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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 239 / Thursday, December 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Regional offices
States
EPA Region 2: Mr. Kirk Wieber, Chief, Air Program Branch, EPA Region 2, 290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007.
wieber.kirk@epa.gov.
EPA Region 3: Mike Gordon, Chief, Planning and Implementation Branch, EPA Region 3, 1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. gordon.mike@epa.gov.

II. Background On October 26, 2015, the EPA
strengthened the NAAQS for ozone to establish new 8-hour standards.1 In that action, the EPA promulgated identical revised primary and secondary ozone standards, designed to protect public health and welfare, of 0.070 parts per million ppm. Those standards are met when the 3-year average of the annual fourth highest daily maximum 8-hour average ozone concentration an areas design value is less than or equal to 0.070 ppm.2
Promulgation of a revised NAAQS
triggers a requirement for the EPA to designate areas of the country as nonattainment, attainment, or unclassifiable for the standards, as well as, for the ozone NAAQS, a requirement for the EPA, at the same time, to classify any nonattainment areas.3 Ozone nonattainment areas are classified upon designation based on the severity of their ambient ozone levels, as determined based on an areas design value for the most recent 3 years. The possible classifications for ozone nonattainment areas are Marginal, Moderate, Serious, Severe, and Extreme.4 Nonattainment areas with a lower classification e.g., Marginal have ozone levels that are closer to the standards than areas with a higher classification e.g., Severe.5
On June 4, 2018, and July 25, 2018, respectively, the EPA issued two separate rules that cumulatively designated areas throughout the country as nonattainment for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, effective August 3, 2018, and September 24, 2018, and established classifications for the designated nonattainment areas.6 Areas designated nonattainment for the ozone NAAQS are subject to the general nonattainment FR 65292 October 26, 2015.
CFR 50.15.
3 CAA sections 107d1 and 181a1.
4 CAA section 181a1.
5 See 40 CFR 51.1303 for the design value thresholds for each classification for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.
6 83 FR 25776 June 4, 2018 and 83 FR 35316
July 25, 2018.

area planning requirements of CAA
section 172 and also to the ozonespecific planning requirements of CAA
section 182. States in the OTR are subject to the requirements outlined in CAA section 184.7 CAA section 172c1 provides that SIPs for nonattainment areas must include reasonably available control technology RACT, including RACT for existing sources of emissions. CAA section 182b2A requires states in which a nonattainment area classified as Moderate is located to amend their SIP
to include provisions to require the implementation of RACT . . . with respect to . . . each category of VOC
sources in the area covered by a CTG
document . . . CAA sections 182c through e apply this requirement to states with designated ozone nonattainment areas classified as Serious, Severe, or Extreme. CAA
section 184b provides that states in the OTR must submit a SIP revision addressing RACT with respect to all sources of VOCs in the OTR covered by a CTG document. The states of New York and Pennsylvania are both included in the OTR and thus are subject to the CTG RACT requirements of CAA section 184b. In addition to being included in the OTR, the state of New York contains portions of a multistate nonattainment area classified as Moderate for the 2015 ozone NAAQS
and is thus independently subject to the CTG RACT requirement due to CAA
section 182b2A. The relevant nonattainment area is called the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NYNJCT ozone nonattainment area.
On October 27, 2016, the EPA issued a final CTG document for reducing VOC
emissions from existing oil and natural gas industry equipment and processes.8
On March 9, 2018, for reasons explained
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7 CAA section 184a establishes a single OTR
comprised of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area that includes the District of Columbia.
8 81 FR 74798 October 27, 2016.

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New York.
Pennsylvania.

in the Federal Register 83 FR 10478, the EPA proposed to withdraw the CTG.
However, the EPA did not finalize the proposal to withdraw the CTG. The EPA
announced in the U.S. Office of Management and Budgets Spring 2020
Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan that the CTG will remain in place as published on October 27, 2016. 9
The RACT SIP revisions addressing the 2016 oil and natural gas industry CTG, among other things, were due for EPA review from states with nonattainment areas classified as Moderate or higher for the 2015 ozone NAAQS, as well as the 12 states and the District of Columbia that comprise the OTR, by August 3, 2020.10 For nonattainment areas and/or states subject to this RACT SIP requirement without any oil and natural gas sources covered by the CTG in their jurisdictions, states were required to make a SIP submission that could be comprised of a negative declaration stating as much.
Pursuant to CAA section 110k1B, the EPA must determine no later than 6
months after the date by which a state is required to submit a SIP whether a state has made a submission that meets the minimum completeness criteria established pursuant to CAA section 110k1A. These criteria are set forth at 40 CFR part 51, appendix V. The EPA
refers to the determination that a state has not submitted a SIP submission that meets the minimum completeness criteria as a finding of failure to submit.
The following Table 1 provides the names of states with nonattainment areas and/or OTR states that this action finds failed to submit the SIP revision required for the CTG for the 2015 ozone NAAQS for reducing VOC emissions from existing oil and natural gas industry equipment and processes as of the date of this action.
9 See https www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgenda ViewRule?pubId=202004&RIN=2060-AT76 last accessed October 14, 2020.
10 83 FR 62998 December 6, 2018, see also 40
CFR 51.1312 and 51.1316.

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