Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Maine; (Hancock and Waldo Counties Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 52

[ME47-01-7002a; A-1-FRL-5867-8]

Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans;

Maine; (Hancock and Waldo Counties Ozone Maintenance Plan Revision--

Motor Vehicle Emissions Budgets)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA is approving a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision

submitted by the State of Maine. This revision establishes explicit

year 2006 motor vehicle emissions budgets [Volatile Organic Compounds

(VOC) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOX)] for the Hancock and Waldo

counties ozone maintenance area to be used in determining

transportation conformity. This action is being taken in accordance

with the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act).

DATES: This action will become effective on September 30, 1997, unless

EPA receives adverse or critical comments by September 2, 1997. If the

effective date is delayed, timely notice will be published in the

Federal Register.

[[Page 41276]]

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Susan Studlien, Deputy Director,

Office of Ecosystem Protection (mail code CAA), U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Region I, JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA 02203.

Copies of the documents relevant to this action are available for

public inspection during normal business hours, by appointment at the

Office Ecosystem Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

Region I, One Congress Street, 11th floor, Boston, MA; and the Bureau

of Air Quality Control, Department of Environmental Protection, 71

Hospital Street, Augusta, ME.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald O. Cooke, (617) 565-3508.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 24, 1997, the State of Maine

submitted a formal revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP). The

SIP revision consists of explicit year 2006 motor vehicle emissions

budgets (VOC and NOX) for the Waldo and Hancock counties

ozone maintenance area as a SIP revision.

I. Summary of SIP Revision

When the Maine Department of Environmental Protection submitted

their redesignation request for Hancock and Waldo counties

nonattainment area to attainment for the National Ambient Air Quality

Standard for Ozone in May of 1996, they did not include explicit motor

vehicle emissions budgets for use in transportation conformity

determinations. Therefore, in accordance with EPA's Transportation

Conformity Rule, EPA interpreted the motor vehicle emissions

projections for the year 2006 (the last year of the submitted ten-year

maintenance plan) to be the motor vehicle emissions budgets. These 2006

motor vehicle emissions budgets established at 5.779 tons per summer

day of VOC, and 8.195 tons per summer day of NOX then serve

as a cap or ceiling of allowed highway and transit vehicle emissions

for all transportation conformity determinations made during the 1997-

2006 ten-year maintenance period. Approximately eight years into this

ten-year maintenance plan, the State of Maine will develop a second

ten-year maintenance plan to cover the ten-year period, 2007 through

2016, and will establish motor vehicle emissions budgets for the

transportation conformity determinations made during the second

maintenance period. Under all circumstances, transportation conformity

must be analyzed out to the last year of the area's twenty-year

transportation plan.

Projected VMT growth for Hancock and Waldo Counties is expected to

out-pace the benefits of lower vehicle emission rates (cleaner cars and

mobile source strategies) resulting in increased motor vehicle

emissions after the year 2006. Hence, the State of Maine has allocated

additional emissions to the motor vehicle component of the 2006

emissions budgets for transportation conformity purposes.

The new 2006 motor vehicle emissions budgets are now established

for the Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance area at 6.44 tons

per summer day of VOC, and 8.85 tons per summer day of NOX.

These established levels of VOC and NOX are acceptable

because when these levels of emissions are added to all the other

components of the 2006 emission inventory (the 2006 other mobile [off-

road] emissions, the 2006 stationary source emissions, and the 2006

area source emissions) the results are levels of emissions below the

1993 attainment year emission inventory. Please see the table below

which adds the new VOC and NOX motor vehicle emissions

budget to the other unchanged components of the 2006 emissions

inventory, and then compares the total 2006 emissions with the 1993

attainment year emission inventory.

Emissions for Maine's Hancock and Waldo Counties Ozone Maintenance Area

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1993 Attainment 2006 maintenance

year VOC plan VOC

Emission Category emissions (in emissions (in

tons per summer tons per summer

day) day)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motor Vehicle Emissions (On-road +

Transit Emissions)................. 7.010 6.440

Other Mobile Emissions.............. 1.327 0.946

Point Source Emissions.............. 1.412 1.500

Area Source Emissions............... 5.902 5.989

Total Emissions............... 15.651 14.875

------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1993 attainment 2006 maintenance

year NOX plan NOX

Emission category emissions (in emissions (in

tons per summer tons per summer

day) day)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motor Vehicle Emissions (On-road +

Transit Emissions)................. 10.010 8.850

Other Mobile Emisssions............. 0.979 1.126

Point Source Emissions.............. 5.721 5.128

Area Source Emissions............... 0.543 0.485

Total Emissions............... 17.253 15.589

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This action, to establish new motor vehicle emission budgets into

the Maine SIP, will make it easier to demonstrate future transportation

conformity with the SIP. This action will not change conformity's

beneficial effect on air quality as the new motor vehicle emissions

budgets have been demonstrated to be consistent with EPA's ozone

attainment redesignation (see 62 FR 9081 (February 28, 1997) and the

Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance plan. No additional

emissions reductions are anticipated with the approval of the 2006 VOC

and NOX motor vehicle emissions budgets.

