[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 250 (Thursday, December 30, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 82430-82461]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-32786]
[[Page 82429]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part II
Environmental Protection Agency
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
40 CFR Part 52
Determinations Concerning Need for Error Correction, Partial Approval
and Partial Disapproval, and Federal Implementation Plan Regarding
Texas Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program; Final Rule
Federal Register / Vol. 75 , No. 250 / Thursday, December 30, 2010 /
Rules and Regulations
[[Page 82430]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 52
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-1033; FRL-9245-2]
RIN 2060-AQ67
Determinations Concerning Need for Error Correction, Partial
Approval and Partial Disapproval, and Federal Implementation Plan
Regarding Texas Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Interim Final rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: EPA is correcting its previous full approval of Texas's Clean
Air Act (CAA) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program to
be a partial approval and partial disapproval. The state did not
address, or provide adequate legal authority for, the program's
application to all pollutants that would become newly subject to
regulation in the future, including non-National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) pollutants, among them greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Further, EPA is promulgating a federal implementation plan (FIP), as
required following the partial disapproval, to establish a PSD
permitting program in Texas for GHG-emitting sources. EPA is taking
this action through interim final rulemaking, effective upon
publication, to ensure the availability of a permitting authority--
EPA--in Texas for GHG-emitting sources when they become subject to PSD
on January 2, 2011. This will allow those sources to proceed with plans
to construct or expand. This rule will expire on April 30, 2011. EPA is
also proposing a notice-and-comment rulemaking that mirrors this
rulemaking.
DATES: This action is effective on December 30, 2010.
ADDRESSES: EPA has established a docket for this rulemaking under
Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-1033. 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., confidential
business information 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 U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Air Docket, EPA/DC, 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., 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: Mr. Peter Keller, Air Quality Policy
Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (C504-03),
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711;
telephone number: (919) 541-5339; fax number: (919) 541-5509; e-mail
address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. General Information
A. Does this action apply to me?
The only governmental entity potentially affected by this rule is
the State of Texas. Other entities potentially affected by this rule
include sources in all industry groups within the State of Texas, which
have a direct obligation under the CAA to obtain a PSD permit for GHGs
for projects that meet the applicability thresholds set forth in the
Tailoring Rule.\1\ This independent obligation on sources is specific
to PSD and derives from CAA section 165(a). The majority of entities
potentially affected by this action are expected to be in the following
groups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V
Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule; Final Rule. 75 FR 31514 (June 3,
2010). The Tailoring Rule is described in more detail later in this
preamble.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Industry group NAICS \a\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Utilities (electric, natural gas, other 2211, 2212, 2213.
systems).
Manufacturing (food, beverages, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316.
tobacco, textiles, leather).
Wood product, paper manufacturing...... 321, 322.
Petroleum and coal products 32411, 32412, 32419.
manufacturing.
Chemical manufacturing................. 3251, 3252, 3253, 3254, 3255,
3256, 3259.
Rubber product manufacturing........... 3261, 3262.
Miscellaneous chemical products........ 32552, 32592, 32591, 325182,
32551.
Nonmetallic mineral product 3271, 3272, 3273, 3274, 3279.
manufacturing.
Primary and fabricated metal 3311, 3312, 3313, 3314, 3315,
manufacturing. 3321, 3322, 3323, 3324, 3325,
3326, 3327, 3328, 3329.
Machinery manufacturing................ 3331, 3332, 3333, 3334, 3335,
3336, 3339.
Computer and electronic products 3341, 3342, 3343, 3344, 3345,
manufacturing. 4446.
Electrical equipment, appliance, and 3351, 3352, 3353, 3359.
component manufacturing.
Transportation equipment manufacturing. 3361, 3362, 3363, 3364, 3365,
3366, 3366, 3369.
Furniture and related product 3371, 3372, 3379.
manufacturing.
Miscellaneous manufacturing............ 3391, 3399.
Waste management and remediation....... 5622, 5629.
Hospitals/nursing and residential care 6221, 6231, 6232, 6233, 6239.
facilities.
Personal and laundry services.......... 8122, 8123.
Residential/private households......... 8141.
Non-residential (commercial)........... Not available. Codes only exist
for private households,
construction and leasing/sales
industries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ North American Industry Classification System.
B. How is the preamble organized?
The information presented in this preamble is organized as follows:
I. General Information
A. Does this action apply to me?
B. How is the preamble organized?
II. Overview of Interim Final Rule
A. Brief Summary
B. Detailed Overview
III. Background
A. Legal Background
[[Page 82431]]
1. Requirements for SIP Submittals and EPA Action
2. General Requirements for the PSD Program
3. SIP PSD Requirements
B. Regulatory Background: Texas SIP and PSD Program
1. Texas's Initial Attainment SIP Revision
2. Texas's Initial PSD SIP Revision
C. Regulatory Background: GHG Rules
1. GHGs and Their Sources
2. GHG Regulatory Actions
3. Implementation of GHG PSD Requirements
4. Summary of the Effect of EPA's Implementation Actions in
States Other Than Texas
5. EPA's Implementation Approach for Texas and Texas's Response
IV. Interim Final Action
A. Determination That EPA's Previous Approval of Texas's PSD
Program Was in Error
1. Gaps in Texas's PSD Program Concerning Application of PSD to
Pollutants Newly Subject to Regulation and Concerning Assurances of
Legal Adequacy
2. Flaws in PSD Program
3. EPA's Error in Approving Texas's PSD Program
B. Error Correction: Conversion of Previous Approval to Partial
Approval and Partial Disapproval
C. Reconsideration Under CAA Section 301, Other CAA Provisions,
and Case Law
D. Relationship of This Action to GHG PSD SIP Call
E. Relationship of This Rulemaking to Other States
V. Federal Implementation Plan
A. Authority To Promulgate a FIP
B. Timing of FIP
C. Substance of GHG PSD FIP
1. Components of FIP
2. Dual Permitting Authorities
D. Period for GHG PSD FIP To Remain in Place
E. Primacy of Texas's SIP Process
VI. Interim Final Rule, Good Cause Exception
VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866--Regulatory Planning and Review
B. Paperwork Reduction Act
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform
E. Executive Order 13132--Federalism
F. Executive Order 13175--Consultation and Coordination With
Indian Tribal Governments
G. Executive Order 13045--Protection of Children From
Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks
H. Executive Order 13211--Actions Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use
I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act
J. Executive Order 12898--Federal Actions To Address
Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations
K. Congressional Review Act
VIII. Judicial Review
IX. Statutory Authority
II. Overview of Interim Final Rule
A. Brief Summary
This rulemaking is intended to assure that large GHG-emitting
sources in Texas will be able to obtain preconstruction permits under
the CAA New Source Review (NSR) PSD program, and do so when they become
subject to PSD, which will occur on January 2, 2011. In this manner,
this rulemaking will allow those sources to avoid delays in
construction or modification.
In this rulemaking, EPA is determining that it erred in fully
approving Texas's PSD program in 1992 because at that time, the program
had a gap, which recent statements by Texas have made particularly
evident. The program did not address its application to, or provide
assurances that it has adequate legal authority to apply to, all
pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants,
among them GHGs. As a result, EPA is correcting its previous full
approval to be a partial approval and partial disapproval. EPA is
taking this action through the error-correction mechanism provided
under CAA section 110(k)(6). The partial disapproval requires EPA,
under CAA section 110(c)(1)(B), to promulgate a FIP within 2 years,
and, as part of this rulemaking, EPA is exercising its discretion to
promulgate the FIP immediately. Under the FIP, EPA will become the
permitting authority for, and apply federal PSD requirements to, large
GHG-emitting sources in accordance with the thresholds established
under what we call the Tailoring Rule, which EPA recently promulgated.
By becoming the permitting authority, EPA will be able to process
preconstruction PSD permit applications for GHG-emitting sources and
thereby allow the affected sources to avoid delays in construction and
modification.\2\ According to Texas, 167 GHG-emitting sources will
require PSD permits during 2011. It is likely that some of these
sources will become subject to PSD soon after January 2, 2011, and
therefore will have a pressing need to have a permitting authority in
place by that time. Although the CAA allows states to implement PSD,
and Texas has been implementing an EPA-approved PSD program since 1992,
Texas has recently informed EPA that it does not have the intention or
the authority to apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources, and that it could
very well maintain this position even if the DC Circuit upholds the GHG
rules against legal challenges that Texas and other parties have
recently brought. Texas's unwillingness to implement this aspect of the
federal PSD program leaves EPA no choice but to resume its role as the
permitting authority for this portion, in order to assure that
businesses in Texas are not subject to delays or potential legal
challenges and are able to move forward with planned construction and
expansion projects that will create jobs and otherwise benefit the
state's and the nation's economy. It bears emphasizing that it is
incumbent on EPA to take action now so that there will be no period of
time when sources are unable to obtain necessary PSD permits, beginning
on January 2, 2011.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Texas will continue to be the permitting authority for
sources of other pollutants. This split permitting process will also
take place in the seven other states for which EPA is implementing a
GHG PSD FIP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to assure no gap in permitting, EPA is taking this action,
including the FIP, through an interim final rule that is exempt from
notice-and-comment due to the ``good cause'' exception of the
Administrative Procedure Act. This interim final rule will remain in
place until April 30, 2011. On a parallel track, EPA is also initiating
a proposed rulemaking that mirrors this rulemaking, and that EPA
intends to finalize and make effective by May 1, 2011.
B. Detailed Overview
The CAA requires each state, including Texas, to adopt into its
State Implementation Plan (SIP) a PSD program. CAA sections
110(a)(2)(C), 110(a)(2)(J), 161. One of the PSD requirements is that
PSD applies by operation of law to any pollutant as soon as that
pollutant becomes subject to regulation under the CAA for the first
time, and that includes non-NAAQS pollutants. CAA section 165(a)(1),
169(1). EPA has consistently interpreted these CAA provisions in that
manner. The CAA further requires that EPA-approved PSD programs must
meet all CAA requirements, CAA section 110(k)(3), and this includes
applying PSD to all pollutants newly subject to regulation, including
non-NAAQS pollutants. In addition, the CAA requires each state to
adhere to various requirements related to SIP adoption, including that
the state ``provide * * * necessary assurances that the State * * *
will have adequate * * * authority under State * * * law to carry out
such implementation plan. * * *'' CAA section 110(a)(2)(E)(i). Once a
state has made a SIP submittal, the CAA requires EPA to approve or
disapprove the SIP revision in whole or in part,
[[Page 82432]]
depending on the extent to which the CAA requirements are met. CAA
section 110(k)(3),(4). If EPA disapproves, it must promulgate a FIP
that addresses the disapproved SIP or portion of the SIP at any time
within two years of the disapproval. CAA section 110(c)(1)(B). In
addition, the CAA authorizes EPA to ``determine [ ]'' if a previous
action in approving a SIP revision was ``in error,'' and if so, to
``revise such action as appropriate.'' CAA section 110(k)(6).
In 1972, EPA approved Texas's initial SIP to attain and maintain
the NAAQS. At that time, EPA approved the state's assurances of
adequate legal authority. In the early 1980s, following the 1977 CAA
Amendments that enacted the PSD program, EPA, which at that time
administered PSD, delegated to Texas partial authority to implement the
PSD program. During this time, EPA made clear to Texas that EPA's
regulatory PSD program covers non-NAAQS pollutants.
In 1985-88, Texas developed a PSD program and in a series of
submittals, submitted it to EPA as a SIP revision. The Texas program
incorporated by reference much of EPA's PSD regulations, 40 CFR part
52, including the PSD applicability provisions in 40 CFR part
52.21(b)(1)(i). Thus, the Texas PSD program by its terms applied to
``any air pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act.'' However, Texas
state law imposed limits that precluded the Texas PSD program from
applying automatically, as a matter of law, to each newly regulated
pollutant. Rather, Texas's program applied only to pollutants that were
subject to regulation at the time the state adopted the SIP revision
establishing the PSD program, so that the state would need to take
additional action to subject subsequently regulated pollutants to PSD,
for example, an expeditious state law change that would be promptly
submitted to EPA as a SIP revision to update the PSD program. Texas and
EPA were both well aware of this limitation. In fact, while EPA was
reviewing Texas's PSD SIP revision, EPA promulgated a national ambient
air quality standard (NAAQS) for PM10, thereby subjecting
that pollutant to PSD for the first time, and Texas updated its state
PSD rule to apply to PM10 and submitted that as a SIP
revision. Texas did not, however, explicitly recognize that after EPA
approved its PSD program, EPA could well subject to PSD for the first
time additional pollutants, and Texas did not address that situation in
any manner. For example, Texas did not provide assurances that it would
take action to apply its PSD program to all pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants; nor did Texas provide
information as to the method or timing of such action.
During the course of its consideration of Texas's proposed PSD SIP
revision, EPA became concerned that Texas would not implement EPA's
interpretation of the core PSD requirement that sources' implement best
available control technology (BACT). As a result, EPA asked for written
commitments that Texas would implement the PSD program in accordance
with EPA interpretations. In a September 5, 1989, letter, which we call
the Texas PSD Commitments Letter, Texas stated that it was ``committed
to the implementation of EPA decisions regarding PSD program
requirements.'' Separately, as for Texas's legal authority to carry out
the PSD program, the state, in its various SIP submittals, made general
references to its legal authority for adopting and submitting SIP
revisions.
In 1992, EPA fully approved Texas's PSD rules. In the preamble to
this final approval, EPA did not specifically address the issue of how
the PSD program would apply to pollutants newly subject to regulation,
including non-NAAQS pollutants, or the state's legal authority for
applying PSD to such pollutants. EPA did state that it was basing the
approval on (among other things) the 1989 Texas PSD Commitments Letter.
However, EPA acknowledged questions about the scope of these
commitments and EPA made clear that even with that letter, Texas
retained significant discretion in implementing the PSD program.
Because the application of PSD to pollutants newly subject to
regulation is a key component of the program, and because Texas's PSD
program, unlike that of most states, did not automatically apply to
such pollutants, it was important that Texas, in its SIP submittals,
address how it would apply its program to such pollutants. This could
include providing, for example, assurances that its program would apply
to such pollutants or information as to the method and timing for
applying its program to such pollutants. In addition, under CAA section
110(a)(2)(E)(i), Texas was required to provide assurances that it had
adequate legal authority to apply its program to such pollutants.
However, as noted previously, there is no indication in the record
of Texas's SIP submissions or EPA's action on them that Texas
specifically addressed its program's application to pollutants newly
subject to regulation. Texas did provide the 1989 Texas PSD Commitments
Letter, in which it generally committed ``to implement EPA requirements
relative to [PSD].'' But by its terms, this 1989 letter did not commit
to apply PSD to such pollutants and in any event, EPA, in discussing
this letter in the preamble to the final rule, acknowledged that Texas
retained substantial discretion in implementing PSD.
Thus, at the time that Texas submitted and EPA approved the state's
PSD program, the program had important gaps. It did not address its
application to, or provide the requisite assurance that it had legal
authority to apply to, pollutants newly subject to regulation,
including non-NAAQS pollutants.
Texas has recently made statements that have made these gaps
particularly evident.\3\ Texas has stated that it is not required to
submit a SIP revision to apply PSD to non-NAAQS pollutants, including
GHGs. Texas has explained that in its view, the CAA is clear, under the
legal doctrine that we call Chevron step 1, described later, that the
PSD program is limited to NAAQS pollutants and does not apply to non-
NAAQS pollutants. In addition, Texas has stated that it does not have
the intention or the authority to apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources,
and that it could very well maintain this position even if the D.C.
Circuit upholds the GHG rules in the current litigation before that
Court.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Texas made these statements in various letters to EPA in
response to rulemakings and in court filings challenging those
rulemakings, as discussed in detail later in this preamble.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas's recent statements highlight the gaps in its PSD program
concerning the application of PSD, and the legal authority for applying
PSD, to pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS
pollutants, among them GHGs. What's more, Texas's recent statements are
consistent with the view that the state's silence on this subject at
the time it submitted and EPA approved its PSD SIP means that Texas did
not, at that time, view itself as obligated to apply PSD to each
pollutant newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants.
Specifically, Texas's recent statement that the CAA PSD provisions
are clear by their terms--which is what a Chevron step 1 interpretation
means--that they do not apply to non-NAAQS pollutants, suggests that
Texas would have interpreted the CAA PSD provisions the same way at the
time Texas submitted its PSD program. But at the least, Texas's PSD
program contained a gap because it failed to address this issue; and
that gap is significant because it facilitates Texas, at this time,
taking the position that PSD does not apply to non-NAAQS
[[Page 82433]]
pollutants.\4\ Texas's recent statement that it does not have the
authority to apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources highlights that Texas's
PSD program has a gap due to its failure to provide assurances of
adequate legal authority. Specifically, Texas's direct statement that
it does not have authority to apply PSD to GHGs casts doubt on whether
Texas, at the time it submitted the PSD SIP submittals, would have
viewed itself as having such authority. There seems to be a meaningful
possibility that at the time Texas submitted and EPA approved the
state's PSD program, during 1985-1992, Texas considered itself under
some legal limit or constraint in applying PSD to all pollutants newly
subject to regulation. At the least, it is apparent that at the time
that Texas submitted its PSD program, Texas did not provide the
``necessary assurances'' that it ``will have adequate * * * authority
under State * * * law to carry out such implementation plan (and is not
prohibited by any provision of * * * State law from carrying out such
implementation plan or portion thereof),'' as required under CAA
section 110(a)(2)(E)(i).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ It should be noted that in the past, Texas has applied its
PSD program to non-NAAQS pollutants. Even so, Texas's recent
statements indicate very clearly that Texas does not consider itself
obligated to update its PSD program to apply to all newly regulated
non-NAAQS pollutants, but instead Texas may choose which non-NAAQS
pollutants to which it will apply PSD.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The gaps in Texas's PSD SIP--its failure to address, or provide
assurances of the requisite legal authority concerning, the application
of PSD to all pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-
NAAQS pollutants--means that the PSD SIP was flawed at the time that
EPA reviewed it for action. EPA did not address those flaws and
instead, issued a full approval of the SIP.
In this rulemaking, therefore, EPA is ``determin[ing]'' that EPA's
previous action fully approving Texas's PSD program was ``in error,''
under CAA section 110(k)(6). The key terms in this provision, as just
quoted, confer broad discretion upon EPA to make decisions as to when
it erred in approving a SIP revision. Thus, it is clear that under this
provision, EPA erred in approving the Texas PSD program in light of
that program's flaws.
Once EPA determines that its previous approval of the Texas PSD SIP
was in error, EPA, under CAA section 110(k)(6), ``may * * * revise [its
previous full approval] as appropriate. * * *'' In this rulemaking, EPA
is revising its previous full approval of Texas's PSD SIP to be (i) a
partial approval, so that Texas's SIP remains approved to the extent of
the pollutants that the PSD program already does cover; and (ii) a
partial disapproval. The partial disapproval is based on the Texas PSD
SIP's failure to apply PSD to each pollutant newly subject to
regulation, including each non-NAAQS pollutant, among them GHGs. An
alternative legal basis for this rulemaking is EPA's inherent
administrative authority to reconsider a previous action.
It should be noted that even if the general assurances that Texas
provided in its 1989 PSD Commitments Letter or may have otherwise
provided in the record of its PSD SIP submittal were read to indicate
that Texas did provide assurances that it would implement, and had
legal authority to implement, EPA's interpretation that PSD applies to
each pollutant newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS
pollutants, then Texas's recent statements to the contrary indicate
that Texas now is not complying with those assurances. Under these
circumstances, EPA would still be justified in determining that its
prior approval was in error and should be converted to a partial
approval and partial disapproval. This is because under these
circumstances, EPA's prior approval should be considered to have been
based on those assurances, so that Texas's explicitly stated intent to
not act in accordance with those assurances would eliminate the basis
for that prior approval.
After promulgating the partial disapproval in this rulemaking, EPA
is required to promulgate a FIP ``at any time within 2 years,'' under
CAA section 110(c)(1). EPA is exercising its discretion to immediately
promulgate the FIP, and is doing so as part of this rulemaking. The FIP
consists of appropriate action to apply the PSD program to pollutants
that are subject to the PSD program under the CAA, but that Texas has
not made subject to Texas's PSD program. At present, Texas has stated
that it has neither the intention nor the authority to apply its PSD
program to GHG-emitting sources. Therefore, the FIP applies the EPA PSD
regulatory program to the GHG portion of the PSD permit for GHG-
emitting sources in Texas, including the thresholds in what we call the
Tailoring Rule that limit PSD to large sources. Further, the FIP
commits EPA to take future action as appropriate with respect to any
additional newly regulated pollutants. The FIP does not apply to any
other currently regulated pollutants because at this point, Texas's PSD
program addresses all other pollutants that are subject to regulation
under the CAA. EPA is promulgating the FIP immediately, as opposed to a
later time within the two-year period, because certain GHG-emitting
sources in Texas will become subject to the PSD program as of January
2, 2011. Immediate promulgation of the FIP will allow EPA to act as the
permitting authority in Texas for these sources as of January 2, 2011,
and thereby avoid delays in these sources' ability to construct or
modify.
It should be noted that EPA has recently taken another action
concerning Texas's PSD program as that program relates to GHGs. In a
final rule signed on December 1, 2010 and published by notice dated
December 13, 2010, EPA issued what we call a SIP call, under CAA
section 110(k)(5), requiring Texas and 12 other states whose SIP-
approved PSD programs do not apply to GHG-emitting sources to submit a
corrective SIP revision; and EPA established a deadline for that SIP
submittal for each state, which ranged from as early as December 22,
2010 for seven of the states to December 1, 2011 for Texas. In
addition, EPA stated that if Texas or any of the other states failed to
submit its corrective SIP revision by its deadline, EPA intended to
promulgate a FIP immediately thereafter.
The timing of the SIP call was driven by the fact that the affected
states did not have authority to issue PSD permits to GHG-emitting
sources and, as a result, those sources could face delays in
construction and modification when they become subject to PSD as early
as January 2, 2011. EPA designed the SIP call to maximize the
opportunity of each affected state to assure that its sources would
have a permitting authority available as of that date. EPA did so by
allowing each state flexibility for its SIP submittal deadline, and
therefore for the date that EPA could put a FIP in place. Each of the
affected states except Texas responded with a plan that would assure
that its sources would not confront permitting delays. Texas did not
submit such a plan and as a result, its sources--according to Texas, as
many as 167 during 2011--do confront the possibility of permitting
delays. In addition, it was in responding to the SIP call and related
EPA rulemakings that Texas made the statements noted earlier in this
preamble that made particularly evident the flaws in its PSD program.
This is an important reason why EPA is proceeding with this error-
correction/partial-disapproval rulemaking at this time. This rulemaking
allows EPA to put a FIP in place immediately, instead of waiting until
December 1, 2011;
[[Page 82434]]
thereby act as the permitting authority in Texas beginning January 2,
2011; and in that capacity, allow Texas sources to avoid delays in
construction or modification.
Although this rulemaking and the SIP call have similarities, EPA is
authorized to proceed with each rulemaking with respect to Texas at
this time, and it is both necessary and appropriate that we do so. EPA
is authorized to proceed with the SIP call for reasons explained in
that rule. Nothing in CAA section 110(k)(5), which authorizes the SIP
call, precludes EPA from proceeding with this rulemaking, which, as
noted earlier, is authorized under CAA section 110(k)(6). As we discuss
below, it was Texas's response to the SIP call proposal, along with
other statements Texas made around the same time, that focused
attention on the underlying flaws in Texas PSD SIP, which led to this
error-correction rulemaking. EPA is not, at this time, undertaking a
similar error-correction rulemaking for any of the other states that
are subject to the SIP call. EPA has discretion as to whether and when
to undertake such a rulemaking, and each of the other states has chosen
a course of action that at present appears to assure that its large
GHG-emitting sources will have a permitting authority available when
the sources need one, and therefore will not face delays in
constructing or modifying. Moreover, none of these other states has
made the type of recent statements that may have exposed flaws in its
SIP, as Texas has done. As a result, EPA sees no need to inquire into
whether any of these other states have flaws in their SIP PSD programs
as Texas does.
EPA is applying the ``good cause'' exemption from notice-and-
comment rulemaking, authorized under Administrative Procedure Act
section 553(b)(3)(B) to promulgate this action as an interim final
rulemaking that takes effect immediately upon publication in the
Federal Register. As a result, this action, including the FIP, will
take effect by January 2, 2011, when GHG-emitting sources become
subject to the requirement to obtain a PSD preconstruction permit. The
use of the ``good cause'' exemption is justified because the notice-
and-comment process would add delays in issuing the final rule and
therefore is impractical and contrary to public interest. Unless and
until EPA promulgates this rule, Texas sources will not have available
a permitting authority to process their PSD permit applications and as
a result, may face delays in construction and modification.
