California State Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Standards; Amendments to On-Highway Heavy-Duty Vehicle In-Use Compliance Program, Amendments to 2007 and Subsequent Model Year On-Highway Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles, and Amendments to Truck Requirements; Request for Waiver of Preemption; Opportunity for Public Hearing and Public Comment

Christopher Grundler
Environmental Protection Agency
9 August 2016

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 153 (Tuesday, August 9, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52678-52680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-18897]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[AMS-FRL-9950-45-OAR]


California State Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Standards; 
Amendments to On-Highway Heavy-Duty Vehicle In-Use Compliance Program, 
Amendments to 2007 and Subsequent Model Year On-Highway Heavy-Duty 
Engines and Vehicles, and Amendments to Truck Requirements; Request for 
Waiver of Preemption; Opportunity for Public Hearing and Public Comment

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for public hearing and comment.

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SUMMARY: The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has notified EPA 
that it has adopted a series of amendments to its on-highway heavy-duty 
vehicle and engine regulations. The amendments to CARB's in-use 
compliance program align CARB's program with EPA's program in terms of 
measurement allowances during on-road testing (In-Use Amendments). The 
amendments to CARB's 2007 and subsequent model year (MY) regulation 
(2007 Amendments) are minor technical amendments regarding mathematical 
expression of emission results and certain compliance flexibilities. 
The amendments to CARB's truck idling requirements (Truck Idling 
Amendments) clarify that certain vehicles are exempt from the new 
vehicle requirements. By letter dated January 27, 2016, CARB submitted 
a

[[Page 52679]]

request that EPA grant a full waiver of preemption under section 209(b) 
of the Clean Air Act (CAA), 42 U.S.C. 7543(b) for the In-Use 
Amendments. CARB separately seeks EPA's confirmation that the 2007 
Amendments and the Truck Idling Amendments are within the scope of 
prior EPA waiver decisions. This notice announces that EPA has 
scheduled a public hearing concerning California's request and that EPA 
is accepting written comment on the request.

DATES: EPA has tentatively scheduled a public hearing concerning CARB's 
request on September 28, 2016, at 10 a.m. EPA will hold a hearing only 
if any party notifies EPA by September 21, 2016 to express interest in 
presenting the Agency with oral testimony. Parties wishing to present 
oral testimony at the public hearing should provide written notice to 
David Dickinson at the email address noted below. If EPA receives a 
request for a public hearing, that hearing will be held at the William 
Jefferson Clinton Building (North), Room 5528 at 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. 
NW., Washington, DC 20460. If EPA does not receive a request for a 
public hearing, then EPA will not hold a hearing, and instead will 
consider CARB's request based on written submissions to the docket. Any 
party may submit written comments until November 1, 2016.
    Any person who wishes to know whether a hearing will be held may 
call David Dickinson at (202) 343-9256 on or after September 21, 2016.

ADDRESSES: EPA will make available for in person inspection, at the Air 
and Radiation Docket and Information Center, written comments received 
from interested parties, in addition to any testimony given at the 
public hearing. The official public docket is the collection of 
materials that is available for public viewing at the Air and Radiation 
Docket in the EPA Docket Center, (EPA/DC) EPA West, Room B102, 1301 
Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public 
Reading Room is open from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading 
Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Air and 
Radiation Docket is (202) 566-1743. The reference number for this 
docket is EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0017.
    EPA will make available an electronic copy of this Notice on the 
Office of Transportation and Air Quality's (OTAQ's) homepage (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/). Users can find this document by accessing the OTAQ 
homepage and looking at the path entitled ``Regulations.'' This service 
is free of charge, except any cost you already incur for Internet 
connectivity. Users can also get the official Federal Register version 
of the Notice on the day of publication on the primary Web site: 
(http://www.epa.gov/docs/fedrgstr/EPA-AIR/).
    Please note that due to differences between the software used to 
develop the documents and the software into which the documents may be 
downloaded, changes in format, page length, etc., may occur.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Dickinson (6405J), U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., 
Washington, DC 20460. Telephone: (202) 343-9256, Fax: (202) 343-2804, 
email address: Dickinson.David@EPA.GOV.

For Obtaining and Submitting Electronic Copies of Comments

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-
0017, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: dickinson.david@epa.gov
     Fax: (202) 343-2804.
     Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA West (Air 
Docket), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Room B108, Mail Code 6102T, 
Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0017. 
Please include a total of two copies.
     Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center, EPA/DC, EPA West, Room 
B102, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. 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 to Docket ID No EPA-HQ-
OAR-2016-0017.
    EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the 
public docket without change and may be made available online at http://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 http://www.regulations.gov or 
email.
    The http://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 http://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. Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

(A) CARB's Waiver Request and Within-the-Scope Request

    CARB's January 27, 2016, letter to the Administrator presents EPA 
with CARB's series of amendments related to the control of emissions 
from California on-road medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles. 
The In-Use Amendments include amendments adopted by CARB in 2011 that 
allow a measurement allowance of 0.006 grams per brake horsepower-hour 
(g/bhp-hr) when using portable emission measurement systems (PEMS) for 
on-road in-use testing of heavy-duty vehicles. The 2007 Amendments are 
minor technical amendments regarding mathematical expression of 
emission results and certain compliance flexibilities. These amendments 
specify the NOx emission standards to the correct number of significant 
digits (e.g. 0.2 g/bhp-hr is now expressed as 0.20 g/bhp-hr for NOx). 
The 2007 Amendments also make corrections to the formaldehyde standards 
for medium-duty diesel vehicles, harmonize labeling requirements with 
EPA's requirements, maintain consistency with deterioration factors 
between CARB and EPA, and provide manufacturers with certain compliance 
flexibilities for the 2007 through 2009 model years. The Truck Idling 
Amendments clarify that new

