[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 30 (Wednesday, February 13, 2008)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 8251-8255]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-2705]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 80
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0002; FRL-8529-1]
Approval of Louisiana's Petition To Relax the Summer Gasoline
Volatility Standard for the Grant Parish Area
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to approve the State of Louisiana's request
to relax the federal Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) standard applicable to
gasoline introduced into commerce in the Grant Parish 8-hour ozone
attainment area (Grant Parish) during the summer high ozone season--
June 1 to September 15 of each year. Grant Parish is a designated
attainment area under the 8-hour ozone National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (``NAAQS'') and is a redesignated attainment area under the 1-
hour ozone NAAQS. This action amends our regulations to change the
summertime RVP standard for Grant Parish from 7.8 pounds per square
inch (psi) to 9.0 psi. EPA has determined that this change to our
federal RVP regulations is consistent with the applicable provisions of
the Clean Air Act. Louisiana's request is supported by evidence that
Grant Parish can implement the 9.0 psi RVP standard and maintain the 8-
hour ozone NAAQS and that relaxation of the applicable RVP standard to
9.0 psi will provide economic benefits.
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DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 14, 2008. Request
for a public hearing must be received by February 28, 2008. If we
receive a request for a public hearing, we will publish information
related to the timing and location of the hearing and the timing of a
new deadline for public comments.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2007-0002, by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: Air and Radiation Docket--(202) 566-9744.
Mail: Air Docket, Environmental Protection Agency,
Mailcode: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460,
Attention: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0002. In addition, please mail
a copy of your comments on the information collection provisions to the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget (OMB), Attn: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th St. NW., Washington,
DC 20503.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2007-0002. 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 Air Docket, EPA/
DC, EPA West, Room B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC.
The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 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 Docket is (202) 566-1742.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sean Hillson, Office of Transportation
and Air Quality, Transportation and Regional Programs Division,
Mailcode AASMCG, Environmental Protection Agency, 2000 Traverwood
Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48105; telephone number: (734) 214-4789; fax
number: (734) 214-4052; e-mail address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of
today's Federal Register, we are making these revisions as a direct
final rule without prior proposal because we view these revisions as
noncontroversial and anticipate no adverse comment.
We have explained our reasons for these revisions in the preamble
to the direct final rule. For further information, please see the
information provided in the preamble to the direct final rule. If we
receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this
proposed rule. If we receive adverse comment on the rule, or on one or
more distinct actions in the rule, we will withdraw the direct final
rule, or the portions of the rule receiving adverse comment. We will
address all public comments in a subsequent final rule based on this
proposed rule. We will not institute a second comment period on this
action. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time.
The contents of this preamble are listed in the following outline:
I. General Information
II. Summary of Rule
III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
IV. Statutory Provisions and Legal Authority
I. General Information
A. Does This Action Apply to Me?
This action will affect you if you produce, import, distribute, or
sell gasoline fuel for use in Grant Parish, Louisiana. The following
table gives some examples of entities that may have to follow the
regulations. But because these are only examples, you should carefully
examine the regulations in 40 CFR part 80. If you have questions, call
the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of
this preamble.
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NAICS codes
Examples of potentially regulated entities \a\
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Petroleum Refineries....................................... 324110
Gasoline Marketers and Distributors........................ 424710
424720
Gasoline Retail Stations................................... 447110
Gasoline Transporters...................................... 484220
484230
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\a\ North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
B. What Should I Consider as I Prepare My Comments for EPA?
1. Submitting CBI
Do not submit confidential business information to EPA through
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or 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.
2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments
When submitting comments, remember to:
Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and
page number).
Follow directions--The agency may ask you to respond to
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives
and substitute language for your requested changes.
[[Page 8253]]
Describe any assumptions and provide any technical
information and/or data that you used.
If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how
you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be
reproduced.
Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and
suggest alternatives.
Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the
use of profanity or personal threats.
Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
deadline identified.
II. Summary of Rule
This proposed rule would relax the applicable RVP (Reid Vapor
Pressure) standard of 7.8 psi (pounds per square inch) to 9.0 psi in
Grant Parish, Louisiana, during the summer high ozone season--June 1 to
September 15 of each year. The State of Louisiana petitioned us for
this relaxation in May 2005 and raised several valid points to justify
this action. First, Grant Parish is classified as rural, is not
adjacent to any urban area, and has a population of roughly 18,700 as
of the 2000 Census. Second, air quality reflects a general decrease in
emissions of ozone-forming pollutants since redesignation to attainment
under the 1-hour standard in 1995 (data has fluctuated from year-to-
year, but averaging annual emissions over three-year increments
evidences the downward trend). Additionally, there is an economic
advantage to relaxing the applicable RVP standard. Grant Parish is
isolated from other (former) nonattainment areas which are required to
use 7.8 psi gasoline. This isolation increases transportation costs
which translate to roughly 2 cents per gallon increase in price to the
consumer.