Simultaneously with issuing this interim final rulemaking, EPA is
proposing for notice-and-comment an error-correction/partial-
disapproval and FIP rule that mirrors this rule. EPA expects to
complete final action on this notice-and-comment rule so that it takes
effect by May 1, 2011. This interim final rule will stay in place until
April 30, 2011, and then be replaced by the notice-and-comment rule.
Although we recognize that Texas has indicated that the state does
not intend to submit a SIP revision to apply its PSD program to GHG-
emitting sources, we emphasize that it is our preference that Texas
assume responsibility for permitting GHG-emitting sources as soon as
possible, and we are prepared to work with Texas to bring this about.
Thus, we are prepared to work with the state to help it promptly
develop and submit to us a SIP revision that extends its PSD program to
GHG-emitting sources and if it does so, we intend to act on that SIP
revision promptly. We also encourage Texas to accept a delegation of
authority to implement the FIP, so that it will still be the state that
processes the permit applications, albeit operating under federal law.
III. Background
EPA described the relevant background information in the preambles
for several proposed and final rulemakings that implement the PSD GHG
permitting program. These include the Tailoring Rule,\5\ 75 FR at
31518-21, and the GHG PSD SIP call,\6\ 75 FR at 53896-98 (September 7,
2010) (proposal), or, simply, the SIP call. Knowledge of this
background information is presumed and will be only briefly summarized
here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V
Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule; Proposed Rule.'' 74 FR 55,292 (Oct.
27, 2009) (proposed Tailoring Rule).
\6\ ``Action To Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the
Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP
Call; Final Rule,'' 75 FR 77698 (Dec. 13, 2010) (final SIP call);
``Action To Ensure Authority To Issue Permits Under the Prevention
of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas
Emissions: Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP Call; Proposed
Rule,'' 75 FR 53,892 (proposed SIP call).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Legal Background
1. Requirements for SIP Submittals and EPA Action
This section reviews background information concerning the CAA
requirements for what SIPs must include, the process for state
submittals of SIPs, requirements for EPA action on SIPs and SIP
revisions, and FIPs.
a. Requirements for What SIPs Must Include
Congress enacted the NAAQS and SIP requirements in the 1970 CAA
Amendments. CAA section 110(a)(1) requires that states adopt and submit
to EPA for approval SIPs that implement the NAAQS. CAA section
110(a)(2) contains a detailed list of requirements that all SIPs must
include to be approvable by EPA.
Of particular relevance for this action, subparagraph (E)(i) of CAA
section 110(a)(2) provides that SIPs must ``provide * * * necessary
assurances that the state * * * will have adequate personnel, funding,
and authority under State * * * law to carry out such implementation
plan. * * *'' As applicable to PSD programs, this provision means that
EPA may approve the SIP PSD provisions only if EPA is satisfied that
the state will have adequate legal authority under state law.
b. EPA Action on SIP Submittals
After a SIP or SIP revision has been submitted, EPA is authorized
to act on it under CAA section 110(k)(3)-(4). Those provisions
authorize a full approval or, if the SIP or SIP revision meets some but
not all of the applicable requirements, a conditional approval, a
partial approval and disapproval, or a full disapproval. If EPA
disapproves a required SIP or SIP revision, then EPA must promulgate a
FIP at any time within two years after the disapproval, unless the
state corrects the deficiency within that period of time by submitting
a SIP revision that EPA approves. CAA Sec. 110(c)(1).\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ States are subject to sanctions for failure to submit, or
for EPA disapproval of, SIPs for nonattainment areas, under CAA
section 179. These sanctions provisions are not relevant for this
rule because they do not apply to PSD SIPs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. SIP Call
The CAA provides a mechanism for the correction of SIPs with
certain types of inadequacies, under CAA section 110(k)(5), which
provides:
(5) Calls for Plan Revisions
Whenever the Administrator finds that the applicable
implementation plan for any area is substantially inadequate to * *
* comply with any requirement of this Act, the Administrator shall
require the State to revise the plan as necessary to correct such
inadequacies. The Administrator shall notify the State of the
inadequacies and may establish reasonable deadlines (not to exceed
18 months after the date of such notice) for the submission of such
plan revisions.
This provision by its terms authorizes the Administrator to ``find[]
that [a SIP] * * * is substantially inadequate to
[[Page 82435]]
* * * comply with any requirement of this Act,'' and, based on that
finding, to ``require the State to revise the [SIP] * * * to correct
such inadequacies.'' This latter action is commonly referred to as a
``SIP call.'' In addition, this provision authorizes EPA to establish a
``reasonable deadline (not to exceed 18 months after the date of such
notice)'' for the submission of the corrective SIP revision.
If EPA does not receive the corrective SIP revision by the
deadline, CAA section 110(c) authorizes EPA to ``find[ ] that [the]
State has failed to make a required submission.'' CAA section
110(c)(1)(A). Once EPA makes that finding, CAA section 110(c)(1)
requires EPA to ``promulgate a Federal implementation plan at any time
within 2 years after the [finding] * * * unless the State corrects the
deficiency, and [EPA] approves the plan or plan revision, before [EPA]
promulgates such [FIP].''
CAA section 110(k)(5), by its terms--specifically, the use of the
term ``[w]henever''--authorizes, but does not require, EPA to make the
specified finding and does not impose any time constraints for EPA to
do so. As a result, EPA has discretion in determining whether and when
to make the specified finding. See New York Public Interest Research
Group v. Whitman, 321 F.3d 316, 330-31 (2d Cir. 2003) (opening phrase
``Whenever the Administrator makes a determination'' in CAA section
502(i)(1) grants EPA ``discretion whether to make a determination'');
Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Ontario v. EPA, 912 F.2d 1525, 1533
(DC Cir. 1990) (``whenever'' in CAA section 115(a) ``impl[ied] a degree
of discretion'' in whether EPA had to make a finding).
d. Authority for EPA To Revise Previous Action on SIPs
EPA has authority to revise its previous action concerning SIP
submittals. Two mechanisms are available to EPA: The error correction
mechanism provided under CAA section 110(k)(6), and EPA's general
administrative authority to reconsider its own actions under CAA
sections 110 and 301(a), in light of case law.
(i). Error Correction Under CAA Section 110(k)(6)
CAA section 110(k)(6) provides as follows:
Whenever the Administrator determines that the Administrator's
action approving, disapproving, or promulgating any plan or plan
revision (or part thereof), area designation, redesignation,
classification, or reclassification was in error, the Administrator
may in the same manner as the approval, disapproval, or promulgation
revise such action as appropriate without requiring any further
submission from the State. Such determination and the basis thereof
shall be provided to the State and public.
The key provisions for present purposes are that the Administrator has
the authority to ``determine ;'' when a SIP approval was ``in error,''
and when she does so, she may then revise the SIP approval ``as
appropriate,'' in the same manner as the approval, and without
requiring any further submission from the state.
As quoted previously, CAA section 110(k)(6) provides EPA with the
authority to correct its own ``error,'' but nowhere does this provision
or any other provision in the CAA define what qualifies as ``error.''
Thus, the term should be given its plain language, everyday meaning,
which includes all unintentional, incorrect or wrong actions or
mistakes.
The legislative history of CAA section 110(k)(6) is silent
regarding the definition of error, but the timing of the enactment of
the provision suggests a broad interpretation. The provision was
enacted shortly after the Third Circuit decision in Concerned Citizens
of Bridesburg v. U.S. EPA, 836 F.2d 777 (1987). In Bridesburg, the
court adopted a narrow interpretation of EPA's authority to
unilaterally correct errors. The court stated that such authority was
limited to typographical and other similar errors, and stated that any
other change to a SIP must be accomplished through a SIP revision. Id.
at 786. In Bridesburg, EPA determined that it lacked authority to
include odor regulations as part of a SIP unless the odor regulations
had a significant relationship to achieving a NAAQS, and so directly
acted to remove 13-year-old odor provisions from the Pennsylvania SIP.
Id. at 779-80. EPA found the previous approval of the provisions to
have been an inadvertent error, and so used its ``inherent authority to
correct an inadvertent mistake'' to withdraw its prior approval of the
odor regulations without seeking approval of the change from
Pennsylvania. Id. at 779-80, 785. After noting that Congress had not
contemplated the need for revision on the grounds cited by EPA, Id. at
780, the court found that EPA's ``inherent authority to correct an
inadvertent mistake'' was limited to corrections such as
``typographical errors,'' and that instead EPA was required to use the
SIP revision process to remove the odor provision from the SIP. Id. at
785-86.
When the court made its determination in Bridesburg in 1987, there
was no provision explicitly addressing EPA's error correction authority
under the CAA. In 1990, Congress passed CAA section 110(k)(6),
apparently for the purpose of overturning the Bridesburg opinion. This
is apparent because CAA section 110(k)(6) both (i) authorizes EPA to
correct SIP approvals and other actions that were ``in error,'' which,
as noted previously, broadly covers any mistake, and thereby contrasts
with the holding in Bridesburg that EPA's pre-section 110(k)(6)
authority was limited to correction of typographical or similar
mistakes; and (ii) provides that the error correction need not be
accomplished via the SIP revision or SIP call process, which contrasts
with the holding of Bridesburg requiring a SIP revision. Because
Congress apparently intended CAA section 110(k)(6) to overturn
Bridesburg, the definition of ``error'' in that provision should be
sufficiently broad to encompass the error that EPA asserted it made in
its approval action at issue in Bridesburg, which goes well beyond
typographical or other similar mistakes.
EPA has used CAA section 110(k)(6) in the past to correct errors of
a non-technical nature. For example, EPA has used CAA section 110(k)(6)
as authority to make substantive corrections to remove a variety of
provisions from federally approved SIPs that are not related to the
attainment or maintenance of NAAQS or any other CAA requirement. See,
e.g., ``Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Kentucky:
Approval of Revisions to the State Implementation Plan,'' 75 FR 2440
(Jan. 15, 2010) (correcting the SIP by removing a provision, approved
in 1982, used to address hazardous or toxic air pollutants); ``Approval
and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; New York,'' 73 FR 21,546
(April 22, 2008) (issuing a direct final rule to correct a prior SIP
correction from 1998 that removed general duties from the SIP but
neglected to remove a reference to ``odor'' in the definition of ``air
contaminant or air pollutant''); ``Approval and Promulgation of
Implementation Plans; New York,'' 63 FR 65557 (Nov. 27, 1998) (issuing
direct final rule to correct SIP by removing a general duty ``nuisance
provision'' that had been approved in 1984); ``Correction of
Implementation Plans; American Samoa, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and
Nevada State Implementation Plans,'' 63 FR 34,641 (June 27, 1997)
(correcting five SIPs by deleting a variety of administrative
provisions concerning variances, hearing board procedures, and fees
that had been approved during the 1970s).
[[Page 82436]]
CAA section 110(k)(6), by its terms--specifically, the use of the
terms ``[w]henever'' and ``may'' and the lack of any time constraints--
authorizes, but does not require, EPA to make the specified finding. As
a result, EPA has discretion in determining whether and when to make
the specified finding. See New York Public Interest Research Group v.
Whitman, 321 F.3d 316, 330-31 (2d Cir. 2003) (opening phrase ``Whenever
the Administrator makes a determination'' in CAA section 502(i)(1)
grants EPA ``discretion whether to make a determination''); Her Majesty
the Queen in Right of Ontario v. EPA, 912 F.2d 1525, 1533 (D.C. Cir.
1990) (``whenever'' in CAA section 115(a) ``impl[ied] a degree of
discretion'' in whether EPA had to make a finding).
(ii) Inherent Authority To Reconsider
The provisions in CAA section 110 that authorize EPA to take action
on a SIP revision inherently authorize EPA to, on its own initiative,
reconsider and revise that action as appropriate. The courts have found
that an administrative agency has the inherent authority to reconsider
its decisions, unless Congress specifically proscribes the agency's
discretion to do so. See, e.g., Gun South, Inc. v. Brady, 877 F.2d 858,
862 (11th Cir. 1989) (holding that agencies have implied authority to
reconsider and rectify errors even though the applicable statute and
regulations do not provide expressly for such reconsideration);
Trujillo v. General Electric Co., 621 F.2d 1084, 1086 (10th Cir. 1980)
(``Administrative agencies have an inherent authority to reconsider
their own decisions, since the power to decide in the first instance
carries with it the power to reconsider''); see also New Jersey v. EPA,
517 F.3d 574 (DC Cir. 2008) (holding that an agency normally can change
its position and reverse a prior decision but that Congress limited
EPA's ability to remove sources from the list of hazardous air
pollutant source categories, once listed, by requiring EPA to follow
the specific delisting process at CAA section 112(c)(9)).\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ For additional case law, see Belville Mining Co. v. United
States, 999 F.2d 989, 997 (6th Cir. 1993); Dun & Bradstreet Corp. v.
United States Postal Service, 946 F.2d 189, 193 (2d Cir. 1991); Iowa
Power & Light Co. v. United States, 712 F.2d 1292 (8th Cir. 1983).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 301(a) of the CAA, read in conjunction with CAA section 110
and the case law just described, provides further statutory authority
for EPA to reconsider its actions under CAA section 110. CAA section
301(a) authorizes EPA ``to prescribe such regulations as are necessary
to carry out [EPA's] functions'' under the CAA. Reconsidering prior
rulemakings, when necessary, is part of ``[EPA's] functions'' under the
CAA--in light of EPA's inherent authority as recognized under the case
law to do so--and as a result, CAA section 301(a) confers such
authority upon EPA.
EPA finds further support for its authority to narrow its approvals
in APA section 553(e), which requires EPA to give interested persons
``the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a
rule,'' and CAA section 307(b)(1), which expressly contemplates that
persons may file a petition for reconsideration under certain
circumstances (at the same time that a rule is under judicial review).
These authorizations for other persons to petition EPA to amend or
repeal a rule suggest that EPA has inherent authority, on its own, to
issue such amendment or repeal. This is because EPA may grant a
petition from another person for an amendment to or repeal of a rule
only if justified under the CAA, and if such an amendment or repeal is
justified under the CAA, then EPA should be considered as having
inherent authority to initiate the process on its own, even without a
petition from another person.
EPA recently used its authority to reconsider prior actions and
limit its prior approval of a SIP in connection with California
conformity SIPs. See, e.g., 68 FR 15720, 15723 (discussing prior action
taken to limit approvals); 67 FR 69139 (taking final action to amend
prior approvals to limit their duration); 67 FR 46618 (proposing to
amend prior approvals to limit their duration, based on CAA sections
110(k) and 301(a)). EPA had previously approved SIPs with emissions
budgets based on a mobile source model that was current at the time of
EPA's approval. Later, EPA updated the mobile source model. But, even
though the model had been updated, emissions budgets would continue to
be based on the older, previously approved model in the SIPs, rather
than the updated model. To rectify this problem, EPA conducted a
rulemaking that revised the previous SIP approvals so that the
approvals of the emissions budgets would expire early, when the new
ones were submitted by states and found adequate, rather than when a
SIP revision was approved. This helped California more quickly adjust
its regulations to incorporate the newer model. EPA is using its
authority to reconsider and limit its prior approval of SIPs generally
in the same manner as it did in connection with California conformity
SIPs.
f. FIPs
As noted previously, if the state fails to submit a required SIP
revision, or does so but EPA then disapproves that SIP revision, then
the CAA requires EPA to promulgate a FIP and thereby, in effect,
federalize the part of the air pollution control requirements for which
the state, through the required SIP revision, would otherwise have been
responsible. Specifically, under CAA section 110(c)(1), EPA is required
to--
promulgate a [FIP] at any time within 2 years after the
Administrator (A) finds that a State has failed to make a required
submission * * *, or (B) disapproves a [SIP] submission in whole or
in part, unless the State corrects the deficiency, and the
Administrator approves the plan or plan revision, before the
Administrator promulgates such [FIP].
Although this provision, by its terms, mandates that EPA promulgate a
FIP under the specified circumstances, and mandates that EPA do so
within two years of when those circumstances occur, the provision gives
EPA discretion to promulgate the FIP ``at any time within [that] 2 year
[ ]'' period. Thus, EPA is authorized to promulgate a FIP immediately
after either the specified state failure to submit or EPA disapproval.
However, CAA section 110(c)(1), as quoted earlier, further provides
that if EPA delays promulgating a FIP until later in the 2-year period,
and, in the meantime, the state corrects the deficiency by submitting
an approval SIP revision that EPA approves, then EPA is precluded from
promulgating the FIP. Similarly, once EPA promulgates a FIP, it stays
on the books until the state submits an approvable SIP that EPA then
approves.
2. General Requirements for the PSD Program
The PSD program is a preconstruction review and permitting program
applicable, under EPA rules, to large new stationary sources and, in
general, expansions of existing sources. The PSD program applies in
areas that are designated ``attainment'' or ``unclassifiable'' for a
NAAQS, and is contained in part C of title I of the CAA.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ In contrast, the ``nonattainment new source review (NSR)''
program applies in areas not in attainment of a NAAQS and in the
Ozone Transport Region and is implemented under the requirements of
part D of title I of the CAA. We commonly refer to the PSD program
and the nonattainment NSR program together as the major NSR program.
The EPA rules governing both programs are contained in 40 CFR
51.165, 51.166, 52.21, 52.24, and part 51, Appendices S and W. There
is no NAAQS for CO2 or any of the other well-mixed GHGs,
nor has EPA proposed any such NAAQS; therefore, unless and until we
take further such action, the nonattainment NSR program does not
apply to GHGs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 82437]]
The applicability of PSD to a particular source must be determined
in advance of construction or modification and is pollutant-specific.
Sources subject to PSD cannot construct or modify unless they first
obtain a PSD permit that, among other things, includes emission
limitations that qualify as BACT (discussed later). CAA sections
165(a)(1), 165(a)(4), 169(1).
Under the CAA, PSD applies to a stationary source that qualifies as
a ``major emitting facility,'' and that newly constructs or undertakes
a modification. A source is a ``major emitting facility'' if it emits
or has the potential to emit 100 or 250 tpy, depending on the source
category, of ``any air pollutant.'' CAA section 165(a)(1), 169(1). We
refer to these levels as the 100/250-tpy thresholds. EPA has
implemented these requirements in its regulations, which, as discussed
next, use somewhat different terminology for determining PSD
applicability and which have interpreted the term ``any air pollutant''
more narrowly so that only emissions of any pollutant subject to
regulation under the CAA trigger PSD.
Specifically, under EPA's regulations, PSD applies to a ``major
stationary source'' that newly constructs or that undertakes a ``major
modification.'' 40 CFR 52.166(a)(7), (b)(1)(i), (b)(2)(i). A ``major
stationary source'' is any source that emits or has the potential to
emit 100 or 250 tpy or more, depending on the source category, of any
``regulated NSR pollutant.'' 40 CFR 51.166(b)(1)(i)(a). The regulations
define that term to include four classes of air pollutants, including,
as a catch-all, ``any pollutant that otherwise is subject to regulation
under the Act.'' 40 CFR 51.166(b)(49)(iv). As discussed below, the
phrase ``subject to regulation'' will begin to include GHGs on January
2, 2011, under our interpretation of that phrase as described in the
Tailoring Rule, 75 FR at 31,580/3, and what we call the ``Johnson Memo
Reconsideration'' (or the ``Timing Decision'').\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ ``Interpretation of Regulations that Determine Pollutants
Covered by Clean Air Act Permitting Programs.'' 75 FR 17,004 (April
2, 2010). This action finalizes EPA's response to a petition for
reconsideration of ``EPA's Interpretation of Regulations that
Determine Pollutants Covered by Federal Prevention of Significant
Deterioration (PSD) Permit Program'' (commonly referred to as the
``Johnson Memo''), December 18, 2008.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
One principal PSD requirement is that a new major source or major
modification must meet emissions limitations based on application of
BACT, which must be determined on a case-by-case basis taking into
account energy, environmental, and economic impacts, among other
factors. To ensure that these criteria are satisfied, EPA has developed
and recommends that permitting authorities apply a ``top-down''
approach for BACT review, a decision process that includes
identification of all available control technologies, elimination of
technically infeasible options, ranking of remaining options by control
and effectiveness; evaluation (and possible elimination) of controls
based on economic, environmental or energy impacts; and then selection
of the remaining top-ranked option as BACT. When PSD applies to a
source because of its emissions of a particular pollutant, then BACT
(and other PSD requirements) apply for other pollutants that are
subject to regulation and that exceed specified levels.
3. SIP PSD Requirements
The CAA contemplates that the PSD program be implemented by the
states through their SIPs. CAA section 110(a)(2)(C) requires that:
Each implementation plan * * * shall * * * include a program to
provide for * * * regulation of the modification and construction of
any stationary source within the areas covered by the plan as
necessary to assure that national ambient air quality standards are
achieved, including a permit program as required in part [ ] C * * *
of this subchapter.
CAA section 110(a)(2)(J) requires that:
Each implementation plan * * * shall * * * meet the applicable
requirements of * * * part C of this subchapter (relating to
significant deterioration of air quality and visibility protection).
CAA section 161 provides that:
Each applicable implementation plan shall contain emission
limitations and such other measures as may be necessary, as
determined under regulations promulgated under this part [C], to
prevent significant deterioration of air quality for such region * *
* designated * * * as attainment or unclassifiable.
These provisions, read in conjunction with the PSD applicability
provisions, CAA section 165(a)(1), 169(1), mandate that SIPs include
PSD programs that are applicable to any air pollutant that is subject
to regulation under the CAA, including, as discussed later in this
preamble, GHGs as of January 2, 2011.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ In the Tailoring Rule, we noted that commenters argued,
with some variations, that the PSD provisions applied only to NAAQS
pollutants, and not GHGs, and we responded that the PSD provisions
apply to all pollutants subject to regulation, including GHGs. See
75 FR 31560-62; ``Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title
V GHG Tailoring Rule: EPA's Response to Public Comments,'' May 2010,
pp. 38-41. We are not reopening that issue in this rulemaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most states have EPA-approved SIP PSD programs, and as a result, in
those states, PSD permits are issued by state or local air pollution
control agencies. In states that do not have EPA-approved SIP PSD
programs, EPA issues PSD permits under its own authority, although in
some cases, EPA has delegated such authority to the state or local
agency.
B. Regulatory Background: Texas SIP and PSD Program
1. Texas's Initial Attainment SIP Revision
In 1972, shortly after the enactment of the 1970 CAA Amendments,
Texas submitted to EPA its SIP to attain and maintain the NAAQS that
EPA had promulgated by that time. As part of that SIP revision, Texas
provided assurances that it had legal authority to carry out the SIP,
in accordance with the predecessor to CAA section 110(a)(2)(E)(i). EPA
approved Texas's SIP, including the assurances of legal authority, by
notice dated May 31, 1972. 37 FR 10842.
2. Texas Initial PSD SIP Revision
In the 1977 CAA Amendments, Congress enacted the PSD program. In
the immediate aftermath, EPA acted as the PSD permitting authority in
the states, but EPA began to delegate to various state authorities all
or part of EPA's authority to issue PSD permits. In addition, at this
time, EPA revised its pre-existing regulations, which had established a
preconstruction permitting program, to conform to the 1977 CAA
requirements. Each state was required to adopt a PSD program and submit
it for approval as a SIP revision, and if the PSD program met CAA
requirements, EPA approved the program, and the state then became the
PSD permitting authority.
This process occurred for most of the states in the Nation,
including Texas. A brief history of Texas's initial PSD SIP approval
follows:\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ This history is described in ``Approval and Promulgation of
Implementation Plan, State of Texas; Prevention of Significant
Deterioration--Final rulemaking, 57 FR 28,093, 28,094 (June 24,
1992); ``Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plan, State of
Texas; Prevention of Significant Deterioration--Proposed rulemaking,
54 FR 52,823, 52,824 (December 22, 1989).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Texas's Receipt of Delegation Authority for the PSD Program
Beginning in 1980, when EPA was still the permitting authority for
federally required PSD permits in Texas, the state requested delegation
of certain
[[Page 82438]]
aspects of the Federal PSD program, and in a series of actions, EPA
granted that authority.\13\ During this time, Texas also revised its
state--i.e., Texas Air Control Board (TACB)--PSD regulations. EPA
commented on an early set of proposed revisions to TACB regulations by
letter dated December 23, 1980 and made clear that PSD applies to non-
NAAQS pollutants.\14\ EPA reiterated these statements to Texas in
1983.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ See, e.g., 48 FR 6023 (February 9, 1983).
\14\ Letter from Jack S. Divita, U.S EPA, Region 6, to Roger
Wallis, Texas Air Control Board (December 23, 1980), p. 2. In that
letter, EPA objected to Texas's proposed definitions of the terms
``major facility/stationary source'' and ``major modification'' on
grounds they are not equivalent to the definition of those terms in
EPA's PSD and nonattainment NSR regulations because Texas's proposed
definitions--include only those stationary sources and modifications
with emissions of air contaminants for which a [NAAQS] has been
issued. Under the PSD and [nonattainment] NSR requirements,
[Texas's] definitions must include sources with emissions of ``any
air pollutant subject to regulation under the Act.'' * * * Since the
proposed definitions would exclude PSD and [nonattainment] NSR
coverage for those sources emitting pollutants subject to
regulations under the Act, but for which a NAAQS has not been
issued, they are not equivalent to the federal definitions of
``major stationary source'' and ``major modification.''
