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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 29, 2021 / Proposed Rules rulemaking and note where your comments may apply to future separate actions where possible; explain your views as clearly as possible; describe any assumptions that you used; provide any technical information or data you used that support your views; provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns; offer alternatives; and, make sure to submit your comments by the comment period deadline. Please provide any published studies or raw data supporting your position.
Multimedia submissions audio, video, etc. must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission e.g., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system.
EPA recognizes that given the nature of this proposed rulemaking, potentially affected entities may wish to submit Confidential Business Information CBI.
CBI should not be submitted through https www.regulations.gov. For submission of confidential comments or data, please work with the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section if submitting a comment containing CBI. For additional submission methods, the full EPA
public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https
www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epadockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kirsten Cappel, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Stratospheric Protection Division, telephone number:
2023439556; or email address:
cappel.kirsten@epa.gov. You may also visit our website at https
www.epa.gov/ozone-layer-protection for further information.

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SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Throughout this document, whenever we, us, or our is used, we mean EPA. Acronyms that are used in this rulemaking that may be helpful include:

AIM ActAmerican Innovation and Manufacturing Act CAAClean Air Act CBIConfidential Business Information CO2Carbon Dioxide DREDestruction and Removal Efficiency EPAEnvironmental Protection Agency FRFederal Register GHGGreenhouse Gas GHGRPGreenhouse Gas Reporting Program GWPGlobal Warming Potential HCFCHydrochlorofluorocarbon HFCHydrofluorocarbon
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IPCCIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change MMTCO2 eqMillion metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent Montreal ProtocolMontreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer ODSOzone-depleting substance Parties to the Montreal Protocol or Party Nations and regional economic integration organizations that have consented to be bound by the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
I. General Information A. Does this proposed action apply to me?
You may be potentially affected by this action if you manufacture class II
ozone-depleting substances ODS listed at 40 CFR part 82, subpart A, Appendix B, and hydrofluorocarbon-23 HFC-23
is also generated as a byproduct at your plant. If you have any questions regarding the applicability of this action to a particular entity, consult the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
B. What action is the Agency proposing?
The Environmental Protection Agency EPA is proposing to require the control, capture, and/or destruction of byproduct HFC-23 that would otherwise be emitted from plants that manufacture class II ODS i.e., hydrochlorofluorocarbons HCFCs, including HCFC-22. Under the Clean Air Act CAA and EPAs regulations at 40 CFR part 82, controls are in place that restrict the production and consumption of HCFCs to implement the phaseout of these chemicals. There are limited exceptions to these restrictions for the manufacture of HCFCs that are not considered to be production under the CAA. One of the exceptions allows manufacture of HCFCs for use in a process in which the HCFC is used and entirely consumed, except for trace quantities, in the manufacture of other chemicals. The process is known as transformation and the controlled substances used and consumed are called feedstocks. Under this proposed action, any plant that manufactures HCFCs for transformation would need to control, capture, and/or destroy HFC-23 byproduct generated.
More specifically, EPA is proposing that no later than October 1, 2022, as compared to the amount of HCFCs intentionally manufactured on a facility line, no more than 0.1 percent of HFC23 generated on the line may be emitted.
Rather, such HFC-23 byproduct must be captured and employed for a commercial purpose or destroyed using a technology approved by EPA.
This proposed rule is narrow in scope and is expected only to affect those
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plants that continue to manufacture HCFCs under an exception to the HCFC
phaseout under the CAA and its implementing regulations. Based on data from EPAs Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program GHGRP, we are aware of two plants that would fall under the proposed requirements. These two plants report their emissions under subpart O of the GHGRP HCFC-22
Production and HFC-23 Destruction, which requires owners or operators of facilities that contain HCFC-22
production or HFC-23 destruction processes to report their emissions from those processes. Plant-specific emissions from these processes are then published in EPAs Facility Level Information on GreenHouse gases Tool FLIGHT. Interested readers can review the data concerning HFC-23 reported to EPA for over a decade. Other than the two plants included in the GHGRP data, EPA is not aware of any other class II
ODS production plants in the United States that generate emissions of HFC23.1 EPA is soliciting comment on whether there are any other plants manufacturing class II ODS that have emissions of HFC-23. EPA is also aware that there are plants that generate HFC23 emissions during production of HFCs and directs interested readers to Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons:
Establishing the Allowance Allocation and Trading Program under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act 86 FR 27150, May 19, 2021, the Proposed HFC
Allocation Rule, to learn more about EPAs proposal to implement a similar standard for emissions of HFC-23 at those plants.
EPA is proposing a compliance date of October 1, 2022. EPA recognizes that individual circumstances could arise that make it impossible for an individual plant to install necessary controls by October 1, 2022, and therefore is proposing a process under which companies could seek an extension of the compliance date.
C. What is the Agencys authority for this proposed action?
Several sections of the CAA provide authority for this proposed action.2
Section 603 provides authority to establish monitoring and reporting requirements for ODS, and section 605
1 See, e.g., Fluorinated Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Supplies Reported to the GHGRP.
Epa.gov, Environmental Protection Agency, 24 Feb.
2021, https www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/
fluorinated-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-suppliesreported-ghgrpproduction.
2 The Clean Air Act provisions addressing stratospheric ozone protection are codified at 42
U.S.C. 76717671q.

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