Notice of Receipt of Petitions for a Waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard |
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Janet G. McCabe
Environmental Protection Agency
November 29, 2013
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 230 (Friday, November 29, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71607-71609]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-28301]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0747; FRL-9903-35-OAR]
Notice of Receipt of Petitions for a Waiver of the Renewable Fuel
Standard
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: EPA has received a number of petitions for a waiver of the
renewable fuel standards that would apply in 2014. The American
Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel & Petrochemical
Manufacturers (AFPM) submitted a joint petition to the Administrator,
dated August 13, 2013, on behalf of their members requesting a partial
waiver of the 2014 applicable volumes under the RFS. Subsequently,
several refining companies submitted individual petitions to the
Administrator that also request a waiver of the 2014 applicable
volumes. Section 211(o)(7)(A) of the Clean Air Act allows the
Administrator of the EPA to waive the national volume requirements of
the renewable fuel standard program in whole or in part if the
Administrator determines that implementation of those requirements
would severely harm the economy or environment of a State, a region, or
the United States, or that there is inadequate domestic supply. EPA is
inviting comment on all issues relevant to the petitions for a waiver
that have been submitted. Comments submitted in response to a related
Federal Register notice proposing the 2014 volume requirements will be
considered to also have been submitted to the docket for this notice.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 28, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2013-0747, by one of the following methods:
www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for
submitting comments.
E-Mail: a-and-r-docket@epa.gov.
Fax: (202) 566-1741.
Mail: Air and Radiation Docket, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2013-0479, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 6102T, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460. Please include a total
of two copies.
Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center, Public Reading Room, EPA
West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC
20460. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal
hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for
deliveries of boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments on the petitions for a waiver of
the 2014 volume requirements to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0747.
Comments submitted in response to a related Federal Register notice
proposing the 2014 volume requirements, docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0479,
will be considered to also have been submitted to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2013-0747. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be
included in the public docket without change and may be made available
online at www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you
consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov
or email. The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access''
system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact
information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you
send an email comment directly to EPA without going through
www.regulations.gov, your email address will be automatically captured
and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket
and made available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic
comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact
information in the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you
submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties
and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to
consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special
characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or
viruses. For additional information about EPA's public docket visit the
EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Korotney, Office of
Transportation and Air Quality, Environmental Protection Agency,
National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, 2565 Plymouth Road, Ann
Arbor, MI 48105; telephone number: (734) 214-4507; fax number: (734)
214-4050; email address: korotney.david@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. How can I access the docket and/or submit comments?
EPA has established a public docket for this Notice under Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0747 which is available for online viewing at
www.regulations.gov, or in person viewing at the EPA/DC Docket Center
Public Reading Room, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Room 3334,
Washington, DC. The EPA/DC Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The
telephone number for the Reading Room is 202-566-1744, and the
telephone number for the Air and Radiation Docket is 202-566-1742.
Use www.regulations.gov to obtain a copy of the waiver requests,
submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the
contents of the docket, and to access those documents in the public
docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, select
``search,'' then key in the docket ID number identified in this
document.
II. Background
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program began in 2006 pursuant to
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), which added a renewable fuel
program to the Clean Air Act (CAA, or ``Act''). The statutory
provisions for the RFS program were subsequently modified through the
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), and EPA published
revised regulatory
[[Page 71608]]
requirements on March 26, 2010 (75 FR 14670). The transition from the
requirements of EPAct to the requirements of EISA generally occurred on
July 1, 2010.
EISA establishes annual ``applicable volumes'' for four categories
of renewable fuel: cellulosic biofuel, biomass based diesel, advanced
biofuel, and total renewable fuel. The statute specifies increasing
applicable volumes through 2022 for all fuel types except biomass-based
diesel, for which applicable volumes are specified through 2012. For
years after those specified in the statute, EPA is to establish the
applicable volumes after consideration of specified factors. The
statute requires that EPA annually establish percentage standards that
will ensure that required annual volumes of renewable fuels are used.
However, EISA also provides the Administrator with authority to waive
the applicable volumes of renewable fuels in appropriate circumstances.
The required volumes and associated percentage standards under the
RFS program for the 2014 compliance year are being proposed in a
related Federal Register notice. Under the RFS program, obligated
parties, typically gasoline or diesel refiners or importers, are
required to meet annual percentage standards to be in compliance. EPA
sets these percentages, called the RFS percentage standards or RFS
standards. Renewable identification numbers, or RINs, are assigned by
renewable fuel producers to each gallon of qualifying renewable fuel
that they produce, and serve as a means for demonstrating compliance by
the obligated parties. RINs can be acquired by obligated parties who
purchase renewable fuel with assigned RINs, or they can be purchased by
obligated parties from other parties who have accumulated more RINs
than necessary for their own compliance. Aside from using current-year
RINs to demonstrate compliance in a given year, obligated parties may
also choose (a) to use available RINs from the prior year towards the
current year's requirement, up to a 20 percent cap, and/or (b) to carry
forward a compliance deficit that can be satisfied in the next
compliance year.