Id. (emphasis omitted).
\15\ Environmental Protection Agency--Region 6, ``EPA Review of
Texas Revisions to the General Rules and Regulations VI,'' p. 4
(August 1983), cited in 48 FR 55483/1 & n.1 (December 13, 1983).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Texas's SIP PSD Program
During 1985-1988, Texas submitted a series of SIP revisions
comprising its PSD program to EPA for approval. In these SIP revisions,
Texas established key components of its PSD rules by incorporating by
reference EPA's PSD rules found in 40 CFR 52.21. Of most importance for
present purposes, Texas incorporated by reference (IBR'd) EPA's PSD
applicability regulations in 52.21.\16\ Under EPA's regulations, as
then written, PSD applied to ``any pollutant subject to regulation
under the [Clean Air] Act.'' 40 CFR 52.21(b)(1)(i)) (1985-1988). It
bears emphasis that this provision, by its terms, applied PSD to each
and every air pollutant subject to regulation under the CAA, which, as
discussed elsewhere, has been EPA's consistent interpretation of the
CAA requirements for PSD applicability. CAA section 165(a)(1),
169(1).\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\16\ For convenience, we will use the acronym ``IBR'' for the
various grammatical usages of incorporate by reference, including
the noun form, i.e., IBR, for incorporation by reference; as well as
the verb form, e.g., IBR'd, for incorporated by reference.
\17\ As also discussed elsewhere, this is a narrowing
interpretation of the PSD applicability requirements in CAA section
169(1), which, read literally, apply PSD to ``any air pollutant.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(i). Incorporation by Reference
In adopting a particular SIP revision that IBR'ed EPA's
regulations, however, Texas intended that IBR to apply to only the EPA
regulations as they read as of the date that Texas adopted the SIP
revision. Texas did not intend that IBR in that SIP revision to apply
to subsequent revisions to those regulations. This became readily
apparent during the course of EPA's review of Texas's SIP revisions.
The TACB adopted the first SIP revision on July 26, 1985.\18\ This SIP
revision consisted, in relevant part, of a revision to TACB Regulation
VI--Sec. 116.3.(a) to add subparagraph (13), which read, in relevant
part,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ TACB Board Order No. 85-7 (July 26, 1985).
(13) The proposed facility shall comply with the Prevention of
Significant Deterioration of Air Quality regulations promulgated by
the [EPA] in the Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR 52.21 as
amended * * *, hereby incorporated by reference, except for [certain
identified] paragraphs [not here relevant].\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ Id.
The TACB submitted this SIP revision to EPA on December 11,
1985.\20\ EPA responded with a letter to Texas, dated July 3, 1986,
commenting on several aspects of the SIP revision, including inquiring
whether the state had authority to IBR Federal rules prospectively,
asking for ``legal clarification'' on the subject, and recommending
that if the TACB did not have such authority, then the TACB should
clarify the IBR by ``referencing the appropriate date.'' \21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ Letter from Mark White, Governor of Texas, to Lee M.
Thomas, Administrator of U.S. EPA, December 11, 1985.
\21\ Letter from William B. Hathaway, Director, Air, Pesticides
and Toxics Division, EPA Region 6, to Allen Eli Bell, Executive
Director, TACB (July 3, 1986). Specifically, EPA stated-- State's
authority to IBR Federal rules prospectively--The Board approved and
signed the incorporation of the PSD regulations on July 26, 1985, An
amendment to the Federal PSD regulations [40 CFR 52.21(o)(3), p(1)
and p(3)] occurred on July 12, 1985. However, the TACB proposed to
adopt the Federal regulations and carried out the public
participation process before the July 12, 1985, promulgation date of
the amendments. We need a legal analysis from the state concerning
the TACB's legal authority to incorporate by reference the Federal
rules prospectively. We recognize that the proposed Federal rules
were unchanged on the final promulgation; however, the Texas Water
Commission believes that the State can not adopt prospective Federal
rules under the State laws. We would appreciate a legal
clarification on this subject. If the State did not intend
prospective adoption, the rules should be clarified by referencing
the appropriate date. Id. p. 2 and Enclosure p. 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas responded with a letter dated October 24, 1986,\22\ in which
it stated:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\22\ Letter from to Steve Spaw, Deputy Executive Director, TACB,
to William B. Hathaway, Director, Air, Pesticides and Toxics
Division, EPA Region 6 (October 24, 1986).
An issue of concern * * * is whether the [TACB] intended to
incorporate by reference federal rules prospectively in the PSD rule
Sec. 116.3(a)(13) and in the stack height rule Sec. 116.3(a)(14).
[A]lthough our intention was not prospective rulemaking and we do
not believe the rule language implies such, we have no specific
objection to including the date of federal adoption of any federal
material adopted by reference by the TACB in future SIP revisions
(including the proposed PSD and stack height revisions). By
initiating the public hearing process for PSD rules again (to
incorporate requested revisions), federal PSD regulations amended on
July 12, 1985 will be subject to the state public participation
process. This should eliminate the concern expressed in your July 3,
1986 letter.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\ Id. 1-2.
Accordingly, on July 17, 1987, the TACB adopted a revision to its PSD
rule, Sec. 116.3(a)(13), so that the rule continued to IBR EPA's PSD
regulatory requirements at 40 CFR 52.21, but referenced the date of
November 7, 1986.\24\ Texas submitted that as a SIP revision to EPA on
October 26, 1987.\25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\24\ TACB Board Order No. 87-09 (July 17, 1987). See 12 Tex.
Reg. 2575/2 (August 7, 1987) (discussing revision to section
116.3(a)(13) in response to request from U.S. EPA).
\25\ Letter from William P. Clements, Jr., Governor of Texas, to
Lee M. Thomas, Administrator of U.S. EPA (October 26, 1987).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, some eight months later, by notice published on July 1,
1987, EPA adopted the PM10 NAAQS,\26\ and thereby subjected
to PSD sources emitting PM10. Recognizing this, the TACB, on
July 15, 1988, adopted still another revision to its PSD rule to change
the referenced date to August 1, 1987, and thereby incorporated EPA's
application of PSD to PM10-emitting sources into Texas's PSD
program.\27\ Texas submitted that revised rule to EPA as a SIP revision
on September 29, 1988.\28\ As so revised, the Texas PSD rule (again,
Sec. 116.3(a)(13)) read, in relevant part, as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\26\ 52 FR 24634 (July 1, 1987).
\27\ TACB Board Order No. 88-08 (July 15, 1988).
\28\ Letter from Letter from William P. Clements, Jr., Governor
of Texas, to Lee M. Thomas, Administrator of U.S. EPA (September 29,
1988).
(13) The proposed facility shall comply with the Prevention of
Significant Deterioration (PSD) of Air Quality regulations
promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Code
of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR 52.21 as amended August 1, 1987 * *
*, except for [certain identified] paragraphs [not here
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
relevant].\29\
\29\ TACB Board Order No. 88-08 (July 15, 1988).
EPA proposed to approve this SIP revision, with this iteration of the
Texas PSD rule, by notice dated December 22,
[[Page 82439]]
1989,\30\ and EPA issued a final approval by notice dated June 24,
1992.\31\ In the preambles to the proposed and final rule, and in
supporting documents, EPA recounted part of this history of Texas
revising its regulations to IBR the current EPA regulatory
requirements.\32\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\30\ 54 FR 52823.
\31\ 57 FR 28093.
\32\ 57 FR 28093, 28094/2 (June 24, 1992) (final rule); 54 FR
52823, 52824/1 (December 22, 1989) (proposed rule); Technical
Support Document: Texas State Implementation Plan for Prevention of
Significant Deterioration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 4
(November 28, 1988). Moreover, Texas submitted another SIP revision
on February 18, 1991 to change the date in section 116.3(a)(13) from
``August 1, 1987'' to ``October 17, 1988'' to reflect the amendments
to 40 CFR 52.21 as promulgated in the Federal Register on October
17, 1988 (53 FR 40656) (Nitrogen Oxides PSD increments). EPA did not
act on this SIP revision when it approved the Texas PSD program on
June 24, 1992, but did approve this SIP revision later, on September
9, 1994 (59 FR 46556). See 62 FR 44084/2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This history shows that both EPA and Texas were well aware that
Texas's method of IBR'ing EPA's regulatory requirements into Texas's
PSD rule was not prospective, and that as a result, Texas would need to
take further action, such as a SIP revision, to update its PSD rules
whenever EPA newly subjected another pollutant to PSD. In fact, Texas
did so--to apply PSD to PM10--during the time that EPA was
reviewing its PSD SIP. However, after stating simply that it does not
intend prospective IBR, Texas did not explicitly address this issue.
That is, Texas did not acknowledge that following approval of Texas's
PSD program, EPA could well subject to regulation additional
pollutants--whether through a revised NAAQS or regulation under another
CAA provision--and Texas did not discuss how it would respond.\33\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\33\ Following EPA approval of Texas's PSD program, Texas has
occasionally submitted SIP revisions to update its PSD program to
accommodate further EPA regulatory revisions. See, e.g., 69 FR
43752, 43753 (July 22, 2004).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(ii). Legal Authority
The record of Texas's PSD program includes limited references to,
or discussion of, legal authority that may be relevant to whether Texas
provided assurances that it had adequate legal authority to apply PSD
to pollutants newly subject to regulation. The following merit review:
First, in adopting and submitting the PSD SIP revisions, the TACB--
the agency charged with taking that action--relied on its general legal
authority to adopt and submit the SIP revisions. The TACB adopted
regulatory amendments through ``Board Orders,'' and then submitted
those Board Orders to EPA as SIP revisions. The Board Orders typically
cited general authority under the Texas CAA. One example is TACB Board
Order No. 88-08 (July 15, 1988), which revised the Texas PSD rule to
provide a later date for IBR'ing EPA's PSD program, and which comprised
one of the SIP revisions that formed the basis for the Texas PSD
program that EPA approved by notice dated June 24, 1992 (57 FR 28093).
This Board Order provides, in relevant part, ``Section 3.09(a) of the
Texas CAA gives the Board authority to make rules and regulations
consistent with the general intent and purposes of the Act and to amend
any rule or regulation it makes'' and ``the Board hereby certifies that
the amendments as adopted have been reviewed by legal counsel and found
to be a valid exercise of the Board's legal authority.'' Board Order
No. 88-08, page 2.
Second, the 1990 CAA Amendments amended CAA section 169(1) to add
another type of source that was subject to PSD: Large municipal
combustors. Shortly after the 1990 amendments, and before issuing final
approval for the Texas PSD program, EPA asked Texas for assurances that
its PSD program would apply to large municipal waste combustors. In a
March 30, 1992 letter, EPA stated the following:
Since we proposed approval of this SIP before enactment of the
1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), it is necessary that we
address several issues in the final approval notice in order to be
in conformance with the CAAA.
* * * * *
``Municipal Waste Combustion--Section 169(1) is amended by
expanding the list of major emitting facilities that are subject to
PSD requirements if they emit or have the potential to emit 100 tons
per year or more of any regulated pollutant. This list now includes
municipal incinerators capable of charging more than fifty tons of
refuse per day. This requirement has been effective since November
15, 1990, for all applicable PSD sources. In the conference call
[with EPA Region 6], the * * * TACB * * * legal representative said
that the TACB has the existing legal authority, and can and will be
reviewing such sources for PSD applicability and permitting.'' \34\
\34\ Letter from A. Stanley Meiburg, Director, Air, Pesticides &
Toxics Division, EPA Region 6, to Steve Spaw, Executive Director,
TACB (March 30, 1992).
Thus, according to this letter, Texas provided oral statements in a
conference call with EPA Region 6 that Texas has legal authority to
apply its state PSD rules to large municipal waste combustors.
Texas responded in a letter dated April 17, 1992:
We understand that you need confirmation in several areas to
conform with the requirements of the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act
Amendment * * * before the final delegation will be made.
* * * * *
We will address as a major source subject to PSD review,
municipal waste combustors capable of changing more than 50 tons of
refuse per day as one of the sources subject to PSD review if they
emit or have the potential to emit 100 tons per year or more of any
regulated pollutant.\35\
\35\ Letter from Steve Spaw, Executive Director, TACB, to A.
Stanley Meiburg, Director, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Division, EPA
Region 6 (April 17, 1992).
Although the TACB Board Order referred to the TACB's general legal
authority, the record reveals no discussion or assurances that this
legal authority was adequate to apply PSD to pollutants newly subject
to regulation. Similarly, the oral assurance that the TACB apparently
provided that it had legal authority to apply PSD to large municipal
combustors, as required under the then-newly enacted 1990 CAA
Amendments, does not address whether Texas had adequate authority to
apply PSD to each pollutant that EPA newly subjects to regulation.
(iii). Texas's Commitments
The rulemaking record of EPA's approval of Texas's PSD SIP shows
that Texas provided two commitments that are relevant for present
purposes:
(I). 1987 Texas PSD Commitments Statement
The TACB adopted revisions to TACB Regulation VI on July 17, 1987,
which the Governor submitted on October 27, 1987. Those revisions
included the following statement, which we call the 1987 Texas PSD
Commitments Statement:
Revision To The Texas State Implementation Plan For Prevention
Of Significant Deterioration Of Air Quality
The Texas Air Control Board (TACB) will implement and enforce the
federal requirements for Prevention of Significant Deterioration of
Air Quality (PSD) as specified in 40 CFR 51.166(a) by requiring all
new major stationary sources and major modifications to obtain air
quality permits as provided in TACB regulation VI, Control of Air
Pollution by Permits for New Construction and Modification. In
addition, the TACB will adhere to the following conditions in the
implementation of the PSD program:
* * * * *
4. Plan assessment
The TACB will review the adequacy of the Texas PSD plan on an
annual basis and within 60 days of the time information becomes
available that an applicable increment may be violated. If the TACB
determines that an increment is being
[[Page 82440]]
exceeded due to the violation of a permit condition, appropriate
enforcement action will be taken to stop the violation. If an
increment is being exceeded due to a deficiency in the state PSD
plan, the plan will be revised and the revisions will be subject to
public hearing.
This 1987 Texas PSD Commitments Statement does not specifically
address the application of PSD to pollutants newly subject to
regulation. The first paragraph, as quoted above, commits TACB to
require ``all new major stationary sources and major modifications to
obtain air quality permits as provided in TACB regulation VI * * *,''
but this does not commit TACB to address pollutants newly subject to
regulation. Instead, this limits the TACB requirement to application of
PSD to sources ``as provided in TACB regulation VI,'' and that
regulation VI does not automatically update. As for ``4, Plan
assessment,'' although the first sentence calls for the TACB to review
the adequacy of the Texas PSD plan on an annual basis, and although the
rest of the provision requires a plan revision if an increment
violation is determined to result from a deficiency in the plan, this
does not address what happens when a new pollutant becomes subject to
regulation and does not require a plan revision to apply to the new
pollutant. The fact that Texas agreed to revise the plan if the plan is
found to be deficient and that deficiency results in an increment being
exceeded serves to highlight the lack of any comparable focus on how
the plan would deal with pollutants newly subject to regulation.
EPA's technical support document supporting its proposed approval
stated, with respect to this 1987 Texas PSD Commitments Statement:
The ``Revision to Texas State Implementation Plan for Prevention
of Significant Deterioration of Air Quality'' specifies how the TACB
will fulfill the requirements of 40 CFR 51.166(a), plan revisions,
and plan assessment. The EPA has reviewed the State's commitment and
has determined that the TACB has addressed the continuous plan
revisions and assessments adequately.\36\
\36\ Technical Support Document: Texas State Implementation Plan
for Prevention of Significant Deterioration, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 6 (November 28, 1988).
This general discussion by EPA does not indicate that EPA considered
the Texas statement to apply to pollutants newly subject to regulation.
(II). 1989 Texas Commitment Letter
In 1989, as EPA considered Texas's SIP revision submittal, EPA
became concerned that a Texas official had made statements that lead
EPA to question whether Texas would adhere to EPA's interpretation that
BACT must be implemented through the Top-Down process.\37\ Accordingly,
EPA advised Texas that EPA would not approve Texas's PSD program unless
Texas provided a letter assuring EPA that Texas would follow EPA
requirements in general, and particularly with respect to the
interpretation of BACT. Texas provided this letter, which we call the
Texas PSD Commitments Letter, on September 5, 1989.\38\ In this letter,
Texas acknowledged EPA's concern that a Texas official had--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\37\ Letter from Allen Eli Bell, Executive Director, Texas Air
Control Board to Robert Layton Jr., Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA
(September 5, 1989) 1 (Texas's Commitments Letter).
\38\ Texas's 1989 Commitments Letter, p. 1.
indicated a lack of intent to follow federal interpretations of
the Clean Air Act and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
operating policies, most specifically, the ``Top-Down'' approach for
Best Available Control Technology (BACT) analysis in reviewing PSD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
permit applications.
Texas went on to state:
[Y]ou may be assured that the position of the [Texas Air Control
Board (TACB)] is, and will continue to be, to implement EPA
requirements relative to programs for which we have received State
Implementation Plan approval, and to do so as effectively as
possible.* * * Again, the TACB is committed to the implementation of
EPA decisions regarding PSD program requirements. We look forward
\39\ approval of the PSD revisions and believe EPA will find the
management of that program in Texas to be capable and effective.\40\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\39\ Sic: the word ``to'' should be in between ``forward'' and
``approval''
\40\ Texas's 1989 Commitments Letter, p. 1.
By notice dated December 22, 1989, EPA proposed to fully approve
Texas's PSD program.\41\ In this proposal, EPA focused on the issue of
how EPA's current and future interpretations of PSD statutory
requirements would be reflected in the state-implemented program. EPA
stated:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\41\ 54 FR 52823.
In adopting the Clean Air Act, Congress designated EPA as the
agency primarily responsible for interpreting the statutory
provisions and overseeing their implementation by the states. The
EPA must approve state programs that meet the requirements of 40 CFR
51.166. Conversely, EPA cannot approve programs that do not meet
those requirements. However, PSD is by nature a very complex and
dynamic program. It would be administratively impracticable to
include all statutory interpretations in the EPA regulations and the
SIPs of the various states, or to amend the regulations and SIPs
every time EPA interprets the statute or regulations or issues
guidance regarding the proper implementation of the PSD program, and
the Act does not require EPA to do so. Rather, action by the EPA to
approve this PSD program as part of the SIP will have the effect of
requiring the state to follow EPA's current and future
interpretations of the Act's PSD provisions and EPA regulations, as
well as EPA's operating policies and guidance (but only to the
extent that such policies are intended to guide the implementation
of approved state PSD programs). Similarly, EPA approval also will
have the effect of negating any interpretations or policies that the
state might otherwise follow to the extent they are at variance with
EPA's interpretation and applicable policies. Of course, any
fundamental changes in the administration of PSD would have to be
accomplished through amendments to the regulations in 40 CFR 52.21
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 51.166, and subsequent SIP revisions.
54 FR 52,824/2-3.
EPA went on to state that it was basing its proposed approval of
Texas's PSD program on Texas's agreement, as contained in the September
5, 1989, letter, that Texas would ``implement that PSD SIP approved
program in compliance with all of the EPA's statutory interpretations
and operating policies.'' 54 FR 82,825/2. EPA stated--
* * * EPA's approval of the Texas PSD SIP requires the state to
follow EPA's statutory interpretations and applicable policies[],
including those concerning [BACT].* * *
In support of the discussion above, the Executive Director of
the TACB has submitted a letter, dated September 5, 1989, which
commits the TACB to implement the PSD SIP approval program in
compliance with all of the EPA's statutory interpretations and
operating policies. Specifically, the TACB's letter states that (1)
``* * * you may be assured that the position of the agency is, and
will continue to be, to implement EPA requirements relative to
programs for which we have received [SIP] approval, and to do as
effectively as possible * * *'', and (2) ``* * * the TACB is
committed to the implementation of the EPA decisions regarding PSD
program requirements * * *''. The EPA has evaluated the content of
this letter and has determined that the letter sufficiently commits
the TACB to carry out the PSD program in accordance with the Federal
requirements as set forth in the [CAA] applicable regulations, and
as further clarified in the EPA's statutory and regulatory
interpretations, including the proper conduct of BACT analyses. The
EPA also interprets this letter as committing the TACB to follow
applicable EPA policies such as the ``Top-Down'' approach. This
letter will be incorporated into the SIP upon the final approval
action.
54 FR 52,825/1-2.
EPA issued a final rule to give full approval to the program by
notice dated June 24, 1992, 57 FR 28,093. In the final rule, EPA
indicated that it had received adverse comments concerning its
statements in the proposal that Texas was required to adopt all of
EPA's
[[Page 82441]]
interpretations of the PSD requirements. Accordingly, EPA refined its
views. EPA stated:
Comment 1: The commenters expressed concern with the preamble
language in the proposal notice, suggesting that final approval
would require that the State follow EPA's current and future
interpretations of the Act's PSD provisions and EPA regulations as
well as EPA's operating policies and guidance. The commenter
contended that such a condition would be unlawful * * * and would
improperly limit the State's flexibility. * * *
Response 1: The EPA did not intend to suggest that Texas is
required to follow EPA's interpretations and guidance issued under
the Act in the sense that those pronouncements have independent
status as enforceable provisions of the Texas PSD SIP, such that
mere failure to follow such pronouncements, standing alone, would
constitute a violation of the Act. As clarified herein, EPA's intent
is merely to place the State and the public on notice of EPA's
longstanding views that the Agency must continue to oversee the
State's implementation of the PSD SIP.* * *
* * * Texas and other states [have] considerable discretion to
implement the PSD program as they see fit.
* * * PSD-SIP approved states remain free to follow their own
course, provided that state action is consistent with the letter and
spirit of the SIP, when read in conjunction with the applicable
statutory and regulatory provisions.
* * * * *
Comment 4: One commenter noted that the TACB's letter, dated
September 5, 1989, cannot reasonably be interpreted as a legal
requirement that the State follow the EPA's present and future new
source review interpretations, policies and guidance, including the
BACT ``Top-Down'' approach, because it only commits Texas to
implement properly established EPA requirements and legally-binding
EPA decisions. The commenter said that the Clean Air Act
specifically requires that, if at all, any such change in EPA policy
for BACT determinations be accomplished through notice and comment
rulemaking, and that the EPA first prepare an economic impact
assessment.
Response 4: In certain circumstances, EPA's approval of a SIP
revision through notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures can serve
to adopt specific interpretations or decisions of the Agency. For
example, a state may commit in writing to follow particular EPA
interpretations or decisions in administering the PSD program. As
part of the SIP revision process, EPA may incorporate that State's
commitment into the SIP by reference. This process has been followed
in today's action. Of course, EPA agrees with the commenter that the
Agency must act reasonably in construing the terms of a commitment
letter, so as to avoid approving it in a manner that would
contravene the state's intent in issuing the letter in the first
place. Moreover, the State commitment must be consistent with the
plain language of the applicable statutory or regulatory provisions
at issue. Similarly, EPA cannot unilaterally change the clear
meaning of any approved SIP provision by later guidance or policy.
Rather, as stated in the proposed approval notice, such fundamental
change must be accomplished through the SIP revision process.
Consistent with the terms of the TACB letter dated September 5,
1989, EPA views that letter as a commitment on the part of the TACB
to ``implement EPA program requirements * * * as effectively as
possible,'' and as a commitment ``to the implementation of the EPA
decisions regarding PSD program requirements.'' EPA agrees, however,
that the TACB letter need not be interpreted as a specific
commitment by the State to follow a ``Top-Down'' approach to BACT
determinations.
57 FR 28095/1-2; 28096/1.
As for the fact that Texas's PSD program was limited to pollutants
that were regulated as of the date Texas adopted the program as a SIP
revision, but did not automatically apply to newly regulated
pollutants, the preamble to the final rule alluded to this limitation:
The State's regulation VI requires review and control of air
pollution from new facility construction and modification and allows
the TACB to issue permits for stationary sources subject to this
regulation. Section 116.3(a)(13) of the TACB Regulation VI
incorporates by reference the Federal PSD regulations (40 CFR 52.21)
as they existed on August 1, 1987, which include revisions
associated with the July 1, 1987, promulgation of revised National
Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (52 FR 24872)
and the visibility NSR requirements noted above.