[[Page 52680]]

engine provisions do not apply to armored cars and workover rigs.\1\
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    \1\ A further description of the CARB amendments can be found in 
CARB's Waiver Support document in docket EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0017.
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(B) Scope of Preemption and Criteria for a Waiver Under the Clean Air 
Act

    Section 209(a) of the Clean Air Act, as amended (``Act''), 42 
U.S.C. 7543(a), provides:

    No state or any political subdivision thereof shall adopt or 
attempt to enforce any standard relating to the control of emissions 
from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines subject to this 
part. No state shall require certification, inspection or any other 
approval relating to the control of emissions from any new motor 
vehicle or new motor vehicle engine as condition precedent to the 
initial retail sale, titling (if any), or registration of such motor 
vehicle, motor vehicle engine, or equipment.

    Section 209(b) of the Act requires the Administrator, after notice 
and opportunity for public hearing, to waive application of the 
prohibitions of section 209(a) for any state that has adopted standards 
(other than crankcase emission standards) for the control of emissions 
from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines prior to March 30, 
1966, if the state determines that the state standards will be, in the 
aggregate, at least as protective of public health and welfare as 
applicable federal standards. California is the only state that is 
qualified to seek and receive a waiver under section 209(b). EPA must 
grant a waiver unless the Administrator finds that (A) the 
determination of the state is arbitrary and capricious, (B) the state 
does not need the state standards to meet compelling and extraordinary 
conditions, or (C) the state standards and accompanying enforcement 
procedures are not consistent with section 202(a) of the Act. Previous 
decisions granting waivers of federal preemption for motor vehicles 
have maintained that state standards are inconsistent with section 
202(a) if there is inadequate lead time to permit the development of 
the necessary technology giving appropriate consideration to the cost 
of compliance within that time period or if the federal and state test 
procedures impose inconsistent certification procedures.\2\
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    \2\ To be consistent, the California certification procedures 
need not be identical to the federal certification procedures. 
California procedures would be inconsistent, however, if 
manufacturers would be unable to meet the state and the federal 
requirements with the same test vehicle in the course of the same 
test. See, e.g., 43 FR 32182 (July 25, 1978).
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    If California amends regulations that were previously granted a 
waiver, EPA can confirm that the amended regulations are within the 
scope of the previously granted waiver. Such within-the-scope 
amendments are permissible without a full waiver review if three 
conditions are met. First, the amended regulations must not undermine 
California's determination that its standards, in the aggregate, are as 
protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal 
standards. Second, the amended regulations must not affect consistency 
with section 202(a) of the Act. Third, the amended regulations must not 
raise any ``new issues'' affecting EPA's prior waivers.

(C) Request for Comment

    First, EPA requests comment on whether the 2007 Amendments and the 
Truck Idling Amendments, each individually assessed, should be 
considered under the within-the-scope analysis or whether they should 
be considered under the full waiver criteria. Specifically, we request 
comment on whether the 2007 Amendments and the Truck Idling Amendments 
(1) undermine California's previous determination that its standards, 
in the aggregate, are at least as protective of public health and 
welfare as comparable Federal standards, (2) affect the consistency of 
California's requirements with section 202(a) of the Act, and (3) raise 
any other ``new issue'' affecting EPA's previous waiver or 
authorization determinations.
    For the In-Use Amendments and to the extent commenters believe the 
2007 Amendments or the Truck Idling Amendments should be considered 
under the full waiver criteria, EPA invites comment under the following 
three criteria: Whether (a) California's determination that its motor 
vehicle emission standards are, in the aggregate, at least as 
protective of public health and welfare as applicable federal standards 
is arbitrary and capricious, (b) California needs such standards to 
meet compelling and extraordinary conditions, and (c) California's 
standards and accompanying enforcement procedures are consistent with 
section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.

Procedures for Public Participation

    The Agency will make a verbatim record of the proceedings. 
Interested parties may arrange with the reporter at the hearing to 
obtain a copy of the transcript at their own expense. EPA will keep the 
record open until November 1, 2016. Upon expiration of the comment 
period, the Administrator will render a decision on CARB's request 
based on the record of the public hearing, relevant written 
submissions, and other information that she deems pertinent.
    Persons with comments containing proprietary information must 
distinguish such information from other comments to the greatest 
possible extent and label it as ``Confidential Business Information'' 
(CBI). If a person making comments wants EPA to base its decision in 
part on a submission labeled CBI, then a non-confidential version of 
the document that summarizes the key data or information should be 
submitted for the public docket. To ensure that proprietary information 
is not inadvertently placed in the docket, submissions containing such 
information should be sent directly to the contact person listed above 
and not to the public docket. Information covered by a claim of 
confidentiality will be disclosed by EPA only to the extent allowed and 
by the procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2. If no claim of 
confidentiality accompanies the submission when EPA receives it, EPA 
will make it available to the public without further notice to the 
person making comments.

    Dated: August 4, 2016.
Christopher Grundler, Director,
Office of Transportation and Air Quality, Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2016-18897 Filed 8-8-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P