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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 127 / Wednesday, July 7, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Branch, Air and Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 303038960. EPA requests that if at all possible, you contact the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section to schedule your inspection. The Regional Offices official hours of business are Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Steven Scofield, Air Regulatory Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air and Radiation Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 303038960.
The telephone number is 404 562
9034. Mr. Scofield can also be reached via electronic mail at scofield.steve@
epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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I. Background and Purpose Under Clean Air Act CAA or Act section 110a2DiI, also called the good neighbor provision, states are required to address the interstate transport of air pollution. Specifically, the good neighbor provision requires that each states implementation plan contain adequate provisions to prohibit air pollutant emissions from within the state that will significantly contribute to nonattainment of the national ambient air quality standards NAAQS, or that will interfere with maintenance of the NAAQS, in any other state.
In October 1998 63 FR 57356, EPA
finalized the Finding of Significant Contribution and Rulemaking for Certain States in the Ozone Transport Assessment Group Region for Purposes of Reducing Regional Transport of Ozone NOX SIP Call. The NOX SIP
Call required eastern states, including Alabama, to submit SIPs that prohibit excessive emissions of ozone season NOX by implementing statewide emissions budgets.1 The NOX SIP Call addressed the good neighbor provision for the 1979 ozone NAAQS and was designed to mitigate the impact of transported NOX emissions, one of the precursors of ozone.2 EPA developed the NOX Budget Trading Program, an allowance trading program that states could adopt to meet their obligations under the NOX SIP Call. This trading program allowed the following sources 1 See
63 FR 57356 October 27, 1998.
originally promulgated, the NOX SIP Call also addressed good neighbor obligations under the 1997 8-hour ozone NAAQS, but EPA subsequently stayed and later rescinded the rules provisions with respect to that standard. See 65 FR 56245
September 18, 2000; 84 FR 8422 March 8, 2019.
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to participate in a regional cap and trade program: Generally EGUs with capacity greater than 25 megawatts MW; and large industrial non-EGUs, such as boilers and combustion turbines, with a rated heat input greater than 250 million British thermal units per hour MMBtu/
hr. The NOX SIP Call also identified potential reductions from cement kilns and stationary internal combustion engines.
To comply with the NOX SIP Call requirements, in 2001, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management ADEM submitted a revision to add new rule sections to the SIP-approved version of Alabama Administrative Code Chapter 33531, General Provisions, and Chapter 3353
8, Control of Nitrogen Oxides Emissions. EPA approved the revision as compliant with Phase I of the NOX
SIP Call in 2001. See 66 FR 36919 July 16, 2001. The approved revision required EGUs and large non-EGUs in the State to participate in the NOX
Budget Trading Program beginning in 2004. In 2005, Alabama submitted, and EPA approved, a SIP revision to address additional emissions reductions required for the NOX SIP Call under Phase II. See 70 FR 76694 December.
28, 2005.
In 2005, EPA published CAIR, which required several eastern states, including Alabama, to submit SIPs that prohibited emissions consistent with revised ozone season and annual NOX
budgets. See 70 FR 25162 May 12, 2005; see also 71 FR 25328 April 28, 2006. CAIR addressed the good neighbor provision for the 1997 ozone NAAQS and 1997 fine particulate matter PM2.5 NAAQS and was designed to mitigate the impact of transported NOX emissions with respect to ozone and PM2.5. CAIR established several trading programs that EPA
implemented through federal implementation plans FIPs for EGUs greater than 25 MW in each affected state, but not large non-EGUs; states could submit SIPs to replace the FIPs that achieved the required emission reductions from EGUs and/or other types of sources.3 When the CAIR
trading program for ozone season NOX
was implemented beginning in 2009, EPA discontinued administration of the NOX Budget Trading Program; however, the requirements of the NOX SIP Call continued to apply.
On October 1, 2007 72 FR 55659, EPA approved changes to Alabamas SIP
that incorporated requirements for 3 CAIR had separate trading programs for annual sulfur dioxide SO2 emissions, seasonal NOX
emissions, and annual NOX emissions.

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CAIR. Consistent with CAIRs requirements, EPA approved a SIP
revision in which Alabama regulations:
1 Sunset its NOX Budget Trading Program requirements, and 2
incorporated CAIR annual and ozone season NOX state trading programs. See 72 FR 55659. Participation of EGUs in the CAIR ozone season NOX trading program addressed the States obligation under the NOX SIP Call for those units, and Alabama also chose to require nonEGUs subject to the NOX SIP Call to participate in the same CAIR trading program. In this manner, Alabamas CAIR rules incorporated into the SIP
addressed the States obligations under the NOX SIP Call with respect to both EGUs and non-EGUs.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit D.C.
Circuit initially vacated CAIR in 2008, but ultimately remanded the rule to EPA
without vacatur to preserve the environmental benefits provided by CAIR. See North Carolina v. EPA, 531
F.3d 896, modified on rehearing, 550
F.3d 1176 D.C. Cir. 2008. The ruling allowed CAIR to remain in effect temporarily until a replacement rule consistent with the courts opinion was developed. While EPA worked on developing a replacement rule, the CAIR
program continued to be implemented with the NOX annual and ozone season trading programs beginning in 2009 and the SO2 annual trading program beginning in 2010.
Following the D.C. Circuits remand of CAIR, EPA promulgated the CrossState Air Pollution Rule CSAPR to replace CAIR and address good neighbor obligations for the 1997 ozone NAAQS, the 1997 PM2.5 NAAQS, and the 2006
PM2.5 NAAQS. See 76 FR 48208 August 8, 2011. Through FIPs, CSAPR required EGUs in eastern states, including Alabama, to meet annual and ozone season NOX emission budgets and annual SO2 emission budgets implemented through new trading programs. Implementation of CSAPR
began on January 1, 2015.4 CSAPR also contained provisions that would sunset CAIR-related obligations on a schedule coordinated with the implementation of the CSAPR compliance requirements.
Participation by a states EGUs in the CSAPR trading program for ozone season NOX generally addressed the states obligation under the NOx SIP
Call for EGUs. CSAPR did not initially contain provisions allowing states to incorporate large non-EGUs into that trading program to meet the requirements of the NOX SIP Call for non-EGUs. EPA also stopped 4 See
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79 FR 71663 December 3, 2014.

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