57 FR 28094.
However, there is no indication in the preamble for the final rule
that (i) Texas specifically addressed the requirement that its PSD
program apply to pollutants newly subject to PSD, including non-NAAQS
pollutants, or (ii) Texas provided assurances that it had adequate
authority under State law to carry out the PSD program, including
applying PSD to pollutants newly subject to regulation, among them non-
NAAQS pollutants. Nor is there any indication that EPA asked Texas to
do so.\42\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\42\ See ``Technical Support Document (TSD): State of Texas
State Implementation Plan for Prevention of Significant
Deterioration'' (November 28, 1988).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As discussed later, in 1996 EPA proposed, and in 2002 finalized,
what we call the NSR Reform Rule,\43\ which included a set of
amendments to the PSD provisions that included revisions to conform to
the 1990 CAA Amendments. See 61 FR 38250 (July 23, 1996), 67 FR 80186
(December 31, 2002). The NSR Reform Rule revised the terminology for
PSD applicability. In 2006, Texas submitted a SIP revision to
incorporate the NSR Reform Rule into its PSD program, including
revising its applicability provisions. EPA disapproved this SIP
revision by notice dated September 15, 2010.\44\ Accordingly, the
applicable Texas PSD applicability provisions remain the ones in the
state's currently approved SIP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\43\ ``Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and
Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR): Baseline Emissions
Determination, Actual-to-Future-Actual Methodology, Plantwide
Applicability Limitations, Clean Units, Pollution Control Projects--
Final Rule,'' 67 FR 80186 (December 31, 2002) (NSR Reform rule).
\44\ 75 FR 56,424 (September 15, 2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Regulatory Background: GHG Rules
1. GHGs and Their Sources
Greenhouse gases trap the Earth's heat that would otherwise escape
from the atmosphere into space, and form the greenhouse effect that
helps keep the Earth warm enough for life. Greenhouse gases are
naturally present in the atmosphere and are also emitted by human
activities. Human activities are intensifying the naturally occurring
greenhouse effect by increasing the amount of GHGs in the atmosphere,
which is changing the climate in a way that endangers human health,
society, and the natural environment.
Some GHGs, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), are emitted to
the atmosphere through natural processes as well as human activities.
Other gases, such as fluorinated gases, are created and emitted solely
through human activities. As previously noted, the well-mixed GHGs of
concern directly emitted by human activities include CO2,
methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur
hexafluoride (SF6). These six GHGs, for the purposes of this
final rule, are referred to collectively as ``the six well-mixed
GHGs,'' or, simply, GHGs, and together constitute the ``air pollutant''
upon which the GHG thresholds in the Tailoring Rule are based. These
six gases remain in the atmosphere for decades to centuries where they
become well-mixed globally in the atmosphere. When they are emitted
more quickly than natural processes can remove them from the
atmosphere, their concentrations increase, thus increasing the
greenhouse effect. The heating effect caused by the human-induced
buildup of GHGs in the atmosphere is very likely the cause of most of
the observed global warming over the last 50 years. A detailed
explanation of greenhouse gases, climate change and its impact on
health, society, and the environment is
[[Page 82442]]
included in EPA's technical support document (TSD) for the endangerment
finding final rule (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0472-11292).
In the United States, the combustion of fossil fuels (e.g., coal,
oil, gas) is the largest source of CO2 emissions and
accounts for 80 percent of the total GHG emissions. Anthropogenic
CO2 emissions released from a variety of sources, including
fossil fuel combustion and industrial manufacturing processes that rely
on geologically stored carbon (e.g., coal, oil, and natural gas) that
is hundreds of millions of years old, as well as anthropogenic
CO2 emissions from land-use changes such as deforestation,
all perturb the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and cause
readjustments in the distribution of carbon within different
reservoirs. More than half of the energy-related emissions come from
large stationary sources such as power plants, while about a third
comes from transportation. Of the six well-mixed GHGs, four
(CO2, CH4, N2O, and HFCs) are emitted
by motor vehicles. In the United States industrial processes (such as
the production of cement, steel, and aluminum), agriculture, forestry,
other land use, and waste management are also important sources of
GHGs.
Different GHGs have different heat-trapping capacities. The concept
of Global Warning Potential was developed to compare the heat-trapping
capacity and atmospheric lifetime of one GHG to another. The definition
of a GWP for a particular GHG is the ratio of heat trapped by one unit
mass of the GHG to that of one unit mass of CO2 over a
specified time period. When quantities of the different GHGs are
multiplied by their GWPs, the different GHGs can be summed and compared
on a CO2e basis. For example, CH4 has a GWP of
21, meaning each ton of CH4 emissions would have 21 times as
much impact on global warming over a 100-year time horizon as 1 ton of
CO2 emissions. Thus, on the basis of heat-trapping
capability, 1 ton of CH4 would equal 21 tons of
CO2e. The GWPs of the non-CO2 GHGs range from 21
(for CH4) up to 23,900 (for SF6). Aggregating all
GHGs on a CO2e basis at the source level allows a facility
to evaluate its total GHG emissions contribution based on a single
metric.
2. GHG Regulatory Actions
Over the past year, EPA has completed four distinct actions related
to greenhouse gases under the CAA. The result of these rules, in
conjunction with the operation of the CAA, has been to trigger PSD
applicability for GHG sources on and after January 2, 2011, but to
limit the scope of PSD for those sources. These actions include, as
they are commonly called, the ``Endangerment Finding'' and ``Cause or
Contribute Finding,'' which we issued in a single final action; \45\
the Johnson Memo Reconsideration, noted previously; the ``Light-Duty
Vehicle Rule'' (LDVR or Vehicle Rule); \46\ and the ``Tailoring Rule,''
also noted previously.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\45\ ``Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for
Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.'' 74 FR
66,496 (December 15, 2009).
\46\ ``Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards and
Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards; Final Rule.'' 75 FR 25,324
(May 7, 2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Endangerment Finding, Vehicle Rule, Johnson Memo Reconsideration
In the Endangerment Finding, which is governed by CAA section
202(a), the Administrator exercised her judgment, based on an
exhaustive review and analysis of the science, to conclude that ``six
greenhouse gases taken in combination endanger both the public health
and the public welfare of current and future generations.'' 74 FR at
66,496. The Administrator also found ``that the combined emissions of
these greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle
engines contribute to the greenhouse gas air pollution that endangers
public health and welfare under CAA section 202(a).'' Id.
The Endangerment Finding led directly to promulgation of the
Vehicle Rule, also governed by CAA Sec. 202(a), in which EPA set
standards for the emission of greenhouse gases for new motor vehicles
built for model years 2012-2016. 75 FR 25,324. The Vehicle Rule
established the first controls for GHGs under the CAA.
The Johnson Memo Reconsideration--as well as the Tailoring Rule,
which we discuss later--is governed by the PSD and Title V provisions
in the CAA. It was issued to address the automatic statutory triggering
of the PSD and Title V programs for GHGs due to the Vehicle Rule
establishing controls for GHGs. The Johnson Memo Reconsideration
provided EPA's interpretation of a pre-existing definition in its PSD
regulations delineating the ``pollutants'' that are taken into account
in determining whether a source must obtain a PSD permit and the
pollutants each permit must control. The Johnson Memo Reconsideration
stated that when the Vehicle Rule takes effect on January 2, 2011, it
will, in conjunction with the applicable CAA requirements, trigger the
application of PSD to GHG-emitting sources. 75 FR 17,004.
b. Tailoring Rule
In the Tailoring Rule, EPA limited PSD applicability, at the
outset, to only the largest GHG-emitting sources, and to phase-in PSD
applicability, as appropriate, to smaller sources over time. 75 FR
31,514. In the Tailoring Rule, EPA identified the air pollutant that,
if emitted or potentially emitted by the source in excess of specified
thresholds, would subject the source to PSD requirements, as the
aggregate of six GHGs: CO2, CH4, N2O,
HFCs, PFCs, and SF6. EPA based this identification on the
Vehicle Rule, which included applicability provisions specifying that
the rule ``contains standards and other regulations applicable to the
emissions of those six greenhouse gases.'' 75 FR at 25686 (promulgating
40 CFR 86.1818-12(a)). The Tailoring Rule noted that it was because the
Vehicle Rule subjected to regulation the pollutant that comprises the
six GHGs, that PSD was triggered for that pollutant and that, as a
result, the pollutant must be defined for PSD purposes in the same way
as it is identified in the Vehicle Rule. 75 FR 31,527. The Vehicle Rule
identified the pollutant as the aggregate of the six gases because in
the Endangerment Finding, the Administrator found that those six
gases--which she described as long-lived and directly emitted GHGs--
may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare.
c. Scope of PSD Applicability
In the Tailoring Rule and subsequent rulemakings, commenters raised
an issue concerning the applicability of PSD to non-NAAQS pollutants. A
discussion of this issue is useful background information for the
present action, including what we call the automatic-updating nature of
PSD requirements under the CAA, that is, that as soon as a pollutant
becomes subject to regulation under another CAA provision, it becomes
subject to PSD.
i. Applicability of PSD to Non-NAAQS Pollutants
In the Tailoring Rule, EPA responded to a set of comments that PSD
applies only to NAAQS pollutants, and not non-NAAQS pollutants such as
GHGs. In brief, several commenters advanced the argument that primarily
because the PSD provisions in CAA sections 161 and 165(a) limit PSD
applicability to sources located in attainment or unclassifiable areas,
PSD applicability should be limited to the NAAQS pollutants for which
the area in which the source is located is attainment or
unclassifiable. On the basis of this interpretation, the commenters
urged
[[Page 82443]]
EPA to conclude that PSD does not apply to GHGs. 75 FR 31,560/2-3.
EPA disagreed with these comments and reiterated its long-held view
that PSD applies to ``any pollutant subject to regulation under the
CAA,'' and that includes non-NAAQS pollutants. 75 FR 31,560/3. EPA
explained--
We recognize, as we have said elsewhere, that a major purpose of
the PSD provisions is to regulate emissions of NAAQS pollutants in
an area that is designated attainment or unclassifiable for those
pollutants. However, we do not read CAA sections 161 and the ``in
any area to which this part applies'' clause in 165(a), in the
context of the PSD applicability provisions, as limiting PSD
applicability to those pollutants. The key PSD applicability
provisions are found in sections 165(a) and 169(1). Section 165(a)
states, ``No major emitting facility on which construction is
commenced after August 7, 1977, may be constructed in any area to
which this part applies unless [certain requirements are met]. A
``major emitting facility'' is defined, under CAA section 169(1), as
``any * * * stationary source[] which emit[s], or ha[s] the
potential to emit, one hundred [or, depending on the source
category, two hundred fifty] tons per year or more of any air
pollutant.'' As discussed elsewhere, EPA has long interpreted the
term ``any air pollutant'' to refer to ``any air pollutant subject
to regulation under the CAA,'' and for present purposes, will
continue to read the ``subject to regulation'' phrase into that
term.
Although section 165(a) makes clear that the PSD requirements
apply only to sources located in areas designated attainment or
unclassifiable, it does not, by its terms, state that the PSD
requirements apply only to pollutants for which the area is
designated attainment or unclassifiable. Rather, section 165(a)
explicitly states that the PSD requirements apply more broadly to
any pollutant that is subject to regulation.
Id.
EPA went on to discuss the statements by the D.C. Circuit
concerning the PSD applicability provisions--which, again, according to
their literal terms, apply PSD to ``any air pollutant,'' CAA section
165(a)(1), 169(1)--in the seminal case interpreting the PSD
requirements: Alabama Power v. Costle, 636 F.2d 323 (DC Cir. 1980).
There, the DC Circuit noted that these PSD applicability provisions
must be read to apply PSD quite broadly; indeed, the Court indicated
they could apply even to air pollutants not yet regulated under other
provisions of the Act. 636 F.2d at 352-53 & n. 60.\47\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\47\ ``Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V GHG
Tailoring Rule: EPA's Response to Public Comments,'' p. 39.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPA also emphasized that EPA's long-standing regulations have
interpreted this provision broadly enough to capture non-NAAQS
pollutants:
In addition, it should not be overlooked that we have applied
PSD to non-NAAQS pollutants since the inception of the program over
30 years ago. For example, prior to the 1990 CAA Amendments, PSD
applied to HAPs regulated under CAA section 112; and over the years,
EPA has established significance levels for fluorides, sulfuric acid
mist, hydrogen sulfide, TRS, reduced sulfur compounds, municipal
waste combustor organics, municipal waste combustor metals,
municipal waste combustor acid gases, and municipal solid waste
landfill emissions, see 40 CFR 51.166(b)(23)(i) * * *. Of course,
the basis for all these actions is PSD's applicability to these non-
NAAQS air pollutants. We are not aware that EPA's actions in
establishing significance levels for these pollutants gave rise to
challenges on grounds that the PSD provisions do not apply to them.
As the U.S. Supreme Court recently stated in upholding an EPA
approach in another context: ``While not conclusive, it surely tends
to show that the EPA's current practice is a reasonable and hence
legitimate exercise of its discretion * * * that the agency has been
proceeding in essentially this fashion for over 30 years.'' Entergy
Corp. v. Riverkeeper, Inc., 129 S.Ct. 1498, 1509 (2009) (citations
omitted).
75 FR 31,581/3 to 31,582/1
To this, it may be added that the regulatory history of the PSD
applicability provisions supports their broad application: EPA's
initial, 1977-78 rulemaking implementing the PSD program made explicit
that the PSD program applied to ``any pollutant regulated under the
Clean Air Act.'' 43 FR 26380, 26403, 26406 (June 19, 1978)
(promulgating 40 CFR 51.21(b)(1)(i)). In 1979-1980, EPA revised the PSD
program to conform to Alabama Power v. Costle, 636 F.2d 323 (DC Cir.
1980). 44 FR 51924 (September 5, 1979) (proposed rule); 45 FR 52676
(August 7, 1980) (final rule). In this rulemaking, EPA did not disturb
the pre-existing provisions that applied the PSD program to regulated
air pollutants. In October 1990, EPA prepared the ``New Source Review
Workshop Manual--Prevention of Significant Deterioration and
Nonattainment Area Permitting'' (draft NSR Manual), which although in
draft form, and not a binding rule, has often been referenced as a
reflection of EPA's thinking on PSD permitting issues. See, Alaska
Dept. of Conservation v. EPA, 540 U.S. 461, 476 n. 7 (2004); In re:
Indeck-Elwood, LLC, 13 E.A.D. 133 n. 13 (EAB Sept. 27, 2006); In re:
Prairie State Generating Company, 13 E.A.D. 6 n. 2 (EAB Aug 24, 2006).
This manual states that PSD applies to ``each pollutant regulated by
the Act,'' including ``criteria and * * * noncriteria'' pollutants.
Draft NSR Manual, pp. A.18. See id. at A.28, A.30. In 1996 EPA
proposed, and in 2002 finalized what we call the NSR Reform Rule,\48\
which included a set of amendments to the PSD provisions that included
revisions to conform to the 1990 CAA Amendments. See 61 FR 38250 (July
23, 1996), 67 FR 80186 (December 31, 2002). In the preamble to the
final rule, EPA noted that based on a request from a commenter, EPA was
amending the regulations to ``clarify which pollutants are covered
under the PSD program.'' EPA accomplished this by promulgating a
definition for ``regulated NSR pollutant,'' and by substituting that
defined term for the phrase ``pollutant regulated under the Act'' that
was previously used in various parts of the PSD regulations. 67 FR
80240. The definition of ``regulated NSR pollutant'' includes several
categories of pollutants, including, in general, NAAQS pollutants and
precursors, pollutants regulated under CAA section 111 NSPS, Class I or
II substances regulated under CAA title VI, and a catch-all category,
``[a]ny pollutant that otherwise is subject to regulation under the
Act.'' E.g., 40 CFR 52.21(b)(50). The explicit inclusion of Class I or
II substances regulated under CAA title VI confirms that PSD applies to
non-NAAQS pollutants. 75 FR 31,561/3 to 31,562/1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\48\ ``Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and
Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR): Baseline Emissions
Determination, Actual-to-Future-Actual Methodology, Plantwide
Applicability Limitations, Clean Units, Pollution Control Projects--
Final Rule,'' 67 FR 80186 (December 31, 2002) (NSR Reform rule).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Tailoring Rule, EPA went on to discuss other PSD and CAA
provisions, including their legislative history and interpretation in
the case law, that all support applying PSD to any pollutant this is
subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants. Id. 31,560/2 to
31,562/2.\49\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\49\ EPA gave additional reasons why it does not agree that PSD
applies only to NAAQS pollutants in the record for the Tailoring
Rule, ``Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V GHG
Tailoring Rule: EPA's Response to Public Comments,'' May 2010,
pp.38-41; and in EPA's court filings in defense of challenges to the
Tailoring Rule. ``EPA's Response To Motions To Stay'' 47-59
Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and
consolidated cases) (DC Cir. 2010), Coalition for Responsible
Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1073 (and consolidated cases) (DC Cir.
2010), Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1092 (and
consolidated cases) (DC Cir. 2010), Coalition for Responsible
Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1131 (and consolidated cases) (DC Cir.
2010) (hereafter, Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No.
09-1322 (and consolidated cases)).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ii. Automatic Application of PSD to Newly Regulated Pollutants
Under the PSD applicability requirements, PSD applies to sources
automatically, that is, by operation of law, as soon as their emissions
of pollutants become subject to regulation
[[Page 82444]]
under the CAA. This is because CAA section 165(a)(1) prohibits ``major
emitting facilit[ies]'' from constructing or modifying without
obtaining a permit that meets the PSD requirements, and CAA section
169(1) defines a ``major emitting facility'' as a source that emits a
specified quantity of ``any air pollutant,'' which, as noted earlier,
EPA has long interpreted as any pollutant subject to regulation.
Whenever EPA promulgates control requirements for a pollutant for the
first time, that pollutant becomes subject to regulation, and any
stationary source that emits that pollutant in sufficient quantities
becomes a ``major emitting facility'' that, when it constructs or
modifies, becomes subject to PSD without any further action from EPA or
a state or local government.
EPA regulations have long codified automatic PSD applicability. See
43 FR 26380, 26403/3, 26406 (June 19, 1978) (promulgating 40 CFR
51.21(b)(1)(i)) and 42 FR 57479, 57480, 57483 (November 3, 1977)
(proposing 40 CFR 51.21(b)(1)(i)) (applying PSD requirements to a
``major stationary source'' and defining that term to include sources
that emit specified quantities of ``any air pollutant regulated under
the Clean Air Act''). Most recently, in the 2002 NSR Reform Rule, noted
previously, EPA reiterated these requirements, although changing the
terminology to ``any regulated NSR pollutant.'' 67 FR 80,186. EPA
stated in the preamble: ``The PSD program applies automatically to
newly regulated NSR pollutants, which would include final promulgation
of an NSPS applicable to a previously unregulated pollutant.'' 67 FR at
80240/1.
In most states with approved PSD programs, PSD does apply
automatically. However, in a minority of states with approved PSD
programs, it does not.\50\ Instead, each time EPA subjects a previously
unregulated air pollutant to regulation, these states must submit a SIP
revision incorporating that pollutant into its program. Despite the
time needed for the state to submit a SIP revision and EPA to approve
it, the pollutant-emitting sources in the state become subject to PSD
under the CAA as soon as EPA first subjects that pollutant to control.
Because under CAA section 165(a)(1) and 169(1), as interpreted by EPA,
a source that emits specified quantities of any air pollutant subject
to regulation cannot construct or modify unless it first receives a PSD
permit, as a practical matter, in a state with an approved PSD program
that does not automatically update and that has not been revised to
include the newly regulated pollutant, the sources may find themselves
subject to the CAA requirement to obtain a permit, but without a
permitting authority to issue that permit. As discussed later, this
action is needed because GHG-emitting sources in Texas would otherwise
confront that situation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\50\ 75 FR at 53,897/3 (proposed GHG PSD SIP call).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a recent decision, the 7th Circuit, mistakenly citing to PSD
provisions when the issue before the court involved the separate and
different non-attainment provisions of CAA sections 171-193, concluded
that sources could continue to abide by permitting requirements in an
existing SIP until amended, even if that SIP does not comport with the
law. United States v. Cinergy Corp., No. 09-3344, 2010 WL 4009180 (7th
Cir. Oct. 12, 2010). In stark contrast to the nonattainment provisions
actually at issue in Cinergy--which are not self-executing and must
therefore be implemented through a SIP-PSD is self-executing; it is the
statute (CAA section 165), not just the SIP, that prohibits a source
from constructing a project without a permit issued in accordance with
the Act.
3. Implementation of GHG PSD Requirements
Because PSD is implemented through the SIP system, EPA has taken a
series of actions to address the obligations of states (including
localities and other jurisdictions, as appropriate) to implement PSD
requirements for GHG-emitting sources. EPA has taken these actions
through the Tailoring Rule and a series of subsequent actions.\51\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\51\ A detailed description of EPA's implementation efforts, and
the status of state compliance with those efforts, is included in
Declaration of Regina McCarthy, Coalition for Responsible Regulation
v. EPA, DC Cir. No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases) (McCarthy
Declaration), including Attachment 1 (Tables 1, 2, and 3), which can
be found in the docket for this rulemaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Tailoring Rule
EPA proposed the Tailoring Rule by notice dated October 27, 2009,
74 FR 55292. In that action, EPA proposed to phase in PSD
applicability, for GHGs, starting with a threshold of 25,000 tpy on a
CO2e basis. This threshold was above the statutory
thresholds of 100 or 250 tpy on a mass basis, depending on the source
category, for new construction).\52\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\52\ Even so, EPA recognized that many SIPs with approved PSD
programs would continue to require PSD permitting of GHG-emitting
sources at the statutory thresholds because these SIPs would remain
in place even after EPA finalized the Tailoring Rule. Until the
states revised those SIPs, sources in those states would remain
subject to those thresholds as a matter of both state and federal
law. This would result in the same problems of overwhelming
administrative burdens and costs that EPA designed the Tailoring
Rule to address. To solve these problems, EPA encouraged each
affected state to submit a SIP revision that EPA would approve to
raise the thresholds to conform to the Tailoring Rule. EPA
recognized that it would take time for the states to develop and
submit for approval such SIP revisions, and for EPA to approve them.
Accordingly, as an interim measure, EPA proposed, as part of the
proposed Tailoring Rule, to narrow its approval of the existing EPA-
approved SIPs so that those SIPs would remain approved only to the
extent they regulate GHG emissions at or above the Tailoring Rule
thresholds. Specifically, EPA proposed to rescind its approval of
the SIP permitting threshold provisions to the extent they required
PSD permits for sources whose GHG emissions fall below the proposed
Tailoring Rule thresholds. 74 FR at 55,340/3 to 55,343/3 (proposed
Tailoring Rule).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPA finalized the Tailoring Rule by notice dated June 3, 2010. 75
FR 31514. Comments on the proposed rule had persuaded EPA that the
proposed GHG-applicability threshold was too low to avoid undue
administrative burdens. Accordingly, in the final Tailoring Rule, EPA
raised those threshold levels to, depending on the circumstances,
75,000 and/or 100,000 tpy on a CO2e basis, while retaining
the approach of a phase-in. EPA established the initial levels in the
first two steps of the phase-in schedule, committed the agency to take
future steps addressing smaller sources, and excluded the smallest
sources from PSD permitting for GHG emissions until at least April 30,
2016.
In addition, in the Final Tailoring Rule, EPA incorporated the PSD
thresholds for GHGs in the definition of the term ``subject to
regulation.'' As noted previously, under EPA's PSD regulations, PSD
applies to a ``major stationary source;'' a ``major stationary source''
is defined as a source that emits 100/250 tpy on a mass basis of a
``regulated NSR pollutant;'' and a ``regulated NSR pollutant,'' in
turn, is defined as, among other things, a pollutant that is ``subject
to regulation'' under the CAA.\53\ In the Tailoring Rule, EPA added a
limitation to the term ``subject to regulation'' so that the only GHG
emissions that would be treated as ``subject to regulation'' (and
therefore subject to PSD) are those emitted at or above specified
thresholds of, depending on the circumstances, 75,000 and/or 100,000
tpy on a CO2e basis.\54\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\53\ 40 CFR 51.166(a)(7)(i), (b)(1)(i)(a), (b)(49).