Section 211(o)(7)(A) of the Act allows the Administrator, in
consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of
Energy, to waive the national volume requirements of the RFS, in whole
or in part, upon petition by one or more States, or by any party
subject to the requirements of the RFS program. The Administrator may
also waive the volume requirements on her own motion. A waiver may be
issued if the Administrator determines, after public notice and
opportunity for comment, that implementation of the RFS volume
requirement would severely harm the economy or environment of a State,
a region, or the United States, or that there is an inadequate domestic
supply. If a waiver is granted, it can last no longer than one year but
may be renewed by the Administrator after consultation with the
Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Energy.
III. What is today's action?
The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel &
Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) submitted a petition to the
Administrator, dated August 13, 2013, on behalf of their members
requesting a partial waiver of the 2014 applicable volumes under the
RFS. Subsequently, several refining companies submitted individual
petitions to the Administrator that also request a waiver of the 2014
applicable volumes; nearly all of the petitions from individual
companies incorporate the API/AFPM petition by reference. All of the
petition letters are available in the docket, and any additional
similar requests submitted to EPA will also be docketed and considered
together with requests already received. EPA is seeking comment on the
petitions for a waiver of the 2014 renewable fuel standard and matters
relevant to EPA's consideration of those petitions.
The petitions generally argue that there is an inadequate domestic
supply of renewable fuel and therefore RINs for 2014, due both to
ethanol ``blendwall'' constraints and limitations on the production of
non-ethanol fuels like biodiesel. Petitioners argue that this
inadequate supply of renewable fuel (and RINs) will lead to an
inadequate supply of gasoline and diesel, because refiners and
importers, faced with a shortage of RINs, will reduce their production
of gasoline and diesel for the domestic market. Petitioners argue that
this will in turn severely harm the economy based on increased domestic
gasoline and diesel prices. Petitioners attached an analysis, dated
October 2012, conducted by NERA Economic Consulting, titled ``Economic
Impacts Resulting from Implementation of RFS2 Program [sic].'' The
petition requests that EPA exercise its waiver authorities under
section 211(o)(7) to reduce the required national volume of total
renewable fuel and advanced biofuel to certain specified levels.
In a separate action that proposes the applicable RFS percentage
standards for 2014, EPA is proposing to waive part of the 2014
statutory RFS volumes. Specifically, in the separate Federal Register
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the 2014 standards, EPA is proposing
to find that there is an inadequate domestic supply of renewable fuels
in 2014 under section 211(o)(7)(A). EPA is also proposing to reduce the
applicable volume of cellulosic biofuel under section 211(o)(7)(D).
Based on these findings, EPA is proposing to reduce the applicable
volumes of total renewable fuel and advanced biofuel. EPA is not,
however, proposing to find that implementation of the standards would
severely harm the economy. In its separate proposal to establish the
2014 RFS volumes and percentage standards, EPA discusses in detail the
legal, technical, and policy considerations that are the basis for its
proposal.
EPA recognizes that there is significant overlap in the supporting
data and issues raised in the petitions for a waiver and EPA's
rulemaking to set the RFS percentage standards for 2014. Therefore, for
the convenience of the parties and to avoid duplicative submissions by
parties to both dockets, EPA will treat all comments and other
information submitted to the docket for the 2014 RFS rulemaking (EPA-
HQ-OAR-2013-0479) as also submitted to the docket for the petitions for
a waiver (EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0747). Therefore, parties will only need to
submit additional comments or information to docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-
0747 if those comments and information are intended solely for the
petitions for a waiver and not for the rulemaking to set the 2014 RFS
standards. EPA requests that such comments on the waiver petitions be
submitted in the same time frame as comments on the rulemaking
proposal. In light of the overlap in issues between the rulemaking
proposal and petitions for waiver, EPA expects that our determination
on the substance of the petitions for a partial waiver of the 2014
statutory volumes will be issued at the same time that EPA issues a
final rule establishing the 2014 RFS standards.
EPA is issuing this notice to solicit comments and information on
all of the issues raised in the petitions for a waiver.
Commenters should include data or specific examples in support of
their comments in order to aid the Administrator in evaluating the
requests for a waiver and determining what action if any is appropriate
in light of all of the circumstances.
[[Page 71609]]
Dated: November 15, 2013.
Janet G. McCabe,
Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2013-28301 Filed 11-27-13; 8:45 am]
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