Finally, the Grant Parish 8-hour ozone attainment area has
submitted an 8-hour maintenance demonstrating that the use of 9.0 psi
gasoline will not interfere with attainment of the 8-hour NAAQS. EPA
Region 6 approved this maintenance plan in November 2007. Grant Parish
was formerly a 1-hour ozone nonattainment area and was redesignated to
attainment in 1995, but at that time did not request relaxation of the
applicable RVP standard. In 2004, Grant Parish was designated as
attainment for the 8-hour ozone standard and, under the Phase 1 Ozone
Implementation Rule, Grant Parish was required to submit an 8-hour
maintenance plan under Clean Air Act section 110(a)(1). In Louisiana's
2006 8-hour maintenance demonstration, the state supported their
petition by modeling 9.0 psi gasoline and demonstrated that Grant
Parish will be able to maintain attainment of the 8-hour standard for
10 years, thereby meeting the requirements to have the applicable
gasoline volatility standard relaxed.
For additional discussion of the proposed rule changes, see the
direct final rule EPA has published in the ``Rules and Regulations''
section of today's Federal Register. This proposal incorporates by
reference all the reasoning, explanation, and regulatory text from the
direct final rule.
III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review
This action is not a ``significant regulatory action'' under the
terms of Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and is
therefore not subject to OMB review.
B. Paperwork Reduction Act
This action does not impose any new information collection burden
under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et
seq., and therefore is not subject to these requirements.
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) generally requires an agency
to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis of any rule subject to
notice and comment rulemaking requirements under the Administrative
Procedure Act or any other statute unless the agency certifies that the
rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial
number of small entities. Small entities include small businesses,
small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions.
For purposes of assessing the impacts of today's rule on small
entities, small entity is defined as: (1) A small business as defined
by the Small Business Administration's (SBA) regulations at 13 CFR
121.201; (2) a small governmental jurisdiction that is a government of
a city, county, town, school district or special district with a
population of less than 50,000; and (3) a small organization that is
any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated
and is not dominant in its field.
After considering the economic impacts of today's rule on small
entities, I certify that this action will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. In
determining whether a rule has a significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities, the impact of concern is any
significant adverse economic impact on small entities, since the
primary purpose of the regulatory flexibility analyses is to identify
and address regulatory alternatives ``which minimize any significant
economic impact of the rule on small entities.'' 5 U.S.C. 603 and 604.
Thus, an agency may certify that a rule will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities if the rule
relieves regulatory burden, or otherwise has a positive economic effect
on all of the small entities subject to the rule.
This action will relax the federal RVP standard for gasoline sold
in Grant Parish, Louisiana, during the ozone control season (June 1 to
September 15), from 7.8 psi to 9.0 psi, and is therefore expected not
to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities. The rule does not impose any requirements or create impacts
on small entities beyond those, if any, already required by or
resulting from the CAA Section 211(h) Volatility Control program. We
continue to be interested in the potential impacts of the proposed rule
on small entities and welcome comments on issues related to such
impacts.
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
Title II of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA), Public
Law 104-4, establishes requirements for Federal agencies to assess the
effects of their regulatory actions on State, local, and tribal
governments and the private sector. Under section 202 of the UMRA, EPA
generally must prepare a written statement, including a cost-benefit
analysis, for proposed and final rules with ``Federal mandates'' that
may result in expenditures to State, local, and tribal governments, in
the aggregate, or to the private sector of $100 million or more in any
one year. Before promulgating an EPA rule for which a written statement
is needed, section 205 of the UMRA generally requires EPA to identify
and consider a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives and adopt
the least costly, most cost effective or least burdensome alternative
that achieves the objectives of the rule. The provisions of section 205
do not apply when they are inconsistent with applicable law. Moreover,
section 205 allows EPA to adopt an alternative other than the least
costly, most cost effective or least burdensome alternative if the
Administrator publishes with the final rule an explanation why that
alternative was not adopted. Before EPA establishes any regulatory
requirements that may significantly or uniquely affect small
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governments, including tribal governments, it must have developed under
section 203 of the UMRA a small government agency plan. The plan must
provide for notifying affected small governments, enabling officials of
affected small governments to have meaningful and timely input in the
development of EPA regulatory proposals with significant Federal
intergovernmental mandates, and informing, educating, and advising
small governments on compliance with the regulatory requirements.
EPA has determined that this rule does not contain a Federal
mandate that may result in expenditures of $100 million or more for
State, local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, or the private
sector in any one year. Today's rule merely relaxes the Federal RVP
standard for gasoline in the Grant Parish area, and thus avoids
imposing the costs that the existing Federal regulations would
otherwise impose. Today's rule, therefore, is not subject to the
requirements of sections 202 and 205 of the UMRA.