\54\ Specifically, under the revised definition of ``subject to
regulation,'' sources that emit at least the 75,000 and/or 100,000
tpy CO2e threshold amount of GHGs are subject to PSD as
long as the amount of GHG emissions also exceeds, in general, 100/
250 tpy on a mass basis for new sources and zero tpy on a mass basis
for modifications of existing sources. 40 CFR 51.166(b)(48), 75 FR
at 31,606; see EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards,
``PSD and Title V Permitting Guidance for Greenhouse Gases (November
2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 82445]]
Some states advised EPA that it is likely they would be able to
implement the Tailoring Rule thresholds by interpreting the term
``subject to regulation'' in their SIPs, and without having to take
further action. A state's ability to take this approach would have
implications for how EPA needed to implement the Tailoring Rule.\55\
Accordingly, in the Tailoring Rule, EPA began a process to gather more
information about how states would implement permitting for GHG-
emitting sources.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\55\ Specifically, a state's implementation of the Tailoring
Rule in this manner prior to January 2, 2011 would obviate the need
for EPA to narrow its approval of that state's SIP, as EPA had
proposed in the proposed Tailoring Rule. Thus, in the Final
Tailoring Rule, EPA delayed final action on its narrowing proposal
so that EPA could gather information about the process and time-line
for states to implement the Tailoring Rule.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. 60-Day Letters
To gather this information, EPA, in the Tailoring Rule, asked
states to submit letters within 60 days of publication of the Tailoring
Rule, which we refer to as the 60-day letters, concerning the status of
their PSD program and their legal authority for applying PSD program to
GHG-emitting sources. This information would help clarify, for each
state, the two central issues for PSD applicability to GHG-emitting
sources: (i) Whether the state has an approved PSD program that applies
to GHG-emitting sources; and (ii) if so, what action the state would
take to limit the applicability of its PSD program to GHG-emitting
sources at or above the Tailoring Rule thresholds.\56\ This information
would assist EPA to determine what, if any, action it needed to take
with respect to the states.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\56\ Alternatively, a state could choose to apply its PSD
program to sources below the Tailoring Rule thresholds and acquire
sufficient resources to implement the program as expanded, but no
state had indicated an intention to proceed in this manner.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost all states submitted 60-day letters, generally by August 4,
2010. The letters, along with other information EPA received through
review of state requirements and further communications with state
officials, indicate that the states, localities, and other
jurisdictions may be divided into three categories, described below,
for purposes of EPA's implementation of the PSD program to GHG-emitting
sources.
c. The Three Categories of States and EPA's Implementation Process
The first category, which includes 7 states, 35 subsections of
states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico,
the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Indian Territory, does not have an
approved SIP PSD permitting program. Instead, federal requirements
apply. Thus, implementation of PSD for GHG-emitting sources in these
jurisdictions is the simplest of all the states: GHG-emitting sources
will become subject to PSD and the thresholds in the Tailoring Rule
will apply as of January 2, 2011 without further action.\57\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\57\ McCarthy Declaration, paragraphs 28-33, page 8, and
Attachment 1, Table 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second category includes 14 states and a number of districts
within states that have approved PSD SIPs, but those SIPs do not apply
the PSD program to GHG-emitting sources. This group includes Texas,
which is the focus of this action. The implementation process for this
category is discussed later.\58\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\58\ Id., paragraphs 34-55, pages 8-12, and Attachment 1, Table
2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The third category includes the remaining states, which have an
approved SIP PSD program that applies to GHG-emitting sources. As for
the implementation process for this category, some of these states have
indicated that they are able to interpret their SIPs to apply PSD only
to GHG emissions at or above the Tailoring Rule thresholds, and they do
not need to revise their SIPs to do so. However, most indicated that
they would need to submit SIP revisions to EPA in order to incorporate
the Tailoring Rule thresholds. This means that in these states, until
they do submit their SIP revisions and EPA approves them, sources
emitting GHGs at or above the 100/250 tpy levels will be subject to PSD
requirements as of January 2, 2011 if they construct or modify. EPA has
encouraged these states to submit SIP revisions adopting the Tailoring
Rule thresholds as soon as possible and some of these states have
already done so. Moreover, almost all of these states are proceeding to
revise their state law to reflect the Tailoring Rule thresholds and
will do so by January 2, 2011 or very soon thereafter. In the meantime,
EPA has finalized the Narrowing Rule so that as of January 2, 2011, at
least for federal purposes, PSD will apply to GHG-emitting sources only
at the Tailoring Rule thresholds or higher.\59\ As a result of these
state actions and EPA's Narrowing Rule, by January 2, 2011 or shortly
thereafter, in all or almost all of these states, only GHG-emitting
sources at or above the Tailoring Rule thresholds will be subject to
PSD requirements.\60\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\59\ Specifically, for these states, EPA has stated that it
intends to finalize its proposal in the Tailoring Rule to narrow its
approval of their PSD applicability provisions to only the extent
they apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources at or above the Tailoring
Rule thresholds, which we call the Narrowing Rule. Id. paragraph 90,
page 19. In addition, recognizing that GHG-emitting sources also
have permitting obligations under state law, EPA has strongly
encouraged states to revise their state law as promptly as possible
to eliminate the state PSD obligations of sources below the
Tailoring Rule thresholds. Id. paragraph 92, page 19.
\60\ Id. paragraphs 62-94, pages 13-20, and Attachment 1, Table
3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
d. SIP Call States, Including Texas
As just noted, the second category, which includes Texas, includes
14 states and some districts within states whose SIPs have an approved
PSD program but do not have the authority to apply that program to GHG-
emitting sources. For most of these states, including Texas, the reason
is that their PSD applicability provision applies to any ``pollutant
subject to regulation'' under the CAA (or a similar term), but other
provisions of state law preclude automatic updating. As a result, this
applicability provision covers only pollutants--not including GHGs--
that were subject to regulation at the time the state adopted the
applicability provision.
After proposing action by notice dated September 2, 2010,\61\ EPA
promulgated the final SIP call for 13 states, including Texas, by
notice signed on December 1, 2010, and published on December 13, 2010,
75 FR 77,698, which we call the GHG PSD SIP Call or, simply, the SIP
call.\62\ In this action, consistent with the requirements of CAA
section 110(k)(5), EPA (i) issued a finding that the SIPs for 13 states
(comprising 15 state and local programs) are ``substantially inadequate
to * * * comply with any requirement of this Act'' because their PSD
programs do not apply to GHG-emitting sources as of January 2, 2011;
(ii) issued a SIP call requiring submission of a corrective SIP
revision; and (iii) established a ``reasonable deadline[] (not to
exceed 18 months after the date of such notice)'' for the submission of
the corrective SIP revision. This deadline ranges, for different
states, from 3 weeks to 12
[[Page 82446]]
months after the date of the final SIP call, as discussed below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\61\ ``Action to Ensure Authority to Issue Permits under the
Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP
Call--Proposed Rule,'' 75 FR 53892 (September 2, 2010); ``Action to
Ensure Authority to Issue Permits under the Prevention of
Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas
Emissions: Federal Implementation Plan--Proposed Rule,'' 75 FR 53883
(September 2, 2010).
\62\ ``Action to Ensure Authority to Issue Permits under the
Prevention of Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP
Call--Final Rule,'' 75 FR 77,698 (December 13, 2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPA justified its finding that the affected SIPs are
``substantially inadequate'' to comply with CAA requirements on grounds
that (i) the CAA requires that PSD requirements apply to any stationary
source that emits specified quantities of any air pollutant subject to
regulation under the CAA, and those PSD requirements must be included
in the approved SIPs; (ii) as of January 2, 2011, GHG-emitting sources
will become subject to PSD; (iii) as a result, the CAA requires PSD
programs to apply to GHG-emitting sources; and (iv) accordingly, the
failure of any SIP PSD applicability provisions to apply to GHG-
emitting sources means that the SIP fails to comply with these CAA
requirements.
In the SIP call proposal, EPA discussed in some detail the SIP
submittal deadline under CAA section 110(k)(5). Under this provision,
in issuing a SIP call, EPA ``may establish reasonable deadlines (not to
exceed 18 months after the date of such notice) for the submission of
such plan revisions.'' EPA proposed to allow each of the affected
states up to 12 months from the date of signature of the final finding
of substantial inadequacy and SIP call within which to submit the SIP
revision, unless, during the comment period, the state expressly
advised that it would not object to a shorter period--as short as 3
weeks from the date of signature of the final rule--in which case EPA
would establish the shorter period as the deadline. EPA stated that,
assuming that EPA were to finalize the SIP call on or about December 1,
2010, as EPA said it intended to do in the proposal, then the earliest
possible SIP submittal deadline would be December 22, 2010.
EPA made clear that the purpose of establishing the shorter period
as the deadline for any interested state is to accommodate states that
wish to ensure that a FIP is in effect as a backstop to avoid any gap
in PSD permitting. EPA also made clear that if a state did not advise
EPA that it does not object to a shorter deadline, then the 12-month
deadline would apply. EPA emphasized that for any state that receives a
deadline after January 2, 2011, the affected GHG-emitting sources in
that state may be delayed in their ability to receive a federally
approved permit authorizing construction or modification. This is
because after January 2, 2011, these sources may not have available a
permitting authority to review their permit applications until the date
that EPA either approves the SIP submittal or promulgates a FIP.
EPA asked that each of the affected states write EPA a letter
during the comment period to identify the deadline for SIP submission
to which the state would not object if EPA established. We call these
the 30-day letters. Each affected state wrote a 30-day letter to EPA,
as requested. Except for Texas, each state identified a SIP submittal
deadline, which differed among the states, and which ranged from three
weeks to 12 months. In the final SIP call, EPA established SIP
submittal deadlines identified by the states, except that EPA
established a deadline of 12 months for Texas, in accordance with EPA's
proposal. Except for Texas, each state explained in its 30-day letter
and in subsequent communications with EPA, that it was planning on
either receiving a FIP or adopting a SIP and that it chose a deadline
that would result in having either the FIP or an approved SIP, as
appropriate, in place by January 2, 2011 or soon enough thereafter so
as to avoid any hardship to its sources. In the final SIP call, EPA
justified approving this three-week-to-12-month time period, although
expeditious, as meeting the CAA section 110(k)(5) requirement to be a
``reasonable'' deadline in light of: (i) The SIP development and
submission process; (ii) the preference of the state; and (iii) the
imperative to minimize the period when sources will be subject to PSD
but will not have available a PSD permitting authority to act on their
permit application and therefore may face delays in constructing or
modifying.
In the final SIP call, based on the states' 30-day letters and
other communications, EPA established a SIP submittal deadline of
December 22, 2010 for seven states. Each of the states indicated that
it did not expect to submit a SIP revision by that date and instead
expected to receive a FIP. On December 23, 2010, for each of the seven
states, EPA issued a finding of failure to submit its corrective SIP
revision by that deadline, and EPA promulgated a FIP.
Except for Texas, EPA expects each of the other states subject to
the SIP call to adopt a SIP revision and receive EPA approval of it, or
receive a FIP, within the first half of 2011, and, in most cases,
substantially sooner. Although none of these states will have a
permitting authority in place as of January 2, 2011, none of these
states expects that gap to pose meaningful difficulties for sources
because, depending on the state, the gap is brief, the state does not
expect any sources to seek a permit during the gap, or even if the
state were the permitting authority during the gap, it could not
complete processing the permits during that time.\63\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\63\ McCarthy Declaration, p. 12, paragraph 55.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As discussed later, Texas has responded to the SIP call differently
than the other states. As a result, its GHG-emitting sources do face
the prospect of permitting delays. This rulemaking action addresses
that situation.
4. Summary of the Effect of EPA's Implementation Actions in States
Other Than Texas
EPA recently summarized the status of its implementation efforts,
for all three categories of sources, as follows:
Overall, EPA has received information about the status of 99
jurisdictions (49 states,\64\ 4 territories, 45 localities, and the
District of Columbia), and included that information in Attachment
1. Of these jurisdictions, 94 will have, for Federal law purposes, a
PSD permitting program for GHG emissions at the Tailoring Rule
thresholds on Jan. 2, 2011. Of these 94 entities, 84 will have made
any necessary amendments to state or local law to ensure that state
or local permits are not required for GHG emissions below Tailoring
Rule thresholds. By the end of the first quarter of 2011, only one
jurisdiction will not have authority to permit GHG sources, and that
jurisdiction will obtain authority by July 1, 2011 and in the
meantime, does not expect large sources seeking permits for their
GHGs. In addition, by the end of the first quarter of 2011, all but
one more state will have made any necessary amendments to state or
local law to ensure that permits are not required for GHG emissions
below Tailoring Rule levels. 1 program with GHG permitting authority
at the lower statutory levels has not yet determined how, and on
which timeline, it will incorporate the Tailoring Rule thresholds
into its state law.\65\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\64\ In California's PSD program is administered in its entirety
by local jurisdictions.
\65\ McCarthy Declaration, p. 20, paragraph 98. There have been
a few changes in the status of individual states since this time,
but the overall picture remains the same. In no small part, the
current state of EPA's implementation effort is attributable to the
fact that EPA has been in close communication with almost every
state and many other jurisdictions, along with multi-state
organizations such as the National Association of Clean Air Agencies
(NACAA). In addition to the letters that states have sent responding
to the Tailoring Rule (the 60-day letters) and proposed SIP Call
(the 30-day letters), EPA officials, primarily through the Regional
offices, have had numerous communications with their state
counterparts.
Thus, under EPA's implementation program, (i) in every state, (a)
only sources at or above the Tailoring Rule thresholds will be subject
under federal law to obtain a PSD permit when they construct or modify
as of January 2, 2011, and (b) only those same sources will be subject
under state law to obtain a PSD permit when they construct or modify as
of January 2, 2011 or very
[[Page 82447]]
soon thereafter; and (ii) in every state, except for Texas, as of
January 2, 2011 or very soon thereafter, GHG sources that construct or
modify will be able to receive permits when they need them, so that the
sources will not face obstacles to constructing and modifying. Again,
Texas has responded to EPA's implementation program in a manner that
has resulted in its sources facing obstacles to constructing and
modifying, as discussed next, which this rulemaking addresses.
5. EPA's Implementation Approach for Texas and Texas's Response
The following describes the progress to date of implementing PSD
for GHG emissions in Texas, based on extensive communications between
EPA and TCEQ. It should be borne in mind, as noted earlier, that Texas
is in the second of the three categories of states, that is, it has an
approved PSD program that does not apply to GHGs-emitting sources.
a. Texas's 60-Day Letter
Texas's 60-day letter provides the state's clearest articulation of
its response to EPA's efforts to implement PSD for GHG-emitting sources
at the Tailoring Rule thresholds beginning January 2, 2011. As noted
previously, in the preamble to the final Tailoring Rule, EPA asked each
state to send EPA a letter within 60 days to identify which category
the state was in and what action the state intended to take.
Specifically, with regard to sources in Category 2, EPA stated:
In our proposed rule, we also noted that a handful of EPA-
approved SIPs fail to include provisions that would apply PSD to GHG
sources at the appropriate time. This is generally because these
SIPs specifically list the pollutants subject to the SIP PSD program
requirements, and do not include GHGs in that list, rather than
include a definition of NSR regulated pollutant that mirrors the
federal rule, or because the state otherwise interprets its
regulations to limit which pollutants the state may regulate. At
proposal, we indicated that we intended to take separate action to
identify these SIPs, and to take regulatory action to correct this
SIP deficiency.
We ask any state or local permitting agency that does not
believe its existing SIP provides authority to issue PSD permits to
GHG sources to notify the EPA Regional Administrator by letter, and
to do so no later than August 2, 2010. This letter should indicate
whether the state intends to undertake rulemaking to revise its
rules to apply PSD to the GHG sources that will be covered under the
applicability thresholds in this rulemaking, or alternatively,
whether the state believes it has adequate authority through other
means to issue federally-enforceable PSD permits to GHG sources
consistent with this final rule. For any state that lacks the
ability to issue PSD permits for GHG sources consistent with this
final rule, we intend to undertake a separate action to issue a SIP
call, under CAA section 110(k)(5). As appropriate, we may also
impose a FIP through 40 CFR 52.21 to ensure that GHG sources will be
permitted consistent with this final rule.
75 FR 31582/3.
With regard to states in category 3, EPA requested that in the
states' 60-day letter,
The state should explain whether it will apply EPA's meaning of the
term ``subject to regulation'' and if so, whether the state intends
to incorporate that meaning of the term through interpretation, and
without undertaking a regulatory or legislative process. If a state
must undertake a regulatory or legislative process, then the letter
should provide an estimate of the time needed to adopt the final
rules. If a state chooses not to adopt EPA's meaning by
interpretation, the letter should address whether the state has
alternative authority to implement either our tailoring approach or
some other approach that is at least as stringent, whether the state
intends to use that authority. If the state does not intend to
interpret or revise its SIP to adopt the tailoring approach or such
other approach, then the letter should address the expected
shortfalls in personnel and funding that will arise if the state
attempts to carry out PSD permitting for GHG sources under the
existing SIP and interpretation.
For any state that is unable or unwilling to adopt the tailoring
approach by January 2, 2011, and that otherwise is unable to
demonstrate adequate personnel and funding, we will move forward
with finalizing our proposal to limit our approval of the existing
SIP.
75 FR 31582/3.
On August 2, 2010, Texas submitted its 60-day letter, signed by the
Texas Attorney General and the Chairman of the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.\66\ In that letter, Texas responded specifically
to EPA's request that ``any state * * * that does not believe its
existing SIP provides authority to issue PSD permits to GHG sources to
notify [EPA and] * * * indicate whether the state intends to * * * to
revise its rules to apply PSD to * * * GHG sources'' by stating:
``Texas has neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting,
ignoring, or amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of
greenhouse gas emission.'' Id. p. 1. Texas offered several explanations
for this position. First, Texas noted:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\66\ Letter from Bryan W. Shaw, Chairman, Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality, and Greg Abbott, Attorney General of Texas,
to Hon. Lisa Jackson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, and Dr. Alfredo ``Al'' Armendariz, Regional Administrator,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6 (August 2, 2010)
(Texas's 60-day letter), included in the docket for this rulemaking.
Texas' stationary source permitting program encompasses all
``federally regulated new source review pollutants,'' including,
``any pollutant that otherwise is subject to regulation under the
[federal Clean Air Act].'' 30 Tex. Admin. Code Sec. 116.12(14)(D).
The rules of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ),
like the EPA's rules, do not define the phrase ``subject to
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
regulation.''
Id. p. 2. Texas then explained that it had several objections to
interpreting the phrase ``subject to regulation'' to allow regulation
of GHGs. For one thing, according to Texas, long-standing state case
law precluded the term--and the PSD applicability provisions
generally--from automatically incorporating newly regulated pollutants.
Specifically, Texas said: \67\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\67\ In this explanation, Texas was referring to the PSD
applicability provision that Texas adopted under State law in 2006,
which differed slightly from the applicability provision approved
into the SIP in 1993.
* * *Texas' stationary source permitting program encompasses all
``federally regulated new source review pollutants,'' including
``any pollutant that otherwise is subject to regulation under the
[federal Clean air Act].'' 30 Tex. Admin. Code Sec. 116.12(14)(D).
This delegation of legislative authority to the EPA is limited
solely to those pollutants regulated when Texas Rule 116.12 was
adopted (1993) and last amended (2006). As the Texas Supreme Court
has explained, ``The general rule is that when a statute is adopted
by a specific descriptive reference, the adoption takes the statute
as it exists at that time, and the subsequent amendment thereof
would not be within the terms of the adopting act.'' Trimmer v.
Carlton, 296 S.W. 1070 (1927). Thus, in order for Texas Rule 116.12
to pass constitutional muster, it must be limited to adopting by
reference the definition of ``subject to regulation'' in existence
when Rule 116.12 was last amended in 2006. In other words, Texas
Rule 116.12 cannot delegate authority to the EPA to define ``subject
to regulation'' in 2010 to include pollutants that were not
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
``subject to regulation'' in 2006.
Id. at 4.
Secondly, Texas took the position that PSD applies only to NAAQS
pollutants, and not non-NAAQS pollutants. Texas stated:
The only sensible interpretation of the Clean Air Act is one
that requires the EPA to promulgate a National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) for greenhouse gases before the EPA can require PSD
permitting of greenhouse gases.* * * EPA, however, has not developed
a NAAQS for greenhouse gases. * * *
Id. at 4-5.
Texas provided a more detailed exposition of its view that PSD
applies
[[Page 82448]]
only to NAAQS pollutants in its challenges before the D.C. Circuit to
EPA's GHG actions, where Texas moved to stay the Endangerment Finding,
the Vehicle Rule, and the Johnson Memo Reconsideration (Texas's Motion
to Stay Three GHG Actions).\68\ (In a separate motion, Texas also moved
to stay the Tailoring Rule.\69\) There, Texas reiterated arguments
based on the text of some of the CAA PSD provisions that, in Texas's
view, lead to the conclusion that the CAA precludes applying PSD to
non-NAAQS. As noted previously, these arguments were raised by
commenters to the Tailoring Rule. Texas concluded that EPA's efforts to
apply PSD to GHGs--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\68\ ``State of Texas's Motion For A Stay Of EPA's Endangerment
Finding, Timing Rule, and Tailpipe Rule,'' Coalition for Responsible
Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases) (September
15, 2010). On December 10, 2010, the DC Circuit denied Texas's, and
other parties', motions to stay. Order, Coalition for Responsible
Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases) (December
10, 2010).
\69\ ``State of Texas's Motion For A Stay Of EPA's Greenhouse
Gas Tailoring Rule,'' Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA,
No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases) (September 15, 2010) (Texas's
Motion to Stay the Tailoring Rule).
Thus violates the CAA. Moreover, [EPA's] interpretation of the CAA
is not entitled to deference because the text of the statute is
unambiguous. Chevron, U.S.A. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 842 (1984) (the
Agency must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of
Congress). Accordingly, EPA's attempt to short cut the CAA's NAAQS
process in order to regulate GHG emissions from stationary sources
through PSD and Title V must fail.\70\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\70\ Texas's Motion to Stay Three GHG Actions, at 27.
At the close of its 60-day letter, Texas added, ``In the event a
court concludes EPA's actions comport with the law, Texas specifically
reserves and does not waive any rights under the federal Clean Air Act
or other law with respect to the issues raised herein.'' \71\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\71\ Id. at 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Texas's 30-Day Letter
As noted previously, in the GHG PSD SIP call proposal, EPA proposed
to establish, for each affected state, a deadline of 12 months from the
date of signature of the final SIP call for submitting the corrective
SIP revision, unless the state expressly advised EPA in its 30-day
letter that it would not object to a shorter period. Texas submitted a
30-day letter on October 4, 2010,\72\ and in that letter, voiced
various objections to the proposed SIP call. Texas reiterated its view
that PSD is limited to NAAQS pollutants, and therefore cannot apply to
GHGs, and added that the SIP call is ``based on an impermissible
interpretation of the [Clean Air Act]. EPA cannot * * * impose
permitting through [the PSD] program without first setting a NAAQS. * *
* '' Texas 30-day letter p. 2, 4. EPA responded to those objections in
the final SIP call.\73\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\72\ ``Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Comments on
Actions to Ensure Authority to Issue Permits Under the Prevention of
Significant Deterioration Program to Sources of Greenhouse Gas
Emissions, Finding of Substantial Inadequacy and SIP Call, Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0107, FRL-9190-7 Federal Implementation Plan
(FIP), Docket ID No EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0107, FRL-9190-8 (October 4,
2010) (Texas 30-day letter).
\73\ Final SIP Call, 75 FR at 77706/2-3 and n. 18.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In its 30-day letter, Texas went on to discuss the SIP submission
schedule and FIP that EPA proposed, but Texas declined EPA's invitation
to identify a specific deadline for the state's SIP submission. As a
result, in the final SIP call, EPA was obliged to establish the default
SIP submission deadline for Texas of December 1, 2011, in accordance
with EPA's proposal. Because Texas has clearly stated that it does not
intend, and, in its view, does not have the authority, to adopt a SIP
revision to apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources, EPA expects to
promulgate a FIP to do so. But, again, because Texas did not identify
an earlier deadline for its SIP submittal, the earliest that EPA could
promulgate such a FIP would be December 2, 2011. Under this approach,
due to the position Texas has taken, absent further action, sources in
Texas could not expect to have a permitting authority with authority to
issue preconstruction permits for their GHG emissions until that
December 2, 2011 date. As a result, absent further action, sources in
Texas would face obstacles in constructing or modifying before that
date.
Texas's 30-day letter indicates that Texas was well aware of the
consequences of its decision not to identify a specific deadline for
its SIP submission, but had several reasons for making that decision.
These included its view, again, that PSD applies only to NAAQS
pollutants, and also that EPA was required to employ a different
process for requiring a SIP revision, one that would have provided the
state with more time to adopt a SIP revision. Texas 30-day letter at 4-
5. In addition, Texas asserted that there is no reason to allow EPA to
promulgate an early FIP for the benefit of Texas's sources because, in
Texas's view, for practical reasons, EPA could not issue those permits
for the ``foreseeable future'' anyway. Specifically, Texas explained
that EPA had not issued guidance for determining BACT, the key element
of a PSD permit for a GHG source. Texas added that even after EPA
issued that guidance, BACT will, in Texas's view, remain uncertain and
contentious, and the guidance will be of limited usefulness until the
control technology is proven. Id. at 5. Texas added that ``[i]ndustry
should be particularly concerned about EPA's lack of resources and
experience to issue these permits * * *.'' Id. at 6. Texas concluded,
``The result of all this is that, even under a FIP, it is unlikely that
construction of new major GHG sources or major modifications will
commence in the foreseeable future.'' Id. at 6.
