFP milestone is missed.
    The Texas 3% attainment year RFP contingency measure demonstration 
is based on a 2% reduction in NOx and a 1% reduction in VOC, to be 
achieved between 2017 and 2018. Controlled emissions reductions not 
previously used in the 2017 RFP demonstration may also be used to 
satisfy contingency requirements, so the excess emissions reductions 
from the 2017 RFP demonstration are included in the contingency measure 
demonstration. The 2018 reductions from the federal motor vehicle 
control program, inspection and maintenance program, and the fuel 
requirements program were also used in the RFP contingency 
demonstration.
    Texas demonstrated that federal and State measures being 
implemented are sufficient to reduce emissions by more than 3% and meet 
the contingency measure requirement for the RFP SIP. We determined that 
Texas used acceptable methodology to demonstrate that the required 
emissions reductions are in excess of those needed for RFP and propose 
to approve the RFP demonstration. Table 4 summarizes the demonstration. 
For more information,

[[Page 17967]]

please see the TSD and the Texas SIP submittal.

      Table 5--HGB Area RFP Contingency Measure Demonstration (tpd)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Description                   NOX                  VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. 2011 Base Year EI (Table 2,  459.94.............  531.40.
 line a).
B. Percent of NOX and VOC to    2%.................  1%.
 meet 3% contingency.
C. Required reduction to        9.20...............  5.31.
 provide contingency (A x B).
D. Excess reduction to meet     59.16..............  12.97.
 RFP in 2017 (Table 4).
E. Subtract 2017 RFP            -23.66.............  -11.67.
 demonstration MVEB safety
 margin from excess reductions
 from 2018 RFP.
F. 2018 On-road FMVCP, I/M,     24.35..............  8.78.
 and RFG reductions (23.84-
 0.94 + 1.45 = 24.35) and
 (9.01-0.51 + 0.28 = 8.78).
G. Total RFP demonstration      59.85..............  10.08.
 contingency reductions (D + E
 + F) (59.16-23.66 + 24.35 =
 59.85) and (12.97-11.67 +
 8.78 = 10.08).
Total surplus or shortfall
Subtract line G from C for      50.65..............  4.77.
 surplus (59.85-9.20 = 50.65)
 and (10.08-5.31 = 4.77).
Is the contingency measure      Yes................  Yes.
 requirement met?.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

D. Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets

    An RFP plan must establish MVEBs for transportation conformity 
purposes (40 CFR 93.118(b)(1)(i)). The MVEB is the mechanism to ensure 
that future transportation activities will not produce new air quality 
violations, worsen existing violations, delay reaching RFP milestones, 
or delay timely attainment of the NAAQS. A MVEB establishes the maximum 
amount of emissions allowed in the SIP for on-road motor vehicles. The 
MVEBs for 2017 provided by Texas in the SIP revision can be found in 
Table 6.

           Table 6--RFP Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets for HGB
                               [Tons/Day]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Year                             NOX      VOC
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017..................................................   121.81    68.04
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For the budgets to be approvable, they must meet, at a minimum, 
EPA's adequacy criteria (40 CFR 93.118(e)(4)). The availability of 
these budgets was posted on our website on January 18, 2017, for the 
purpose of soliciting public comments on their adequacy. The comment 
period closed on February 17, 2017, and we received no comments. On 
March 6, 2017, we published the Notice of Adequacy Determination for 
these MVEBs (88 FR 26091). As a result of such adequacy determination, 
these MVEBs must be used by state and Federal agencies in determining 
whether proposed transportation projects conform to the SIP as required 
by section 176(c) of the CAA. The adequacy determination represents a 
preliminary finding by EPA of the acceptability of the MVEBs. We are 
proposing to finalize our finding that these MVEBs are fully consistent 
with RFP. As the MVEBs sets the allowable on-road mobile emissions the 
HGB area can produce and continue to demonstrate RFP, we are proposing 
to approve the MVEBs for the HGB area.

III. Proposed Action

    We are proposing to approve the HGB RFP SIP revision submitted on 
December 29, 2016. Specifically, we are proposing to approve the RFP 
demonstration, contingency measures, MVEBs and an updated 2011 base 
year emissions inventory.

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

    Under the CAA, 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, the EPA's role is to approve state choices, 
provided that they meet the criteria of the CAA. Accordingly, this 
action merely proposes to approve 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 (82 FR 9339, February 2, 
2017) regulatory action because SIP approvals are exempted 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);
     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 CAA; 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 proposed 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).

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Incorporation by 
reference, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Volatile organic compounds.

    Authority:  42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.


[[Page 17968]]


    Dated: April 19, 2018.
Anne Idsal,
Regional Administrator, Region 6.
[FR Doc. 2018-08660 Filed 4-24-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