EPA is publishing this action without prior proposal because the

Agency views this as a noncontroversial amendment and anticipates no

adverse comments. However, in a separate document in this Federal

Register publication, EPA is proposing to approve the SIP revision

should adverse

[[Page 41277]]

or critical comments be filed. This action will be effective September

30, 1997 unless adverse or critical comments are received by September

2, 1997.

If the EPA receives such comments, this action will be withdrawn

before the effective date by simultaneously publishing a subsequent

notice that will withdraw the final action. All public comments

received will then be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on

this action serving as a proposed rule. The EPA will not institute a

second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in

commenting on this action should do so at this time. If no such

comments are received, the public is advised that this action will be

effective on September 30, 1997.

II. Final Action

EPA is approving the establishment of the year 2006 motor vehicle

emissions budgets for the Hancock and Waldo counties ozone maintenance

area at 6.44 tons per summer day of VOC, and 8.85 tons per summer day

of NOX.

III. Administrative Requirements

A. Executive Order 12866

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has exempted this

regulatory action from E.O. 12866 review.

B. Regulatory Flexibility Act

Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 600 et. seq., EPA

must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis assessing the impact of

any proposed or final rule on small entities. 5 U.S.C. 603 and 604.

Alternatively, EPA may certify that the rule will not have a

significant impact on a substantial number of small entities. Small

entities include small businesses, small not-for-profit enterprises,

and government entities with jurisdiction over populations of less than

50,000.

SIP approvals under section 110 and subchapter I, part D of the

Clean Air Act do not create any new requirements but simply approve

requirements that the State is already imposing. Therefore, because the

Federal SIP approval does not impose any new requirements, the

Administrator certifies that it does not have a significant impact on

any small entities affected. Moreover, due to the nature of the

Federal-State relationship under the CAA, preparation of a flexibility

analysis would constitute Federal inquiry into the economic

reasonableness of state action. The Clean Air Act forbids EPA to base

its actions concerning SIPs on such grounds. Union Electric Co. v. U.S.

EPA, 427 U.S. 246, 255-66 (1976); 42 U.S.C. 7410(a)(2).

C. Unfunded Mandates

Under Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

(``Unfunded Mandates Act''), signed into law on March 22, 1995, EPA

must prepare a budgetary impact statement to accompany any proposed or

final rule that includes a Federal mandate that may result in estimated

costs to State, local, or tribal governments in the aggregate; or to

the private sector, of $100 million or more. Under Section 205, EPA

must select the most cost-effective and least burdensome alternative

that achieves the objectives of the rule and is consistent with

statutory requirements. Section 203 requires EPA to establish a plan

for informing and advising any small governments that may be

significantly or uniquely impacted by the rule.

EPA has determined that the approval action proposed does not

include a Federal mandate that may result in estimated costs of $100

million or more to either State, local, or tribal governments in the

aggregate, or to the private sector. This Federal action approves pre-

existing requirements under State or local law, and imposes no new

requirements. Accordingly, no additional costs to State, local, or

tribal governments, or to the private sector, result from this action.

D. Submission to Congress and the General Accounting Office

Under section 801(a)(1)(A) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act as

added by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of

1996, EPA submitted a report containing this rule and other required

information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and

the Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office prior to

publication of the rule in today's Federal Register. This rule is not a

``major rule'' as defined by section 804(2).

E. Petitions for Judicial Review

Under section 307(b)(1) of the Clean Air Act, petitions for

judicial review of this action must be filed in the United States Court

of Appeals for the appropriate circuit by September 30, 1997. Filing a

petition for reconsideration by the Administrator of this final rule

does not affect the finality of this rule for the purposes of judicial

review nor does it extend the time within which a petition for judicial

review may be filed, and shall not postpone the effectiveness of such

rule or action. This action may not be challenged later in proceedings

to enforce its requirements. (See section 307(b)(2).) EPA encourages

interested parties to comment in response to the proposed rule rather

than petition for judicial review, unless the objection arises after

the comment period allowed for in the proposal.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52

Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Carbon monoxide,

Hydrocarbons, Intergovernmental relations, Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone,

Particulate matter, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Sulfur

oxides.

Dated: July 20, 1997.

John P. DeVillars,

Regional Administrator, Region I.

Part 52 of chapter I, title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations

is amended as follows:

PART 52--[AMENDED]

1. The authority citation for part 52 continues to read as follows:

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q

Subpart U--Maine

2. Section 52.1036 is amended by adding paragraph (e) to read as

follows:

Sec. 52.1036 Emission inventories.

* * * * *

(e) On June 24, 1997 the Maine Department of Environmental

Protection submitted a revision to establish explicit year 2006 motor

vehicle emissions budgets [6.44 tons per summer day of VOC, and 8.85

tons per summer day of NOX] for the Hancock and Waldo

counties ozone maintenance area to be used in determining

transportation conformity.

[FR Doc. 97-20366 Filed 7-31-97; 8:45 am]

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