It should be noted that Texas stated in filings before the D.C.
Circuit in which it challenged the Tailoring Rule that it believed 167
projects in Texas would be affected by the lack of a permitting
authority during 2011.\74\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\74\ Texas's Motion to Stay the Tailoring Rule, pp. 2, 16.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Interim Final Action
In this action, EPA is taking the following actions on an interim
final basis to ensure that the PSD program in Texas complies with the
CAA. First, EPA is determining that the Administrator's action
approving the Texas SIP PSD program was in error under CAA section
110(k)(6).
Second, EPA, in the same manner as its action to approve the Texas
SIP PSD program, is revising such action as appropriate without
requiring any further submission from Texas. Id. The appropriate
revision is to convert the previous approval to a partial approval and
a partial disapproval. The partial approval applies to the extent that
Texas's PSD program actually covers pollutants that are required to be
included in PSD. The partial disapproval applies to the extent that
Texas failed to address or to include assurances of adequate legal
authority (required under CAA section 110(a)(2)(E)(i)) for the
application of PSD to each newly regulated pollutant, including non-
NAAQS pollutants, under the CAA. Note that as an alternative basis to
CAA section 110(k)(6) for taking these first two steps, EPA relies on
its inherent administrative authority to reconsider its previous
action.
Third, in this rulemaking, EPA is promulgating a FIP to apply
appropriate measures to assure that EPA's PSD regulatory requirements
will apply to non-NAAQS pollutants that are newly subject to regulation
under the CAA that the Texas PSD program does not already cover. At
present, the only such pollutant is GHGs. Therefore, EPA's FIP will at
present apply the EPA regulatory PSD program in the GHG portion of PSD
[[Page 82449]]
permits for GHG-emitting sources in Texas, and EPA commits to take
whatever steps are appropriate if, in the future, Texas fails to apply
PSD to another newly regulated non-NAAQS pollutant.
In light of the immediate need of Texas's GHG-emitting sources for
a permitting authority to process their permit applications for GHGs,
EPA is promulgating this action immediately though an interim final
rule, in reliance on the good cause exemption from notice-and-comment
rulemaking under section 553(b)(3)(B) of the Administrative Procedures
Act. This action will remain in effect until April 30, 2011. At the
same time, EPA is initiating a notice-and-comment rulemaking that
mirrors this one and that EPA expects to replace this one.
A. Determination That EPA's Previous Approval of Texas's PSD Program
Was in Error
In applying CAA section 110(k)(6), EPA must first ``determine[]
that the Administrator's action approving * * * [the Texas PSD program]
was in error * * *.'' EPA has determined that the Texas PSD program had
flaws at the time Texas submitted it and EPA approved it, so that EPA's
approval was in error.
1. Gaps in Texas's PSD Program Concerning Application of PSD to
Pollutants Newly Subject to Regulation and Concerning Assurances of
Legal Adequacy
Texas's PSD program, although approved by EPA, contained important
gaps concerning the application of PSD to pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants, and Texas's legal authority
for doing so.
a. Gaps in Texas's PSD Program at the Time of EPA Approval
The application of the PSD program to pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants, is a key component of the
program. As noted earlier, it is EPA's long-standing position that PSD
applies to all such pollutants, and most of the states' PSD programs do
apply to such pollutants automatically, as soon as those pollutants
become subject to regulation.
In particular, as noted previously, EPA had previously made clear
to Texas, during 1980 and again during 1983, that PSD applies to non-
NAAQS pollutants. Because Texas's PSD program, unlike that of most
states, did not automatically apply to such pollutants, it was
important that during the time when Texas submitted SIP revisions and
EPA acted on them, 1985-1992, that Texas address the application of PSD
to pollutants newly subject to regulation.
It is clear from the record that both Texas and EPA were well aware
that the Texas PSD rules' IBR of EPA PSD regulatory requirements did
not automatically update. Indeed, when EPA promulgated the NAAQS for
PM10, a previously unregulated pollutant, and thereby
subjected that pollutant to PSD for the first time, Texas revised its
PSD rules to update the IBR and thereby assure that the state PSD
program applied to PM10.
Had Texas recognized that following approval of its PSD program,
EPA would likely continue to subject previously unregulated pollutants
to regulation, and therefore to PSD for the first time, Texas could
have addressed how it would handle that situation. Texas could have
provided both assurances that the state would apply PSD to such
pollutants and information as to the method and timing for doing so.
The most likely method would be through a separate SIP revision. The
timing would most likely relate to the time necessary to adopt and
submit a SIP revision. This timing issue is important because the
sources emitting pollutants are subject to PSD under the CAA as soon as
the pollutants become subject to regulation, but if the SIP PSD program
does not automatically apply to the sources, then the state does not
have authority to issue permits to the sources as soon as the sources
become required to obtain the permits. By comparison, as noted earlier
in this preamble, Texas committed to submit a SIP revision if a SIP
inadequacy led to an increments violation.
However, there is no indication in the record of Texas's SIP
submissions that Texas specifically addressed this issue of the
treatment of pollutants that would newly become subject to PSD after
Texas's PSD SIP was approved, or that Texas provided any such
information as to method or timing. Nor is there any indication in the
record that during this 1985-92 period, EPA identified this issue and
sought such information from Texas.
Texas did provide the 1987 Texas PSD Commitments Statement, in
which Texas agreed to ``implement and enforce the federal requirements
for [PSD] as specified in [EPA regulations] by requiring all new major
stationary sources and major modifications to obtain air quality
permits as provided in TACB regulation VI, Control of Air Pollution by
Permits for New Construction and Modification.'' However, this 1987
statement does not specifically address the application of PSD to
pollutants newly subject to regulation. It commits TACB to require
``all new major stationary sources and major modifications to obtain
air quality permits as provided in TACB regulation VI * * * '', but
that regulation VI does not automatically update.
Texas also provided the 1989 Texas PSD Commitments Letter, in which
Texas generally committed ``to implement EPA requirements relative to
[PSD].'' However, as quoted previously, this letter was phrased
generally and did not specifically commit to apply PSD to pollutants
newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants; nor did
the letter identify the method and timing for doing so. Accordingly, we
do not read this letter as a commitment by Texas to apply PSD to each
newly regulated pollutant, including non-NAAQS pollutants, whether
through a SIP revision or some other method, or on any particular time-
table. Moreover, although EPA approved the Texas PSD program in
reliance on the letter, EPA indicated, in the final approval preamble,
that the scope and binding impact of the letter were limited and that
Texas retained discretion in implementing the PSD program.
In addition, the rulemaking record for Texas's PSD program does not
indicate that Texas provided, as required under CAA Sec.
110(a)(2)(E)(i), assurances that Texas had adequate legal authority to
carry out the PSD program, including, insofar as relevant for this
rulemaking, applying PSD to pollutants newly subject to regulation,
among them non-NAAQS pollutants. Some 15 years previously, in Texas's
1972 submission of its original SIP, the state had provided assurances
of legal authority to carry out the SIP, and EPA had approved those
assurances. But the record for the PSD SIP submission does not indicate
whether, or how, that legal authority applied to PSD applicability to
such pollutants. In submitting the PSD SIP program, the TACB provided
general references to legal authority, but the TACB did not indicate
whether PSD applies to such pollutants either. Nor did the Texas PSD
Commitments Letter specifically identify legal authority to apply PSD
to such pollutants. Nor did the assurance of legal authority to apply
the Texas PSD program to large municipal waste combustors, as required
by the 1990 CAA Amendments, which assurances Texas apparently made in a
1992 conference call with EPA Region 6 officials, address legal
authority to apply PSD to pollutants that newly become subject to PSD
as a result of EPA regulation.
Therefore, the Texas PSD SIP submittal contained gaps: It did not
[[Page 82450]]
address the application of PSD to pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants; and it did not include any
information concerning Texas's methods or timing for doing so. Nor did
the program provide assurances that the state had adequate legal
authority to apply PSD to such pollutants.
b. Recent Statements by Texas That Confirm the Gaps in Texas's PSD
Program
Texas has recently made several statements that confirm that at the
time EPA approved the state's PSD program, that program had gaps.\75\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\75\ As noted previously, Texas has also recently confirmed, in
Texas' 60-day letter, that its PSD program does not automatically
apply to pollutants newly subject to regulation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(i). Gap Concerning Application of PSD to All Pollutants Newly Subject
to Regulation, Including Non-NAAQS Pollutants
First, Texas has made clear that it is not required to apply PSD to
non-NAAQS pollutants that are newly subject to regulation, including
GHGs. Specifically, in its August 2, 2010 60-day letter, Texas stated
that it interprets the CAA PSD applicability provisions to apply to
only NAAQS pollutants, and therefore to not include non-NAAQS
pollutants, among them GHGs. Texas asserted that ``the only sensible
interpretation of the CAA'' is that PSD applies to only NAAQS
pollutants. Texas 60-day letter, p. 4. Similarly, in its court
challenge to EPA's four GHG rules, Texas stated that its interpretation
is mandated under Chevron step 1. There, Texas stated that EPA's
``interpretation of the CAA [that PSD applies to non-NAAQS pollutants]
is not entitled to deference because the text of the statute is
unambiguous. Chevron, U.S.A. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 842 (1984) (the
Agency must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of
Congress).'' \76\ As noted previously, EPA responded at length to this
argument in the Tailoring Rule and in EPA's response in the court
challenge to EPA's GHG rules. EPA asserts that the CAA mandates that
PSD apply to non-NAAQS pollutants, including GHGs, once they become
subject to regulation; and EPA is not reopening this issue on the
merits in this rulemaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\76\ See Texas ``Motion to Stay Three GHG Actions'' 27,
Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and
consolidated cases).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For present purposes, however, what is important is that Texas
takes the position that under a Chevron step 1 reading of the CAA, the
PSD program does not apply to non-NAAQS pollutants. This position has
important ramifications for how Texas must interpret EPA's PSD
applicability regulations and for the meaning of Texas's SIP PSD
applicability provisions. As noted previously, under EPA's current
regulations, PSD applies to ``any pollutant that otherwise is subject
to regulation under the [CAA].'' 52.166(b)(49)(iv). These regulations
have read this way since they were revised in EPA's 2002 NSR Reform
Rule, and the regulations that predated them were phrased in much the
same way: They applied PSD to ``any air pollutant regulated under the
Clean Air Act.'' \77\ These regulations are based on the CAA PSD
applicability requirements, and as a result, cannot apply PSD to any
pollutants that the CAA does not itself subject to PSD. Accordingly,
although Texas did not specifically address the meaning of EPA's
regulations in its 60-day letter or court filings, it must be that in
Texas's view, these EPA regulations may lawfully apply PSD to only
NAAQS pollutants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\77\ See 43 FR 26380, 26403/3, 26406 (June 19, 1978)
(promulgating 40 CFR 51.21(b)(1)(i)) and 42 FR 57479, 57480, 57483
(November 3, 1977) (proposing 40 CFR 51.21(b)(1)(i)) (applying PSD
requirements to a ``major stationary source'' and defining that term
to include sources that emit specified quantities of ``any air
pollutant regulated under the Clean Air Act'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas's SIP PSD applicability provisions, in turn, mirror EPA's. As
quoted earlier, Texas's EPA-approved PSD applicability provisions apply
PSD to ``any air pollutant subject to regulation under the [Clean Air]
Act.'' Although these Texas provisions mirror EPA's regulatory
applicability provisions--which, again, Texas appears to interpret as
limited to applying PSD only to NAAQS pollutants--Texas is authorized
to apply them more expansively than the EPA regulations. This is
because a state must comply with CAA requirements as a minimum, but
retains authority to impose additional or more stringent requirements.
CAA section 116. Therefore, it is in accordance with Texas's view that
the CAA and EPA regulatory requirements for PSD applicability be
limited to NAAQS pollutants, that Texas would nevertheless consider
itself authorized--but not required--to apply its PSD program to
particular non-NAAQS pollutants. This position would allow Texas, in
effect, to choose which non-NAAQS pollutants to subject to PSD.
In fact, Texas has clearly stated that it does not consider itself
required to apply its PSD program to one non-NAAQS pollutant in
particular: GHGs. In its 60-day letter, Texas stated: ``Texas has
neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring, or
amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas
emissions.'' Texas 60-day letter, at 1. Texas's letter went on to
provide numerous reasons for why it did not believe EPA lawfully
subjected GHGs to PSD; why, in any event, EPA was required to allow
states more time before PSD would apply to GHG-emitting sources; and,
as noted previously, why, in any event, Texas' SIP does not
automatically update to apply PSD to newly regulated pollutants. Texas
added, ``[i]n the event a court concludes EPA's actions comport with
the law, Texas specifically reserves and does not waive any rights
under the federal Clean Air Act or other law with respect to the issues
raised here.'' Texas 60-day letter, p. 5. With this statement, Texas
intimated that it may not consider itself obligated to apply PSD to
GHGs even if a Court dismissed all of Texas's arguments and upheld all
of EPA's actions that lead to the requirement to apply PSD to GHGs.
With these two statements--that (i) ``Texas has neither the
authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring, or amending its
laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emissions,''
and (ii) Texas would not necessarily consider itself bound by EPA
requirements even if those requirements are upheld in Court--Texas has
made clear that it does not view itself as obligated to apply PSD to
GHGs under the CAA. Thus, these statements confirm Texas's view that it
is not obligated to apply PSD to each newly regulated non-NAAQS,
including, of course, GHGs.\78\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\78\ It should be noted that Texas has applied its PSD program
to non-NAAQS pollutants because Texas has IBR'd EPA's PSD regulatory
requirements and those requirements apply to non-NAAQS pollutants.
However, as noted earlier, Texas has made clear that it has no
intention of submitting a SIP revision to apply PSD to GHGs. All
this is consistent with the view described previously that Texas
interprets its PSD applicability provision to authorize it to apply
PSD to non-NAAQS pollutants at Texas's discretion, but that Texas
does not view itself as required to apply PSD to non-NAAQS
pollutants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These statements from Texas are significant because they confirm
that Texas's PSD program, as approved by EPA, had an important gap:
Texas did not address the applicability of its PSD program to
pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants,
such as by providing assurances that Texas would take action to apply
PSD to such pollutants or describing the methods (such as SIP revision)
and timing for doing so.
[[Page 82451]]
Moreover, Texas's recent statements are consistent with the view that
Texas's silence on the subject at the time of the PSD SIP action means
that Texas did not, at that time, view itself as obligated to apply PSD
to each pollutant.\79\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\79\ By the same token, we see nothing in these recent
statements to indicate that Texas views itself as rescinding any
pre-existing understanding that it would apply PSD to each such
pollutant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In particular, Texas's recent statement that the CAA PSD provisions
are clear by their terms, as a matter of Chevron step 1, that they do
not apply to non-NAAQS pollutants, suggests that Texas would have
viewed the CAA PSD provisions the same way at the time Texas submitted
its PSD program. As noted earlier, the Texas Attorney General and the
Chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who are the
joint signatories of Texas's 60-day letter, are of the view that
``[t]he only sensible interpretation of the Clean Act'' is that PSD
applies only to NAAQS pollutants, and not non-NAAQS pollutants. Texas
60-day letter, p. 4. Texas has confirmed its reading--and clarified
that it is based on a Chevron step 1 interpretation--in filings before
the D.C. Circuit. The fact that these high state officials view this
reading of the CAA as, again, ``[t]he only sensible reading,''
indicates that in the past, Texas is less likely to have adopted the
opposite reading, which would be that the CAA mandates that PSD applies
to non-NAAQS pollutants. Statutory provisions whose meaning is clear on
their face, at least to a particular reader, would not be expected to
have had a different or uncertain meaning to that same reader at an
earlier point in time. By the same token, Texas's insistence, noted
previously, that it does not have the intention or authority to apply
PSD to one non-NAAQS in particular, GHGs, suggests that Texas could
well have expressed the same view, had the issue arisen, at the time
EPA approved Texas's PSD program.
We further note that Texas itself appears to take the position that
an agency's present interpretation of its regulations should be
presumed to have been the agency's past interpretation of those
regulations, so that Texas's current interpretation that its PSD
program does not apply to at least one non-NAAQS, GHGs, should be
presumed to be Texas's interpretation of its PSD program in the past,
including at the time Texas submitted its program as a SIP revision to
EPA and EPA approved it. Specifically, in its 60-day letter, Texas
noted that in the Tailoring Rule, EPA asked states to consider whether
their SIPs that include the term ``subject to regulation'' can be
interpreted to incorporate the Tailoring Rule thresholds on grounds
that the state interprets that term as being sufficiently open-ended.
75 FR 51,581/2. Texas stated,
In the Tailoring Rule you have asked TCEQ to report to you by
August 2, 2010, whether it would ``interpret'' the undefined phrase
``subject to regulation'' in TCEQ Rule 116.12 consistent with the
newly promulgated definition in EPA Rule 51.166, in all its
specifics and particulars. That is, you have effectively requested
that Texas agree to regulate greenhouse gases in the exact manner
and method proscribed by the EPA.
In other words, you have asked Texas to agree that when it
promulgated its air quality permitting program rules for pollutants
``subject to regulation'' in 1993, that Texas really meant to define
the term ``subject to regulation'' as set forth in the dozens of
paragraphs and subparagraphs of EPA Rule 51.166, first promulgated
in 2010.
Texas 60-day letter, p. 3. In these statements, Texas appears to reveal
Texas's own understanding of the circumstances under which Texas can be
said to give the term ``subject to regulation'' a particular
interpretation, and that is if Texas interpreted that term that same
way at the time that Texas first promulgated the term in 1993. By that
same logic, Texas's position, as stated in its 60-day letter, that it
``has neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting,
ignoring, or amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of
greenhouse gas emissions'' would have applied to ``its laws''--
including the SIP PSD requirements--at the time that Texas adopted
those rules. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that just as
Texas does not currently view its PSD program as applying to all newly
regulated non-NAAQS pollutants, Texas did not, at the time it submitted
and EPA approved its PSD program, view its PSD program as applying to
all newly regulated non-NAAQS pollutants.
By the same token, Texas's recent statements also confirm that the
assurances Texas provided in its 1989 Texas PSD Commitments Letter
cannot be interpreted as having committed Texas to apply PSD to all
pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants.
The assurances, by their terms, were phrased generally and did not
address the application of PSD to such pollutants; and EPA, in the
preamble for the final approval of Texas's PSD SIP, indicated that the
scope and binding impact of the assurances were limited.\80\ Texas's
recent direct statements that PSD does not cover non-NAAQS pollutants
indicates that the generally phrased assurances in the letter, whatever
they meant, did not mean that Texas would apply PSD to each newly
regulated pollutant, including non-NAAQS pollutants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\80\ 57 FR at 28095/2, 28096/1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a result, it stands to reason that at the time Texas submitted
its PSD program, Texas did not view the CAA as mandating the
application of PSD to at least certain pollutants newly subject to
regulation, non-NAAQS pollutants. But at a minimum, it can be said that
Texas's PSD program contained a gap: EPA required that PSD apply to
each pollutant newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS
pollutants; Texas's program applied only to pollutants already subject
to regulation at the time Texas adopted its program, not to
subsequently regulated pollutants, including non-NAAQS; and Texas did
not address its program's applicability to such pollutants, including
how or when its program would do so. This gap is significant because it
facilitates Texas's current position, with which EPA disagrees, that
PSD does not apply to non-NAAQS pollutants.
(ii). Gap Concerning Assurances of Adequate Legal Authority
Texas's recent statement that it does not have the authority to
apply PSD to GHG-emitting sources also highlights that Texas's PSD
program had a gap in its failure to provide ``necessary assurances'' of
adequate legal authority to carry out the PSD program. Although Texas's
letter described obstacles to applying PSD to GHG-emitting sources
without first adopting a SIP revision, and did not describe obstacles
that precluded Texas from adopting a SIP revision if it chose to do so,
Texas's direct statement that it does not have authority to apply PSD
to GHGs at least casts doubt on whether Texas has such authority under
any circumstances. Moreover, Texas has never indicated that there has
been a recent change that places new limits on its legal authority to
carry out the CAA.
Accordingly, it is possible that at the time that Texas submitted
its PSD program, Texas considered itself under limits in its legal
authority to apply PSD to each non-NAAQS pollutant. At a minimum, in
light of Texas's recent statement that it does not have authority to
apply PSD to at least one newly regulated, non-NAAQS, GHGs, it is
apparent that at the time that Texas submitted its PSD program, Texas
did not provide the ``necessary assurances'' that it ``will have
adequate * * * authority under State * * * law to carry out such
implementation plan (and is
[[Page 82452]]
not prohibited by any provision of * * * State law from carrying out
such implementation plan or portion thereof).'' CAA section
110(a)(2)(E)(i) (emphasis added). ``[C]arrying out such implementation
plan'' includes meeting all CAA requirements applicable to the plan
and, in the case of a PSD SIP program, that includes applying PSD to
each pollutant newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS
pollutants.
2. Flaws in PSD Program
The Texas PSD program's gaps--which are, again, that Texas did not
address the applicability of PSD to all pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants; and Texas did not provide
assurances of adequate legal authority to do so--mean that the state's
PSD program has flaws. These flaws were present at the time that EPA
approved Texas's PSD program. Moreover, these flaws are significant.
They have figured prominently into the present situation in which EPA
takes the position that Texas is obligated under the CAA and EPA
regulations to apply its PSD program to a newly regulated pollutant--
GHGs--but Texas takes the opposite position.
3. EPA's Error in Approving Texas's PSD Program
In this rulemaking, EPA is ``determin[ing]'' that EPA's action
fully approving Texas's PSD program was ``in error'' within the meaning
of CAA section 110(k)(6). This section contains EPA's basis for that
determination.
a. CAA Section 110(k)(6) Error Correction
Under the familiar Chevron two-step framework for interpreting
administrative statutes, an agency must, under Chevron step 1,
determine whether ``Congress has directly spoken to the precise
question at issue.'' If so, ``the court, as well as the agency, must
give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress.''
However, under Chevron step 2, if ``the statute is silent or ambiguous
with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is
whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of
the statute.'' Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837, 842-43
(1984).
As noted previously, the term ``error'' in CAA section 110(k)(6) is
not defined and, as a result, should be given its ordinary, everyday
meaning. The dictionary definition of ``error'' is ``a mistake'' or
``the state or condition of being wrong in conduct or judgment,''
Oxford American College Dictionary 467 (2d ed. 2007); or ``(1) an act,
assertion, or belief that unintentionally deviates from what is
correct, right or true (2) the state of having false knowledge * * *
(4) a mistake * * * .'' Webster's II New Riverside University
Dictionary 442 (Houghton Mifflin Co. 1988). These definitions are
broad, and include all unintentional, incorrect or wrong actions or
mistakes.
Moreover, CAA section 110(k)(6) authorizes EPA to ``determine[]''
that its action was in error, and does not direct or constrain that
determination in any manner. That is, the provision does not identify
any factors that EPA must, or may not, consider in making the
determination. This further indicates that this provision confers broad
discretion upon EPA.
b. Gaps in Texas PSD Program
As previously discussed, the Texas SIP PSD program was flawed
because it contained gaps: Texas did not address the applicability of
PSD to all pollutants newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS
pollutants; and Texas did not provide assurances of adequate legal
authority to do so. EPA did not address these gaps in its action on
Texas SIP PSD program and instead, EPA fully approved the PSD program.
Therefore, EPA's action in fully approving Texas's SIP PSD program
in the face of these flaws was ``in error'' under CAA section
110(k)(6), in accordance with Chevron step 1. ``[E]rror'' should be
defined broadly to include any mistake, and approval of a flawed SIP is
a mistake. Moreover, this flaw is significant because it affects the
applicability of the PSD program to a pollutant and, as a result, to an
entire set of sources.
Even if the term ``error'' is not considered unambiguously to
encompass, under Chevron step 1, the mistake that EPA made in approving
the Texas PSD SIP, and instead is considered ambiguous on this
question, then under Chevron step 2 EPA has sufficient discretion to
determine that its approval action meets the definition of ``error.''
That is, under CAA section 110(k)(6), the breadth of the term ``error''
and of the authorization for EPA to ``determine[]'' when it made an
error, mean that EPA has sufficient discretion to identify the gaps in
Texas's PSD program as flawed and to identify EPA's action in approving
Texas's PSD SIP in the face of those flaws as an error.
c. Alternative Basis for Error Correction
As explained previously, we view Texas's recent statements that the
CAA does not apply to non-NAAQS pollutants and that Texas has neither
the authority nor the intention to apply PSD to GHGs as an indication
that at the time Texas submitted its PSD program, Texas did not address
the applicability its program to pollutants newly subject to regulation
or provide assurances that it legal authority to do so. Absent specific
evidence to the contrary, we are not inclined to conclude that at the
time EPA approved the Texas PSD program in 1992, Texas in fact had
filled those gaps--by, for example, providing assurances that it would
apply PSD to each newly regulated non-NAAQS pollutants and had the
legal authority to do so--but that more recently, Texas has failed to
comply with those assurances. The CAA is based on a partnership between
the states and the federal government, and we think it more consonant
with the principles of that partnership to interpret the evidence as
indicating that Texas never addressed the gap or provided the requisite
assurances.