EPA has determined that this rule contains no regulatory
requirements that might significantly or uniquely affect small
governments. As discussed above, the rule relaxes an existing standard
and affects only the gasoline industry.
E. Executive Order 13132: Federalism
Executive Order 13132, entitled ``Federalism'' (64 FR 43255, August
10, 1999), requires EPA to develop an accountable process to ensure
``meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the
development of regulatory policies that have federalism implications.''
``Policies that have federalism implications'' is defined in the
Executive Order to include regulations that have ``substantial direct
effects on the States, on the relationship between the national
government and the States, or on the distribution of power and
responsibilities among the various levels of government.''
This proposed rule does not have federalism implications. It will
not have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship
between the national government and the States, or on the distribution
of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government,
as specified in Executive Order 13132. Thus, Executive Order 13132 does
not apply to this rule.
F. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With Indian
Tribal Governments
Executive Order 13175, entitled ``Consultation and Coordination
With Indian Tribal Governments'' (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000),
requires EPA to develop an accountable process to ensure ``meaningful
and timely input by tribal officials in the development of regulatory
policies that have tribal implications.'' This rule does not have
tribal implications, as specified in Executive Order 13175. This rule
would relax the applicable RVP standard in Grant Parish, LA, during the
ozone control season (June 1 to September 15) from 7.8 psi to 9.0 psi.
It applies only to Grant Parish, LA. Thus, Executive Order 13175 does
not apply to this rule.
G. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental
Health and Safety Risks
Executive Order 13045, ``Protection of Children From Environmental
Health Risks and Safety Risks'' (62 FR 19885, Apr. 23, 1997) applies to
any rule that: (1) Is determined to be ``economically significant'' as
defined under Executive Order 12866, and (2) concerns an environmental
health or safety risk that EPA has reason to believe may have a
disproportionate effect on children. If the regulatory action meets
both criteria, the Agency must evaluate the environmental health or
safety effects of the planned rule on children, and explain why the
planned regulation is preferable to other potentially effective and
reasonably feasible alternatives considered by the Agency.
This rule is not subject to the Executive Order because it is not
economically significant as defined in Executive Order 12866, and
because the Agency does not have reason to believe the environmental
health or safety risks addressed by this action present a
disproportionate risk to children. As previously discussed, the Grant
Parish area has continued to meet the 1-hour ozone standard since 1995
and has met the 8-hour ozone standard since initial designations were
issued in 2004. The maintenance plan approved on November 6, 2007 shows
maintenance of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS for the entire maintenance time
period of 2002 through 2014 with the 9.0 psi RVP standard.
H. Executive Order 13211: Actions That Significantly Affect Energy
Supply, Distribution, or Use
This rule is not subject to Executive Order 13211, ``Actions
Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply,
Distribution, or Use'' (66 FR 28355, May 22, 2001) because it is not a
significant regulatory action under Executive Order 12866.
I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act
Section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement
Act of 1995 (``NTTAA''), Public Law 104-113, section 12(d) (15 U.S.C.
272 note) directs EPA to use voluntary consensus standards in its
regulatory activities unless to do so would be inconsistent with
applicable law or otherwise impractical. Voluntary consensus standards
are technical standards (e.g., materials specifications, test methods,
sampling procedures, and business practices) that are developed or
adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies. The NTTAA directs EPA
to provide Congress, through OMB, explanations when the Agency decides
not to use available and applicable voluntary consensus standards.
This action does not involve technical standards. Therefore, EPA
did not consider the use of any voluntary consensus standards.
J. Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions To Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, Feb. 16, 1994) establishes
federal executive policy on environmental justice. Its main provision
directs federal agencies, to the greatest extent practicable and
permitted by law, to make environmental justice part of their mission
by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high
and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs,
policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income
populations in the United States.
EPA has determined that this proposed rule will not have
disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental
effects on minority or low-income populations because it does not
affect the applicable 8-hour ozone NAAQS which establish the level of
protection provided to human health or the environment. This rule will
relax the applicable volatility standard of gasoline during the summer
possibly resulting in slightly higher mobile source emissions. However,
the State of Louisiana has demonstrated in a maintenance plan Approval
of Louisiana's Petition To Relax the Summer Gasoline Volatility
Standard for the Grant Parish Area page 18 of 18--Proposal that this
action will not interfere with attainment of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS and
therefore disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental effects
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on minority or low-income populations are not an anticipated result.
IV. Legal Authority
Authority for this action is in sections 211(h) and 301(a) of the
Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7545(h) and 7601(a).
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 80
Environmental protection, Administrative practice and procedures,
Air pollution control, Fuel additives, Gasoline, Incorporation by
reference, Motor vehicle and motor vehicle engines, Motor vehicle
pollution, Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: February 7, 2008.
Stephen L. Johnson,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. E8-2705 Filed 2-12-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P