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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 60 / Wednesday, March 31, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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Traffic Safety Administrations NHTSA corporate average fuel economy rules and EPAs greenhouse gas emissions standards did not affect EPAs Tier 3 vehicle and fuel regulation.9 Therefore, new vehicles continue to be required to be certified to the Tier 3 emissions standards for nitrogen oxides NOX and volatile organic compounds VOCs. Neither of the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient SAFE rulemakings affected emissions from the existing vehicle fleet. For the reasons stated in the NPRM, we disagree with alleged deficiencies in evaluating mobile sources.
We also do not agree with the commenters contentions about West Virginia using assumptions that are against EPAs stated policy under NSPS
and NESHAP, or that EPA should require West Virginia to address the removal of protections the commenter alleges EPA has made under the MATS
and Boiler MACT rules. The commenter does not identify how any NSPS or NESHAP policies impact this action, or which policies, NESHAPs or NSPS
the commenter believes are relevant to this action. With respect to MATS and the Boiler MACT, the commenter incorrectly assumes that protections under those rules have been removed.
In a 2020 rulemaking, EPA found that it was not appropriate and necessary to regulate hazardous air pollutants HAP
emissions from coaland oil-fired Electrical Generating Units EGUs, thereby reversing the Agencys previous conclusion under CAA section 112n1A. 85 FR 31286 May 22, 2020. This action did not, however, remove the EGUs covered by MATS
from regulation. EPA explicitly stated that coaland oil-fired EGUs would remain on the CAA section 112c1
source category list, and that the CAA
section 112d standards for those EGUs, as promulgated in the MATS rule, would be unaffected by its reversal of the appropriate and necessary finding because EPA had not met the statutorily required CAA section 112c9 delisting criteria to remove these units from regulation. 85 FR at 31286 May 22, 2020.10 The commenter is therefore incorrect that there has been any removal of protections with respect to the emission limits required under the 9 See 85 FR 24174, April 30, 2020. The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient SAFE Vehicles Rule for Model Years 20212026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks.
10 We note also that the 2020 rulemaking has been challenged in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and has also been identified by President Bidens January 20, 2021 Executive Order as an action that EPA should propose to review, revise, or rescind by August 2021.

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MATS rule. Similarly, although EPA has proposed certain changes to the Boiler MACT in response to a court decision,11
those proposed changes have not been finalized to date. Therefore, the environmental protections of neither the MATS rule nor the Boiler MACT rule have been removed or decreased. EPA
therefore disagrees with the commenter that this plan should be disapproved because of WVDEPs failure to address, in a plan designed to maintain an ozone standard, the CAA programs and policies referenced by the commenter.
Comment 3: The commenter asserts that the LMP should not be approved because of EPAs reliance on the Air Quality Modeling Technical Support Document TSD that was developed for EPAs regional transport rulemaking.
The commenter contends that: 1 The TSD shows maintenance of the area for three years and not 10 years; 2 the modeling was performed for transport purposes across state lines and not to show maintenance of the NAAQS; 3
the modeling was performed for the 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS and not the 1997 ozone NAAQS; 4 the TSD has been highly contested by environmental groups and that other states contend EPAs modeling as flawed; and 5 the TSD does not address a recent court decision that threw out EPAs modeling because it modeled to the wrong attainment year.
. . . The commenter asserts that the four specific issues it raises with respect to the modeling means that the TSD is flawed, illegal, and is being used improperly for the wrong purpose. . . .
The commenter states that EPA must retract its reliance on the modeling for the purposes of this maintenance plan and must find some other way of showing continued maintenance of the 1997 ozone NAAQS.
Response 3: EPA does not agree with the commenter that the approval of West Virginias second maintenance plan is not appropriate. The commenter raises concerns about West Virginia and EPAs citation of air quality modeling, but the commenter ignores that EPAs primary basis for finding that West Virginia has provided for maintenance of the 1997 ozone NAAQS in the Wheeling Area is the States demonstration that the criteria for a limited maintenance plan has been met.
See 85 FR 38831, June 29, 2020.
Specifically, as stated in the NPRM, for decades EPA has interpreted the provision in CAA section 175A that requires states to provide for maintenance of the NAAQS to be satisfied where areas demonstrate that 11 85

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FR 52198 August 24, 2020.

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design values are and have been stable and well below the NAAQSe.g., at 85% of the standard, or in this case at or below 0.071 ppm. EPA calls such demonstration a limited maintenance plan.
The modeling cited by the commenter was referenced in West Virginias submission and as part of EPAs proposed approval as supplementary supporting information, and we do not agree that the commenters concerns about relying on that modeling are warranted. The commenter contends that the modeling only goes out three years to 2023 and it needs to go out to 10 years, and therefore may not be relied upon. However, the air quality modeling TSD was only relied upon by EPA to provide additional support to indicate that the area is expected to continue to attain the NAAQS during the relevant period. As noted above, West Virginia primarily met the requirement to demonstrate maintenance of the NAAQS by showing that they met the criteria for a limited maintenance plan, rather than by modeling or projecting emissions inventories out to a future year. We also do not agree that the State is required to demonstrate maintenance for 10
years; CAA section 175A requires the State to demonstrate maintenance through the 20th year after the area is redesignated, which in this case is 2027.
We also disagree with the commenters contention that because the air quality modeling TSD was performed to analyze the transport of pollution across state lines with respect to other ozone NAAQS, it cannot be relied upon in this action. We acknowledge that the air quality modeling TSD at issue was performed as part of EPAs efforts to address interstate transport pollution under CAA section 110a2DiI. However, the purpose of the air quality modeling TSD is fully in keeping with the question of whether West Virginia is expected to maintain the NAAQS. The air quality modeling TSD identifies which air quality monitors in the United States are projected to have problems attaining or maintaining the 2008 and 2015 NAAQS
for ozone in 2023. Because the air quality modeling TSD results simply provide projected ozone concentration design values, which are expressed as three-year averages of the annual fourth high 8-hour daily maximum ozone concentrations, the modeling results are useful for analyzing attainment and maintenance of any of the ozone NAAQS that are measured using this averaging time; in this case, the 1997, 2008 and 2015 ozone NAAQS. The only difference between the three standards
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