However, in the alternative, if one were to conclude that during
the course of Texas's submittal of, and EPA's action on, the state's
PSD program, Texas did in fact provide the requisite assurances--in
particular, that the 1989 Texas PSD Commitment Letter provided adequate
assurances that Texas would apply PSD to pollutants newly subject to
regulation, including non-NAAQS--so that no gaps in Texas's PSD program
existed at that time, then Texas's recent statements would amount to
failing to comply with, or even rescinding, those assurances. Under
these circumstances, EPA would still consider its previous approval of
Texas's PSD SIP to have been in error. This is because if one assumes
that Texas provided the appropriate assurances, then one should also
assume that EPA's approval would have been based on those assurances.
In fact, EPA stated in approving the Texas PSD program that EPA was
relying on the Commitments Letter. Rescinding or failing to comply with
those assurances--if that is what Texas is considered to have done--
would eliminate the basis for EPA's approval. Compare CAA section
110(k)(4) (authorizing EPA to approve a SIP revision based on a
commitment by the state to adopt certain measures by a date certain,
but if the state does not do so, then the conditional approval is
treated as a disapproval).
B. Error Correction: Conversion of Previous Approval to Partial
Approval and Partial Disapproval
Under CAA section 110(k)(6), once EPA determines that its previous
action approving a SIP revision was in error, EPA ``may * * * revise
such action as
[[Page 82453]]
appropriate without requiring any further submission from the State. *
* *'' Under this provision, EPA may revise its previous full approval
of Texas's PSD program as appropriate, without requiring any submission
from Texas.
This provision offers EPA a great deal of discretion in revising
its previous action. Indeed, the use of the term ``may'' means that
this provision simply authorizes, and does not require, EPA to revise
its previous action even after EPA has determined the error, and that,
in turn, implies that EPA has discretion in determining how to revise
its previous action. Moreover, if EPA does decide to revise its
previous action, EPA may do so in any way that is ``appropriate.'' The
term ``appropriate'' offers EPA significant latitude in deciding what
type of revision to do.
Here, EPA is revising its previous full approval of Texas's PSD
program to be a partial approval and a partial disapproval.
Specifically, EPA is retaining the approval of Texas's PSD program to
the extent of the pollutants that the PSD program already does cover.
This amounts to a partial approval. In addition, EPA is disapproving
the Texas PSD program because it has not provided assurances that its
PSD program will apply to each pollutant newly subject to regulation,
including non-NAAQS pollutants, and because it has not provided
assurances of adequate legal authority to do so.
C. Reconsideration Under CAA Section 301, Other CAA Provisions, and
Case Law
As an alternative to the error correction provision of CAA section
110(k)(6), EPA is using its inherent administrative authority to
reconsider its prior approval actions as a basis for revising its
previous full approval of the Texas PSD program to a partial approval
and partial disapproval. This authority lies in CAA section 301(a),
read in conjunction with CAA section 110 and case law holding that an
agency has inherent authority to reconsider its prior actions.
As noted earlier, EPA approved the Texas PSD program by notice
dated June 24, 1992, 57 FR 28,093, under the authority of CAA section
110(k)(3)-(4). These provisions authorize EPA to approve a SIP
submittal ``as a whole,'' ``approve [the SIP submittal] in part and
disapprove [it] in part,'' or issue a ``conditional approval'' of a SIP
submittal. CAA section 110(k)(3)-(4). EPA issued a full approval under
CAA section 110(k)(3).
In its approval action under that provision, EPA retained inherent
authority to revise that action. The courts have found that an
administrative agency has the inherent authority to reconsider its
decisions, unless Congress specifically proscribes the agency's
discretion to do so. See, e.g., Gun South, Inc. v. Brady, 877 F.2d 858,
862 (11th Cir. 1989) (holding that agencies have implied authority to
reconsider and rectify errors even though the applicable statute and
regulations do not provide expressly for such reconsideration);
Trujillo v. General Electric Co., 621 F.2d 1084, 1086 (10th Cir. 1980)
(``Administrative agencies have an inherent authority to reconsider
their own decisions, since the power to decide in the first instance
carries with it the power to reconsider'').
Section 301(a) of the CAA, read in conjunction with CAA section
110(k)(3) and the case law just described, provides statutory authority
for EPA's reconsideration action in this rulemaking. Section 301(a)
authorizes EPA ``to prescribe such regulations as are necessary to
carry out [EPA's] functions'' under the CAA. Reconsidering prior
rulemakings, when necessary, is part of ``[EPA's] functions'' under the
CAA--in light of EPA's inherent authority as recognized under the case
law to do so--and as a result, CAA section 301(a) confers authority
upon EPA to undertake this rulemaking.
EPA finds further support for its authority to narrow its approval
in APA section 553(e), which requires EPA to give interested persons
``the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a
rule;'' and CAA section 307(b)(1), which expressly contemplates that
persons may file a petition for reconsideration under certain
circumstances (at the same time that a rule is under judicial review).
These authorizations for other persons to petition EPA to amend or
repeal a rule suggest that EPA has inherent authority, on its own, to
issue such amendment or repeal. This is because EPA may grant a
petition from another person for an amendment to or repeal of a rule
only if justified under the CAA, and if such an amendment or repeal is
justified under the CAA, then EPA should be considered as having
inherent authority to initiate the process on its own, even without a
petition from another person.
EPA recently used its authority to reconsider prior actions and
limit its prior approval of a SIP in connection with California
conformity SIPs. See, e.g., 68 FR 15720, 15723 (discussing prior action
taken to limit approvals); 67 FR 69139 (taking final action to amend
prior approvals to limit their duration); 67 FR 46618 (proposing to
amend prior approvals to limit their duration, based on CAA sections
110(k) and 301(a)). EPA had previously approved SIPs with emissions
budgets based on a mobile source model that was current at the time of
EPA's approval. Later, EPA updated the mobile source model. But, even
though the model had been updated, emissions budgets would continue to
be based on the older, previously approved model in the SIPs, rather
than the updated model. To rectify this problem, EPA conducted a
rulemaking that revised the previous SIP approvals so that the
approvals of the emissions budgets would expire early, when the new
ones were submitted by states and found adequate, rather than when a
SIP revision was approved. This helped California more quickly adjust
its regulations to incorporate the newer model. In this rule, EPA is
using its authority to reconsider and limit its prior approval of SIPs
generally in the same manner as it did in connection with California
conformity SIPs.
EPA is relying, in the alternative, on this inherent authority to
convert its previous approval of Texas's PSD program to a partial
approval and partial disapproval for the same reasons discussed
previously in connection with the ``error'' correction provision of CAA
section 110(k)(6). That is, EPA approved Texas's PSD program even
though that program had significant flaws because Texas did not provide
the requisite assurances that it would apply PSD to all pollutants
newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS, and that Texas had
adequate legal authority to do so.
EPA's inherent authority to reconsider its previous action also
supports revising its previous action in the same manner, and for the
same reasons, as under CAA section 110(k)(6), as described earlier.
That is, in light of the flaws in the Texas PSD program, EPA is
revising EPA's previous full approval to be a partial approval (to the
extent of the pollutants regulated under the CAA that are subject to
Texas's PSD program) and a partial disapproval (to the extent Texas's
program does not provide assurances that it will apply to pollutants
newly subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants).
D. Relationship of This Action to GHG PSD SIP Call
As noted previously, EPA has recently taken another action
concerning Texas's PSD program as that program relates to GHGs: the GHG
PSD SIP call, which we published by notice dated December 13, 2010, 75
FR 77698 (December 13, 2010). This section describes the relationship
of this error-correction/partial-
[[Page 82454]]
disapproval/FIP action to the SIP call. For convenience, the background
for the SIP call, although described in detail earlier in this
preamble, is reiterated here.
EPA promulgated the SIP call under CAA section 110(k)(5), which
provides:
Whenever the Administrator finds that the applicable
implementation plan for any area is substantially inadequate to * *
* comply with any requirement of [the CAA], the Administrator shall
require the State to revise the plan as necessary to correct such
inadequacies. The Administrator * * * may establish reasonable
deadlines (not to exceed 18 months after [notifying the state of the
inadequacies] for the submission of such plan revisions.
In the SIP call, EPA made a finding that the PSD SIPs of each of 13
states, including Texas, do not apply to GHG-emitting sources and
therefore are ``substantially inadequate to * * * comply with [the PSD
applicability] requirement[s]'' of the CAA. Accordingly, EPA required
each state, including Texas, to submit a corrective SIP revision. EPA
established a deadline for the SIP submittal for each state as 12
months from the date of the SIP call, or December 1, 2011, unless the
state indicated in its 30-day letter that it did not object to an
earlier deadline. Each state for which EPA would finalize the SIP call
submitted a 30-day letter, and each, except for Texas, indicated a date
sooner than December 1, 2011. Texas did not indicate any particular
date and, as a result, EPA established December 1, 2011 as Texas's
deadline. In addition, EPA stated that if Texas or any of the other
states failed to submit its corrective SIP revision by its deadline,
EPA intended to promulgate a FIP immediately thereafter.
The timing of the SIP call--both the time that EPA promulgated the
SIP call and the deadlines it established for SIP submittal--was driven
by the fact that the affected states did not have authority to issue
PSD permits to GHG-emitting sources and as a result, those sources
could face delays in construction and modification when they became
subject to PSD as early as January 2, 2011. EPA designed the SIP call
to maximize the opportunity of each affected state to assure that its
sources would have a permitting authority available as of that date or
a later date, if the state concluded that a later date would not leave
its sources facing delays. EPA did so by allowing each state
flexibility for its SIP submittal deadline.
Each of the affected states except Texas responded with a plan that
would assure that its sources would not confront permitting delays.
Most states--seven of the 13--indicated they would not object to EPA's
establishing a SIP submittal date of December 22, 2010, recognizing
that as a practical matter, that meant that EPA would promulgate a FIP
on December 23, 2010. The other five states indicated a later date, and
again, one indicated a date as late as July 1, 2011. This means that
purely as a legal matter, there will be no permitting authority in
place in those states to issue GHG permits on January 2, 2011, when
GHG-emitting sources become subject to PSD. Even so, the later dates
were acceptable to each of the five states because (i) they intended to
submit a SIP revision by their date, and (ii) they did not expect the
lack of a permitting authority during the period before their deadline
to place their sources at risk for delays in construction or expansion.
Texas responded differently than the other states. In its 30-day
letter, Texas did not indicate a particular date for its SIP submittal,
and as a result, EPA, as we had proposed, established Texas's deadline
at December 1, 2011. But shortly before submitting its 30-day letter,
Texas stated, in its 60-day letter, that ``Texas has neither the
authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring, or amending its
laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emission.''
\81\ Texas has never qualified this statement, and as a result, EPA
reads this statement to indicate that Texas does not intend to submit a
SIP revision as required under the SIP call.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\81\ Texas's 60-day letter, p. 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This means that a permitting authority for GHG-emitting sources
would not be in place until EPA promulgated a FIP, no earlier than
December 2, 2011. Importantly, Texas has indicated that this one-year
delay in the availability of a permitting authority would, in fact,
mean that under EPA's interpretation of the CAA, Texas's sources would
face delays in constructing and modifying.\82\ Moreover, Texas
indicated that during 2011, some 167 construction or modification
projects would be affected,\83\ which are significantly more sources
than any other state.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\82\ Texas 30-day letter, at 5, 6; Texas ``Motion to Stay Three
GHG Actions'' 40-41, Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA,
No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases).
\83\ See Texas ``Motion to Stay Three GHG Actions'' 41,
Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and
consolidated cases).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moreover, Texas's indication that it does not intend to submit a
SIP revision, and that it does not consider its PSD program as being
required to apply to non-NAAQS pollutants, including GHGs, have cast a
spotlight on underlying flaws in Texas's fully approved PSD SIP, and
that, in turn, has brought into play the error-correction provision in
CAA section 110(k)(6). All this is discussed in detail earlier in this
preamble, but to reiterate for convenience: CAA section 110(k)(6)
provides, ``Whenever the Administrator determines that the
Administrator's action approving * * * any [SIP] * * * was in error,
the Administrator may * * * revise such action as appropriate.* * *''
Here, the Texas SIP was flawed at the time EPA approved it because it
did not address, or assure adequate legal authority for, application of
the PSD program to pollutants newly subject to regulation, including
non-NAAQS pollutants. As a result, EPA has the authority to determine
that its full approval of the SIP was ``in error'' and to convert that
action to a partial approval/partial disapproval; and as a result of
that, EPA is authorized to promulgate a FIP immediately.
This is an important reason why EPA is proceeding with this error-
correction/partial-disapproval rulemaking at this time. By allowing EPA
to implement a FIP immediately, instead of waiting until December,
2011; EPA may act as the permitting authority in Texas beginning
January 2, 2011, and in that capacity, allow Texas sources to avoid
delays in construction or modification.
With the present rulemaking, EPA has both (i) promulgated a SIP
call and established a SIP deadline of December 1, 2011 for Texas,
under CAA section 110(k)(5); and (ii) corrected its error in previous
fully approving Texas's PSD program by converting that action to a
partial approval and partial disapproval, under CAA section 110(k)(6),
and then promulgating a FIP immediately under CAA section 110(c)(1)(B).
For the reasons just discussed, each of these actions is fully
justified under the applicable CAA provisions.
Moreover, there is no preclusion against taking both of these
actions with respect to Texas at this time, for the following reasons:
First, the two actions are based on CAA provisions--CAA section
110(k)(5) (SIP call), and section 110(k)(6) (error correction)--that
overlap, so that it is to be expected that circumstances may arise in
which both apply. If EPA approves a flawed SIP, then circumstances
could well arise under which EPA has a basis for concluding both that
(i) the SIP is ``substantially inadequate'' to meet a CAA requirement,
under CAA section 110(k)(5); and (ii) EPA's action in approving the SIP
was ``in error,'' under CAA section 110(k)(6). The same flaw in
[[Page 82455]]
the SIP would be the basis for each of those actions.\84\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\84\ In contrast, situations could also arise in which EPA has a
basis for imposing a SIP call but not issuing an error correction
because the SIP currently has a substantial inadequacy but was not
flawed at the time of its submittal and approval.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is case with EPA's two actions concerning Texas. As EPA stated
in the SIP call, the basis for the finding of ``substantial
inadequacy'' was the failure of Texas's approved SIP PSD program to
apply to GHGs, which was rooted in the program's failure to apply
pollutants newly subject to regulation. As EPA stated earlier in this
preamble, the basis for the determination that EPA's previous full
approval of Texas's SIP was ``in error'' was the gap in the SIP due to
the SIP's failure to address, or assure that it has adequate legal
authority for, the application to pollutants newly subject to
regulation.\85\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\85\ In this case, the substantial inadequacy for which EPA
issued the SIP call, which was the PSD program's failure to apply to
GHGs, is narrower than the flaw in the SIP for which EPA is issuing
the error correction, which is the PSD program's failure to address,
or assure legal authority for, application of PSD to all pollutants
newly subject to regulation. In another case, it is conceivable that
the opposite would be true, that the substantial inadequacy would be
broader than the flaw in the SIP for which EPA issues the error
correction. In that case, if EPA imposed a FIP after the deadline
for SIP submittal related to the SIP call, the FIP would be broader
than the FIP imposed after the disapproval related to the error
correction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Second, each provision, by its terms, is discretionary to EPA, and
neither provision precludes the application of the other. CAA section
110(k)(5) applies ``[w]henever the Administrator finds'' that the SIP
is substantially inadequate. CAA section 110(k)(6) applies ``[w]henever
the Administrator determines'' that her previous action was in error.
Neither provision references the other. Neither provision includes any
requirement or limitation that constrains the application of the other
at any time.
Third, each provision serves a different purpose and when applied
to this case--including in conjunction with the FIP provision in CAA
section 110(c)(1)--leads to a different outcome, but each outcome is
neither dependent on, or compromised by, the other outcome. CAA section
110(k)(5), as applied in the current case, is focused on a present
problem with the SIP, that is, a ``substantial [ ] inadequacy'' that
presently exists. This provision mandates that EPA require a corrective
SIP revision to address that inadequacy, but further provides that EPA
must allow a reasonable deadline for the state to submit the SIP
revision. In the GHG PSD SIP call, EPA allowed states to, in effect,
choose within a range of deadlines. But if the state fails to submit
the required SIP revision by its deadline, then EPA is required to
promulgate a FIP under CAA section 110(c)(1)(A). CAA section 110(k)(6),
as it applies in the current case, is focused on a past problem with
SIP, that is, a flaw that existed at the time EPA approved the SIP, so
that EPA's approval was ``in error.'' This provision authorizes EPA to
convert the approval to a disapproval, but does not mandate that the
State submit a new SIP revision. This is because the state has already
submitted a SIP revision, the one that is flawed, and EPA has acted on
it. Instead, EPA is required to promulgate a FIP under CAA section
110(c)(1)(B), and EPA may do so immediately.
Viewing the two provisions as applied here together: (i) CAA
section 110(k)(5) allows EPA to exercise its discretion to make a
finding that Texas's SIP is ``substantially inadequate,'' and then to
establish a SIP submittal schedule for Texas, one that is consistent
with whatever choice as to deadline Texas had available to it; and (ii)
CAA section 110(k)(6) allows EPA to exercise its discretion to convert
its previous approval of Texas's SIP, which EPA made ``in error,'' to a
disapproval, and then to promulgate a FIP immediately. The requirement
that Texas submit a corrective SIP revision and do so by a date
certain--a date that Texas exercised some control over--serves the
useful function of establishing a mechanism and a timeframe for Texas
to address the substantial inadequacy in its PSD SIP.\86\ The immediate
promulgation of a FIP serves the useful purpose of assuring the
availability of a permitting authority as of January 2, 2011, so that
Texas sources will not face delays in their plans to construct or
modify. Importantly, the immediate promulgation of a FIP through this
rulemaking does not compromise in any manner the SIP submittal deadline
established for Texas through the SIP call. After EPA's promulgation of
the FIP, Texas remains obligated to submit the corrective SIP revision
by December 1, 2011. As soon as Texas does submit that SIP revision and
EPA approves it, EPA will rescind the FIP. It is always the case that
when EPA has promulgated a FIP of any type in a particular state, the
state remains obligated to adopt a SIP revision. Nothing about a FIP
impedes the state from doing so; and when the state does so and EPA
approves the SIP revision, then EPA rescinds the FIP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\86\ We recognize that Texas has indicated that it does not
intend to submit a SIP revision, but this does not eliminate the
utility of establishing a SIP submittal schedule.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is true that one of the purposes of the SIP call, as applied
here, is to allow states to in effect select an early FIP--by selecting
an early SIP submittal date and then not submitting a SIP by that
date--so as to assure the availability of a permitting authority for
their sources by that early date. And it is further true that Texas, in
its 30-day letter, chose not to select such an early date and, on the
contrary, stated its opposition to a FIP; yet, in this present
rulemaking, EPA is promulgating an immediate FIP for Texas. But this
does not mean that the present rulemaking has compromised the SIP call
or any choices made available to Texas in the SIP call. The focus of
the SIP call, as it related to Texas, was the finding of a substantial
inadequacy in Texas's PSD program, the imposition of a requirement for
Texas to submit a corrective SIP revision, and--based on Texas's
choice--the establishment of a deadline of December 1, 2011 for Texas
to do so. The promulgation of an immediate FIP through the present
rulemaking does not disturb that. Texas remains subject to the December
1, 2011, SIP submittal schedule that EPA established for it, based on
Texas's decision not to respond directly to EPA's request that Texas
itself identify a deadline.\87\ Texas's expressed opposition to a FIP
does not preclude EPA from imposing one as justified through the
present rulemaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\87\ In any event, to conclude that the promulgation of a FIP
under this error-correction rulemaking compromised the SIP call
rulemaking would be tantamount to concluding that the SIP call
should somehow take priority over this error correction. There would
be no basis for taking that position. Each action is fully
justifiable in its own right. The process of completing one before
the other does not give the first one a priority simply because it
is first any more than that process would give the second a priority
because the latter is more recent.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is also true that, as EPA stated in the SIP call, ``federalism
principles * * * underlie the SIP call process and the SIP system as a
whole,'' and that means that ``in the first instance, it is to the
state to whom falls the responsibility of developing pollution controls
through an implementation plan.'' 75 FR 77710/2. And it is further true
that the immediate promulgation of a FIP through the present error-
correction action means that a FIP will be in place in Texas before the
December 1, 2011 deadline established under the SIP call for Texas to
adopt its SIP. However, imposition of the FIP is fully justified under
this error-correction action, as discussed previously, and is essential
to assure that Texas sources will not face delays
[[Page 82456]]
in construction or modification, a risk that Texas acknowledges will
occur under EPA's interpretation of the applicable CAA requirements. In
any event, Texas's statement that ``Texas has neither the authority nor
the intention of interpreting, ignoring, or amending its laws in order
to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emission,'' \88\ as we read
it, is tantamount to a direct statement that it does not intend to
submit a GHG PSD SIP revision, and is a direct statement that it does
not intend to require its sources to obtain permits for their GHG
emissions. Accordingly, it is difficult to see how it could
meaningfully be claimed that an early FIP, promulgated through this
rulemaking, could displace any prerogatives Texas may have under the
SIP call to develop its own SIP revision before the imposition of a FIP
or to exercise control over the permitting of GHG emissions of its
sources. Similarly, Texas has stated that it does not believe that
EPA's FIP will be effective because, according to Texas, EPA will be
unable to issue permits for a lengthy period due to uncertain over how
to apply PSD requirements to GHG-emitting sources.\89\ Accordingly, it
is difficult to see how it could meaningfully be claimed that a FIP,
which Texas considers ineffective, could adversely affect Texas's
interests.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\88\ Texas 60-day letter, p. 1.
\89\ Texas 30-day letter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is also true that under the principles of federalism that
underlie the SIP system, states exercise some discretion over controls
for their industry, so that a state may impose more stringent controls
than minimum CAA requirements. CAA section 116. But this discretion
does not mean that Texas is authorized to create the circumstances
under which its sources face delays in constructing or modifying and
EPA is precluded from promulgating a FIP--when justified under this
rulemaking--for the purpose of protecting those sources against such
delays. Absent this action, Texas sources would face delays in
construction and modification resulting from Texas's decision during
the course of the SIP call to neither adopt a SIP promptly nor
facilitate an early FIP. Those delays do not result from Texas's
decision to impose more stringent controls than the CAA requires. On
the contrary, Texas's action is inconsistent with one of the purposes
of the PSD provisions, which is ``to insure that economic growth will
occur in a manner consistent with the preservation of clean air
resources.'' CAA section 160(3). EPA is justified in interpreting and
applying CAA section 110(k)(6) to correct errors related to Texas's SIP
PSD program in order to effectuate this purpose of PSD. The D.C.
Circuit has held that the terms of the PSD provisions should be
interpreted with the PSD purposes in mind, New York v. EPA, 413 F.3d 3,
23 (DC Cir.), rehearing en banc den., 431 F.3d 801 (2005), and the same
should be true of CAA section 110(k)(5) as applied to PSD requirements.
E. Relationship of This Rulemaking to Other States
EPA is not, at this time, undertaking a similar error-correction
rulemaking for any of the other states that are subject to the SIP
call. EPA has discretion as to whether and when to undertake such a
rulemaking, and each of the other states has chosen a course of action
that at present appears to assure that its large GHG-emitting sources
will have a permitting authority available when the sources need one,
and therefore will not face delays in constructing or modifying. As a
result, EPA has not inquired into whether any of these other states
have flaws in their SIP PSD programs as Texas does.
V. Federal Implementation Plan
A. Authority To Promulgate a FIP
In this rulemaking, EPA is promulgating a FIP to apply EPA's PSD
regulatory program to GHG-emitting sources in Texas and to commit to
take action as appropriate with respect to pollutants that become newly
subject to regulation.
The CAA authority for EPA to promulgate a FIP is found in CAA
section 110(c)(1), which provides--
The Administrator shall promulgate a Federal implementation plan
at any time within 2 years after the Administrator * * * (B)
disapproves a State implementation plan submission in whole or in
part, unless the State corrects the deficiency, and the
Administrator approves the plan or plan revision, before the
Administrator promulgates such [FIP].
As indicated earlier in this notice, EPA is partially disapproving
Texas's PSD program by correcting EPA's previous full approval to be a
partial approval and disapproval. Accordingly, under CAA section
110(c)(1)(B), EPA is required to promulgate a PSD FIP for Texas.
