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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 64531 2015 EGU Rule; 81 FR 35840
through 35843 2016 Oil & Gas Rule.
In the 2018 Proposal, in which the A. Background EPA proposed to revise the 2015 Rule, CAA section 111b1A states that the EPA solicited comment on whether The Administrator shall include a to adopt the interpretation that it was category of sources in such list if in his required to make an SCF for GHG from judgment it causes, or contributes the EGU source category before it could significantly to, air pollution which may promulgate an NSPS for CO2. Some reasonably be anticipated to endanger commenters stated that the EPA must public health or welfare.
make pollutant-specific findings of In the 2015 Rule, the EPA
endangerment and significant promulgated standards for GHG
contribution in order to establish an measured CO2 emissions from fossil NSPS for that pollutant. These fuel-fired steam generating EGUs and commenters explained that in their combustion turbines, a pollutant that view, CAA section 111b1A requires the Administrator had not considered the EPA to make two specific findings:
when he listed the categories of those 1 The specific air pollution to be sourcesfossil fuel-fired steam regulated is reasonably . . .
generators 4 and stationary gas anticipated to endanger public health or turbines.5 See 80 FR 64510. Similarly, in welfare; and 2 the specific source 2016, the EPA promulgated an NSPS for category causes or contributes significantly to that air pollution.
GHG measured by methane CH4
Commenters asserted that CAA section emissions from oil and gas sources, a pollutant that the Administrator had not 111b1A is not ambiguous in this respect, and, therefore, the Agencys considered when he listed the category interpretation in the 2015 Rule directly for those sourcesthe Crude Oil and contradicts the plain language of that Natural Gas Production source section.
category.6 See 81 FR 35824 June 3, Other commenters stated that the 2016 2016 Oil & Gas Rule.
In each rule, the EPA interpreted CAA EPAs approach in the 2015 Rule, that it needs to determine only that it has a section 111b to require that an SCF
and endangerment finding be made only rational basis to regulate GHGs emitted by this source category as a prerequisite with respect to the source category, at to regulation, is sound. They said in the the time the EPA lists the category, and context of CAA section 111, the SCF
to authorize the EPA to promulgate and endangerment finding are made NSPS for GHG, as long as the EPA
with respect to the source category, and provides a rational basis for doing so.
not as to specific pollutants. These However, in each rule, the EPA
commenters supported the conclusion acknowledged that some stakeholders in the 2015 Rule that the EPA possesses had argued that the EPA first needed to make a pollutant-specific SCF, that is, a authority to regulate GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired EGUs under CAA
finding that GHG from the source section 111 because there was no new category contributes significantly to evidence calling into question its dangerous air pollution. In each rule, determination that GHG air pollution the EPA stated that it disagreed with may reasonably be anticipated to those stakeholders, but nevertheless, in endanger public health and welfare and the alternative, did make a pollutantfossil fuel-fired EGUs have a high level specific SCF for GHG, supported by the of GHG emissions. The commenters same reasons that the EPA had used to stated that these considerations hew determine that it had a rational basis to regulate GHG. See 80 FR 64529 through closely to the statutory factors that inform the decision whether to list a source category in the first place 4 See List of Categories of Stationary Sources, namely, whether the category causes, 36 FR 5931 March 31, 1971 listing source category; Standards of Performance for New or contributes significantly to, air Stationary Sources, 36 FR 24376 December 31, pollution which may reasonably be 1971 promulgating NSPS for source category.
anticipated to endanger public health or 5 See Standards of Performance for New welfare, under CAA section Stationary Sources; Gas Turbines, 44 FR 52792
111b1A. The commenters added September 10, 1979 listing and promulgating NSPS for source category.
that this approach, which closely 6 See Priority List and Additions to the List of parallels the listing analysis but does Categories of Stationary Sources, 49 FR 49222
not require a formal endangerment August 21, 1979 listing source category;
finding or SCF, is legally sound. They Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources; Equipment Leaks of VOC From Onshore also added that the statute is clear that Natural Gas Processing Plants, 50 FR 26124 June a formal endangerment finding is 23, 1985, and Standards of Performance for New required to initially list a sector to be Stationary Sources; Onshore Natural Gas Processing regulated under CAA section 111; but it SO2 Emissions, 50 FR 40160 October 1, 1985
promulgating standards of performance.
is also clear that such a finding is not IV. Pollutant-Specific Significant Contribution Finding SCF

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required before regulating additional harmful pollutants from a previouslylisted sector.7
Similarly, in a 2019 proposal to revise the 2016 Oil & Gas Rule, the EPA
solicited comment on whether to adopt the interpretation that it was required to make an SCF for GHG from the Oil and Gas source category before it could promulgate a CH4 NSPS. Recently, the EPA completed the final rule to revise the 2016 Oil & Gas Rule, Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review: Final Rule, 85 FR
57018 September 14, 2020 2020 Oil &
Gas Rule. There, the EPA determined that a pollutant-specific SCF is required.
In addition, the EPA further determined that the pollutant-specific SCF in the 2016 Oil & Gas Rule was invalid on grounds, in part, that the EPA had not established a threshold or criteria by which to determine whether an amount of emissions contributes significantly to dangerous air pollution, and to distinguish from an amount of emissions that simply contributes to dangerous air pollution. The EPA stated 7 Some commenters on the 2018 Proposal also said that, in the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the EPA specifically defined air pollution, as referred to in section 202a of the CAA, to be the mix of six well-mixed, long-lived, and directly emitted GHGs: CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6. 74 FR
66497. They commented that the EPA needs to make, but has never made, a separate finding that CO2 alone is reasonably anticipated to endanger the public health or welfare. The Agency disagrees with commenters. The air pollutant that the 2015 Rule regulates is GHG, and that air pollutant contributes to the same GHG air pollution that was addressed by the Endangerment Finding. The standards of performance adopted in the 2015 Rule take the form of an emission limitation on only one constituent gas of this air pollutant, CO2. See 40 CFR 60.5515a The pollutants regulated by this subpart are greenhouse gases. The greenhouse gas standard in this subpart is in the form of a limitation on emission of carbon dioxide.. This is reasonable, given that CO2 is the constituent gas emitted in the largest volume by the source category and for which there are available controls that are technically feasible and cost effective. There is no requirement that standards of performance address each component of an air pollutant. CAA section 111b1B requires the EPA to establish standards of performance for listed source categories, and the definition of standard of performance in CAA section 111a1 does not specify which air pollutants must be controlled.
Moreover, as the EPA noted in the 2015 Rule, the information considered in the 2009 Endangerment Finding and its supporting record, together with additional discussion of GHG impacts in the 2015
Rule, makes clear that GHG air pollution may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare. See 80 FR 64517, 64530 and 31. Because the 2015 Rule followed the same approach as in the 2009 findings and regulated the same pollutant as contributing to the same air pollution to reiterate, both the air pollutant and the air pollution are GHG
as the group of six well-mixed gases, including CO2, it was not necessary to evaluate CO2
separately. The EPA took the same position in the 2016 Oil & Gas Rule in response to a similar comment concerning CH4. See 81 FR 35843.

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