The FIP must be designed to address the flaws in Texas's PSD
program. As discussed earlier in this preamble, the Texas PSD program
contains significant gaps: It does not address, or provide assurances
of adequate legal authority for, application to pollutants newly
subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants. As a practical
matter, at present, the only pollutant the program does not address is
GHGs. Accordingly, the FIP applies the EPA regulatory PSD program to
GHGs. In addition, the FIP commits to address pollutants that become
newly subject to regulation, as appropriate.
B. Timing of FIP
EPA is promulgating the FIP in this rulemaking, so that it takes
effect immediately upon the partial disapproval. This timing for FIP
promulgation is authorized under CAA section 110(c)(1), which
authorizes us to promulgate a FIP ``at any time within 2 years after''
EPA disapproves a SIP submission in whole or in part. The quoted
phrase, by its terms, establishes a two-year period within which EPA
must promulgate the FIP, and provides no further constraints on timing.
Accordingly, this provision gives EPA discretion to promulgate the FIP
at any point in time within that two-year period, and in this
rulemaking, EPA is promulgating the FIP immediately.
The reason why we are exercising our discretion to promulgate the
FIP immediately is to minimize any period of time during which larger-
emitting sources in Texas may be under an obligation to obtain PSD
permits for their GHGs when they construct or modify, but no permitting
authority is authorized to issue those permits. We believe that acting
immediately is in the best interests of the regulated community. Note
that for similar reasons, in EPA's recently promulgated SIP call, EPA
stated that if a state failed to submit its required SIP revision by
its deadline, EPA would immediately make a finding of failure to submit
and immediately thereafter promulgate a FIP. 75 FR 53889/2.
The lack of constraints in CAA section 110(c)(1)(B) stands in
contrast to other CAA provisions that do impose requirements for the
timing of proposals. See CAA sections 109(a)(1)(A), 111(b)(1)(B). In
light of the lack of constraints, EPA was free to promulgate the FIP
concurrently with the disapproval action.
C. Substance of GHG PSD FIP
1. Components of FIP
The FIP consists of two components. The first mirrors the GHG PSD
FIP that EPA is promulgating for seven states for which EPA issued the
PSD GHG SIP call and, subsequently, issued a finding of failure to
submit a required SIP submittal. Thus, this component of the FIP
constitutes the EPA regulations found in 40 CFR 52.21, including the
[[Page 82457]]
PSD applicability provisions, with a limitation to assure that,
strictly for purposes of this rulemaking, the FIP applies only to GHGs.
Under the PSD applicability provisions in 40 CFR 52.21(b)(50), the PSD
program applies to sources that emit the requisite amounts of any
``regulated NSR pollutant[s],'' including any air pollutant ``subject
to regulation.'' However, Texas's partially approved SIP already
applies PSD to other air pollutants. To appropriately limit the scope
of the FIP, EPA amends 40 CFR 52.21(b)(50), as incorporated into the
Texas FIP, to limit the applicability provision to GHGs.
We adopt this FIP because, as we stated in the proposed GHG PSD
FIP--
It would, to the greatest extent possible, mirror EPA regulations
(as well as those of most of the states). In addition, this FIP
would readily incorporate the phase-in approach for PSD
applicability to GHG sources that EPA has developed in the Tailoring
Rule and expects to develop further through additional rulemaking.
As explained in the Tailoring Rule, incorporating this phase-in
approach--including Steps 1 and 2 of the phase-in as promulgated in
the Tailoring Rule--can be most readily accomplished through
interpretation of the terms in the definition ``regulated NSR
pollutant,'' including the term ``subject to regulation.''
In accordance with the Tailoring Rule, * * * the FIP would apply
in Step 1 of the phase-in approach only to ``anyway sources'' (that
is, sources undertaking construction or modification projects that
are required to apply for PSD permits anyway due to their non-GHG
emissions and that emit GHGs in the amount of at least 75,000 tpy on
a CO2e basis) and would apply in Step 2 of the phase-in
approach to both ``anyway sources'' and sources that meet the
100,000/75,000-tpy threshold (that is, (i) sources that newly
construct and would not be subject to PSD on account of their non-
GHG emissions, but that emit GHGs in the amount of at least 100,000
tpy CO2e, and (ii) existing sources that emit GHGs in the
amount of at least 100,000 tpy CO2e, that undertake
modifications that would not trigger PSD on the basis of their non-
GHG emissions, but that increase GHGs by at least 75,000 tpy
CO2e).
Under the FIP, with respect to permits for ``anyway sources,''
EPA will be responsible for acting on permit applications for only
the GHG portion of the permit, and the state will retain
responsibility for the rest of the permit. Likewise, with respect to
permits for sources that meet the 100,000/75,000-tpy threshold, our
preferred approach--for reasons of consistency--is that EPA will be
responsible for acting on permit applications for only the GHG
portion of the permit, that the state permitting authorities will be
responsible for the non-GHG portion of the permit, and EPA will
coordinate with the state permitting authority as needed in order to
fully cover any non-GHG emissions that, for example, are subject to
BACT because they exceed the significance levels.
75 FR 53889/3 to 53,890/1.
This formulation of the FIP is authorized because it is part of the
``appropriate'' action EPA is authorized to take as part of EPA's
correction of its previous, erroneous full approval, under CAA section
110(k)(6).
The second component of the FIP consists of a commitment that EPA
will take such action as is appropriate to ensure that pollutants that
become newly subject to regulation are subject to the FIP. If a
pollutant becomes newly subject to regulation in the future, and if
Texas does not take steps to subject it to its PSD program, then EPA
will take the appropriate action.
2. Dual Permitting Authorities
In the GHG PSD FIP proposal, commenters raised concerns about how
having EPA issue the GHG portions of a permit while allowing states
under a FIP to continue to be responsible for issuing the non-GHG
portions of a PSD permit will work in practice. Commenters specifically
identified the potential for a source to be faced with conflicting
requirements and the need to mediate among permit engineers making BACT
decisions.
We well recognize that dividing permitting responsibilities between
two authorities--EPA for GHGs and the state for all other pollutants--
will require close coordination between the two authorities to avoid
duplication, conflicting determinations, and delays. We note that this
situation is not without precedent. In many instances, EPA has been the
PSD permitting authority but the state has accepted a delegation for
parts of the PSD program, so that a source has had to go to both the
state and EPA for its permit. In addition, all nonattainment areas in
the nation are in attainment or are unclassifiable for at least one
pollutant, so that every nonattainment area is also a PSD area. In some
of these areas, the state is the permitting authority for nonattainment
NSR and EPA is the permitting authority for PSD. As a result, there are
instances in which a new or modifying source in such an area has needed
a nonattainment NSR permit from the state and a PSD permit from EPA.
EPA is working expeditiously to develop recommended approaches for
EPA regions and affected states to use in addressing the shared
responsibility of issuing PSD permits for GHG-emitting sources.
In addition, we note that the concern over dual permitting
authorities would become moot if Texas were either to submit and EPA
approve a SIP revision that applies PSD to GHGs or request a delegation
of permitting responsibility. If it did request and receive a
delegation, it would be responsible for issuing both the GHG part and
the non-GHG part of the permit, and that would moot concerns about
split-permitting.
D. Period for GHG PSD FIP To Remain in Place
In the FIP proposal, we stated our intention to leave any
promulgated FIP in place for as short a period as possible, and to
process any corrective SIP revision submitted by the state to fulfill
the requirements of the SIP call as expeditiously as possible.
Specifically, we stated:
After we have promulgated a FIP, it must remain in place until
the state submits a SIP revision and we approve that SIP revision.
CAA section 110(c)(1). Under the present circumstances, we will act
on a SIP revision to apply the PSD program to GHG sources as quickly
as possible. Upon request of the state, we will parallel-process the
SIP submittal. That is, if the state submits to us the draft SIP
submittal for which the state intends to hold a hearing, we will
propose the draft SIP submittal for approval and open a comment
period during the same time as the state hearing. If the SIP
submittal that the state ultimately submits to us is substantially
similar to the draft SIP submittal, we will proceed to take final
action without a further proposal or comment period. If we approve
such a SIP revision, we will at the same time rescind the FIP.
75 FR 53889/2-3.
We continue to have these same intentions. Thus, we reaffirm our
intention to leave the GHG PSD FIP in place only as long as is
necessary for the state to submit and for EPA to approve a SIP revision
that includes PSD permitting for GHG-emitting sources. As discussed in
more detail later in this preamble, EPA continues to believe that the
states should remain the primary permitting authority.
Specifically, EPA will rescind the FIP, in full or in part, if (i)
Texas submits, and EPA approves, a SIP revision to apply Texas's PSD
program to GHG-emitting sources, (ii) Texas provides assurances that in
the future, it will apply its PSD program to all pollutants newly
subject to regulation, including non-NAAQS pollutants, and (iii) Texas
provides ``necessary assurances'' under CAA section 110(a)(2)(E)(ii)
that it ``will have adequate * * * authority under State law'' to apply
its PSD program to such pollutants.
E. Primacy of Texas's SIP process
This action to partially approve and partially disapprove Texas's
SIP PSD
[[Page 82458]]
program and to promulgate a FIP is secondary to our overarching goal,
which is to assure that it will be Texas that will be the permitting
authority. EPA continues to recognize that Texas is best suited to the
task of permitting because the state and its sources have experience
working together in the state PSD program to process permit
applications. EPA seeks to remain solely in its primary role of
providing guidance and acting as a resource for Texas as it makes the
various required permitting decisions for GHG emissions.
Accordingly, we are prepared to work closely with Texas to help it
promptly develop and submit to us a SIP revision that extends its PSD
program to GHG-emitting sources and that assures that the program will
apply to each pollutant newly subject to regulation in the future. If
Texas submits such a SIP revision, we intend to promptly act on it, and
if we approve it, then we intend to rescind the FIP immediately. Again,
EPA's goal is to have in place in Texas the necessary permitting
authority by the time businesses seeking construction permits need to
have their applications processed and the permits issued--and to
achieve that outcome by means of engaging with Texas directly through a
concerted process of consultation and support.
EPA is taking up the additional task of partially disapproving
Texas's PSD program and promulgating the FIP at this time only because
the Agency believes it is compelled to do so by the need to assure
businesses, to the maximum extent possible and as promptly as possible,
that a permitting authority is available to process PSD permit
applications for GHG-emitting sources once they become subject to PSD
requirements on January 2, 2011. At the same time, we invite Texas to
accept a delegation of authority to implement the FIP, so that it will
still be the state that processes the permit applications, albeit
operating under federal law.
VI. Interim Final Rule, Good Cause Exception
EPA is issuing this action as an interim final rule. As an interim
final rule, this action is time-limited. It will be effective from the
date of signature until the earlier of April 30, 2011 or the date that
EPA promulgates final rules on its proposals for (i) a partial approval
and partial disapproval of Texas's PSD SIP and (ii) a FIP for Texas's
PSD program and those final rules take effect.
The present rule is effective upon publication, without first
undergoing notice and comment. Under APA section 553, a federal agency
generally must provide for public notice and comment prior to
finalizing an agency rule. However, this obligation is excused, under
APA section 553(b)(3)(B), ``when the agency for good cause finds (and
incorporates the finding and a brief statement of reasons therefore in
the rules issued) that notice and public procedure thereon are
impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.'' While
the good cause exception is to be narrowly construed, Utility Solid
Waste Activities Group v. Environmental Protection Agency, 236 F.3d
749, 754 (DC Cir. 2001), it is also ``an important safety valve to be
used where delay would do real harm.'' U.S. Steel Corp. v. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 595 F.2d 207, 214 (5th Cir. 1979).
Notice and comment is impracticable where ``an agency finds that due
and timely execution of its functions would be impeded by the notice
otherwise required.'' Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, 236 F.3d at
754. Notice and comment is contrary to the public interest where ``the
interest of the public would be defeated by any requirement of advance
notice.'' Id. at 755.
Notice and comment here would be contrary to the public interest.
As discussed previously, major stationary sources of GHG emissions will
be subject to PSD permitting requirements as of January 2, 2011, a date
which is rapidly approaching. As of that date, no major stationary
source emitting GHG at or above the levels set in the Tailoring Rule
will be able to construct or modify without first obtaining a permit
for its GHG emissions. In the absence of this rule, such sources will
have no permitting authority from which to obtain such a permit.
Without a permitting authority in place, sources would be subject to
delays in construction or modification, causing economic harm to those
sources and to others secondarily affected.
Specifically, the State of Texas has estimated that 167 sources
will require GHG permits in 2011.\90\ This is a substantial number of
entities and the economic harm that they face as a result of permitting
delays could affect a substantial number of related entities,
employees, shareholders, and the public.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\90\ ``State Of Texas's Motion for Stay of EPA's Endangerment
Finding, Time Rule and Tailpipe Rule,'' Coalition for Responsible
Regulation v. EPA, No. 09-1322 (and consolidated cases) at 41.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This rule serves the necessary function of ensuring that a
permitting authority is available to issue permits for these sources,
and thus that large sources in Texas do not face a long delay in their
ability to construct or modify. The public interest would certainly be
hindered if EPA did not act now to ensure that economic progress is not
impeded by a lack of access to an authorized permitting authority.
The good cause exception also applies here because of the
impracticability of notice and comment. EPA only recently became aware
that no GHG PSD permitting authority would be authorized to issue
permits to Texas sources on January 2, 2011, and thus had insufficient
time to seek public comment before acting. As discussed previously,
Texas submitted its 60-day letter to EPA on August 2, 2010; it
submitted its Motion to Stay Three GHG Actions on September 15, 2010;
and it submitted its 30-day letter to EPA on October 4, 2010. It was
only after having received and analyzed all of these recent documents
that it became clear that, due to underlying flaws in the Texas SIP PSD
program and to Texas's position regarding amending its SIP or seeking a
FIP, all as described earlier, no permitting authority had authority to
issue GHG PSD permits as of January 2, 2011, and that there was no
other way besides this rulemaking action to ameliorate that situation
in a timely manner. The EPA's agency functions would be compromised if
it must impose legal obligations on sources when sources have no legal
means to fulfill those obligations. In light of the limited time frame
and the harmful effects on sources if this action is delayed, notice
and comment is impracticable.
In addition, the public has had and will have some opportunity to
comment. The public was given the opportunity to comment on some of the
issues in this action in response to proposals for the Tailoring Rule
and the GHG PSD SIP call. This rule is also only an interim rule; the
public will be given full opportunity to comment on the permanent rule
that EPA is concurrently proposing, which mirrors this rule. By issuing
this rule as an interim final rule, paired with a comment period on the
proposal for more permanent action, EPA is providing as much
opportunity for notice and comment as possible on the issues presented
by this rule, and is striving to replace this rule with a rule
encompassing that further comment as soon as is reasonably possible.
For the same reasons cited earlier, EPA finds that there is good
cause for this rule to take immediate effect. In addition, since this
is not a major rule under the Congressional Review Act, the 60-day
delay in effective date
[[Page 82459]]
required for major rules under the CRA does not apply.
EPA is taking this action to do an error correction under CAA
section 110(k)(6) ``in the same manner as [EPA's previous] approval''
of the Texas PSD program. The term ``in the same manner'' is not
defined by statute, and it therefore takes on its ordinary, everyday
meaning. It is a broad term, and thus undergoing any proper type of
rulemaking process should be considered to be ``in the same manner'' as
undergoing a proper rulemaking process of any other type. Both the
original approval of Texas's SIP and this action are rulemakings,
conducted in accordance with the rulemaking process. It is immaterial
that the original approval underwent notice and comment, and this
action is subject to the good cause exception, since both of these
processes are provided for by the prescribed agency rulemaking process.
VII. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
A. Executive Order 12866--Regulatory Planning and Review
Under Executive Order (EO) 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993),
this action is a ``significant regulatory action'' because it raises
novel legal or policy issues. Accordingly, EPA submitted this action to
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under EO 12866 and
any changes made in response to OMB recommendations have been
documented in the docket for this action.
B. Paperwork Reduction Act
This action does not impose any new information collection burden.
The OMB has previously approved the information collection requirements
contained in the existing regulations for PSD (see, e.g., 40 CFR 52.21)
under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et
seq. and has assigned OMB control number 2060-0003. The OMB control
numbers for EPA's regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9.
C. Regulatory Flexibility Act
This interim final rule is not subject to the Regulatory
Flexibility Act (RFA) which generally requires an agency to prepare a
regulatory flexibility analysis for any rule that will have a
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
The RFA applies only to rules subject to notice-and-comment rulemaking
requirements under the APA or any other statute. This rule is not
subject to notice-and-comment requirements under the APA or any other
statute because, although the rule is subject to the APA, the agency
has invoked the ``good cause'' exemption under 5 U.S.C. 553(b);
therefore, it is not subject to the notice and comment requirement.
Notwithstanding the previous conclusion, EPA is publishing a
proposed rule in this Federal Register that mirrors this interim final
rule, and the applicability of the RFA is addressed further in that
proposed rule.
D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
This action contains no federal mandates under the provisions of
Title II of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA, 2 U.S.C.
1531-1538) for state, local or tribal governments or the private
section. The action imposes no enforceable duty on any state, local or
tribal governments or the private sector. With this action, EPA is only
revising its previous approval of the Texas PSD SIP to be a partial
approval and partial disapproval and promulgating a FIP to address the
deficiencies as authorized by the CAA. Thus, this rule is not subject
to the requirements of sections 202 or 205 of UMRA.
This action is also not subject to the requirements of section 203
of UMRA because it contains no regulatory requirements that might
significantly or uniquely affect small governments.
E. Executive Order 13132--Federalism
This action does not have federalism implications. It will not have
substantial direct effects on Texas, on the relationship between the
national government and Texas, or on the distribution of power and
responsibilities among the various levels of government, as specified
in Executive Order 13132. With this action, EPA is only revising its
previous approval of the Texas PSD SIP to be a partial approval and
partial disapproval and promulgating a FIP to address the deficiencies
as authorized by the CAA. Thus, Executive Order 13132 does not apply to
this action.
In the spirit of Executive Order 13132, and consistent with EPA
policy to promote communications between EPA and state and local
governments, EPA is specifically soliciting comment on the proposed
rule also published in this Federal Register that mirrors this interim
final rule.
F. Executive Order 13175--Consultation and Coordination With Indian
Tribal Governments
This action does not have tribal implications, as specified in
Executive Order 13175 (65 FR 67249, November 9, 2000). In this action,
EPA is not addressing any tribal implementation plans. This action is
limited to Texas's PSD SIP. Thus, Executive Order 13175 does not apply
to this action.
G. Executive Order 13045--Protection of Children From Environmental
Health Risks and Safety Risks
EPA interprets EO 13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997) as applying
only to those regulatory actions that concern health or safety risks,
such that the analysis required under section 5-501 of the EO has the
potential to influence the regulation. This action is not subject to EO
13045 because EPA is only revising its previous approval of the Texas
PSD SIP to be a partial approval and partial disapproval and
promulgating a FIP to address the deficiencies as authorized by the
CAA.
H. Executive Order 13211--Actions Concerning Regulations That
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use
This action is not a ``significant energy action'' as defined in
Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 28355 (May 22, 2001)), because it is not
likely to have a significant adverse effect on the supply,
distribution, or use of energy. With this action, EPA is only revising
its previous approval of the Texas PSD SIP to be a partial approval and
partial disapproval and promulgating a FIP to address the deficiencies
as authorized by the CAA.
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, 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. NTTAA directs EPA to provide
Congress, through OMB, explanations when the Agency decides not to use
available and applicable voluntary consensus standards.
This rulemaking does not involve technical standards. Therefore,
EPA is not considering the use of any voluntary consensus standards.
[[Page 82460]]
J. Executive Order 12898--Federal Actions To Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations
Executive Order 12898 (59 FR 7629, February 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 U.S.
EPA has determined that this interim final 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 level of protection provided to human health or the
environment. With this action, EPA is only revising its previous
approval of the Texas PSD SIP to be a partial approval and partial
disapproval and promulgating a FIP to address the deficiencies as
authorized by the CAA.
K. Congressional Review Act
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 808 allows the issuing agency to
make a rule effective sooner than otherwise provided by the CRA if the
agency makes a good cause finding that notice and public procedure is
impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. This
determination must be supported by a brief statement, 5 U.S.C. 808(2).
As stated previously, EPA has made such a good cause finding, including
the reasons therefore, and established an effective date of December
30, 2010. EPA will submit a report containing this rule and other
required information to the United States Senate, the United States
House of Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United
States prior to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. This
action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).
VIII. Judicial Review
Section 307(b)(1) of the CAA specifies which Federal Courts of
Appeal have jurisdiction to hear petitions for review of which final
actions by EPA. This section provides, in part, that petitions for
review must be filed in the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit: (i) When the agency action consists of ``nationally
applicable regulations promulgated, or final actions taken, by the
Administrator,'' or (ii) when such action is locally or regionally
applicable, if ``such action is based on a determination of nationwide
scope or effect and if in taking such action the Administrator finds
and publishes that such action is based on such a determination.''
This rule is based on a determination of nationwide scope or
effect. Texas's response to the SIP call--including Texas's statements
that it does not intend to submit a SIP revision and its decision not
to identify a SIP submittal deadline, which have placed its sources at
risk for delays in construction or modification--led us to determine
that we should examine whether there may be a flaw in Texas's SIP that
was present at the time of our approval. We then conducted a closer
inquiry and on the basis of that, we are concluding that in fact a flaw
was present. As a result, we are authorized to undertake an error
correction, as we are doing in this rulemaking. For all other states
subject to the SIP call, their response to the SIP call--which did not
raise the concerns Texas's did and which assured that their sources
would not be at risk for delays in construction or modification--lead
us to determine that it was not necessary to examine further whether
their SIPs were flawed at the time we approved them. That
determination--whether to examine the SIPs further--is a determination
of nationwide scope or effect because it affected Texas and the 12
other states subject to the SIP call. Further indication that this
determination of nationwide scope or effect is that EPA is making it as
part of the complex of rules EPA has promulgated to implement the GHG
PSD program for each of the states in the nation. Those rules include
(i) the Tailoring Rule and the Johnson Memo Reconsideration, which
revise EPA regulations to incorporate the Tailoring Rule thresholds,
and which apply in each state that does not have an approved SIP PSD
program, and therefore operates under EPA's regulations; (ii) the SIP
call, which applies in each state that has an EPA-approved SIP PSD
program but does not apply that program to GHG-emitting sources; and
(iii) the PSD Narrowing rule, which applies in each state that has an
EPA-approved SIP PSD program that does apply to GHG-emitting sources.
Thus, under section 307(b)(1) of the Act, judicial review of this
final action is available by filing of a petition for review in the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by February
28, 2011.
IX. Statutory Authority
The statutory authority for this action is provided by sections
101, 110, 114, 116, 160-169, and 301 of the CAA as amended (42 U.S.C.
7401, 7410, 7414, 7416, 7470-7479, and 7601).
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Air pollution control, Carbon dioxide, Carbon dioxide equivalents,
Carbon monoxide, Environmental protection, Greenhouse gases,
Hydrofluorocarbons, Incorporation by reference, Intergovernmental
relations, Lead, Methane, Nitrogen dioxide, Nitrous oxide, Ozone,
Particulate matter, Perfluorocarbons, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Sulfur hexafluoride, Sulfur oxides, Volatile organic
compounds.
Dated: December 23, 2010.
Lisa P. Jackson,
Administrator.
0
For the reasons set out in the preamble, title 40, chapter I of the
Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:
PART 52--[AMENDED]
0
1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
0
2. Section 52.2303 is amended by adding paragragh (d) to read as
follows:
Sec. 52.2303 Significant deterioration of air quality.
* * * * *
(d)(1) The Texas PSD SIP is partially disapproved as of December
30, 2010 because the Texas PSD SIP fails to apply to pollutants newly
subject to regulation, including the pollutant greenhouse gases (GHGs)
from stationary sources described in Sec. 52.21(b)(49)(iv).
(2) The requirements of sections 160 through 165 of the Clean Air
Act are not met to the extent the plan, as approved, does not apply
with respect to emissions of pollutants subject to regulation under the
Clean Air Act, including the pollutant GHGs from certain stationary
sources as of January 2, 2011. Therefore, from January 2, 2011 through
April 30, 2011, the provisions of Sec. 52.21 except paragraph (a)(1)
are hereby made a part of the plan for the
[[Page 82461]]
pollutant GHGs from stationary sources described in Sec.
52.21(b)(49)(iv). In addition, the United States Environmental
Protection Agency shall take such action as is appropriate to assure
the application of PSD requirements to any other pollutants that become
subject to regulation under the federal Clean Air Act for the first
time after January 2, 2011.
(3) For purposes of this section, the ``pollutant GHGs'' refers to
the pollutant GHGs, as described in Sec. 52.21(b)(49)(i).
[FR Doc. 2010-32786 Filed 12-29-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P