Notice2022-20024
Access by EPA Contractors to Information Claimed as Confidential Business Information Submitted Under the Clean Air Act and Related to Various Fuel Quality Regulations
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 16, 2022
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to authorize various contractors to access information that is submitted to EPA, and which may be claimed as, or may be determined to be, confidential business information (CBI). The information is related to EPA's fuel quality programs, including fuel and fuel additive registration, the renewable fuel standard, standards applicable to gasoline and diesel fuel, and gasoline detergent additives.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 179 (Friday, September 16, 2022)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 179 (Friday, September 16, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56945-56946]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20024]
[[Page 56945]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0710; FRL-10148-01-OAR]
Access by EPA Contractors to Information Claimed as Confidential
Business Information Submitted Under the Clean Air Act and Related to
Various Fuel Quality Regulations
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of contractor access to data and request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to authorize
various contractors to access information that is submitted to EPA, and
which may be claimed as, or may be determined to be, confidential
business information (CBI). The information is related to EPA's fuel
quality programs, including fuel and fuel additive registration, the
renewable fuel standard, standards applicable to gasoline and diesel
fuel, and gasoline detergent additives.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 21, 2022.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2022-0710, by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>
(our preferred method) Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
<bullet> Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e786ca868983ca95caa388848c8293a7829786c9808891"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="046529656a60297629406b676f6170446174652a636b72">[email protected]</span></a>. Include Docket ID No. EPA-
HQ-OAR-2022-0710 in the subject line of the message.
<bullet> Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket
Center, Air Docket, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20460.
<bullet> Hand Delivery or Courier: EPA Docket Center, WJC West
Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004.
The Docket Center's hours of operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.,
Monday-Friday (except Federal Holidays).
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID
No. for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change
to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>, including any personal information
provided. For the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI
or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective
comments, please visit <a href="http://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets">http://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anne-Marie Pastorkovich, Environmental
Protection Agency, telephone number: 202-343-9623; email address:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a3d3c2d0d7ccd1c8ccd5cac0cb8dc2cdcdc68ecec2d1cac6e3c6d3c28dc4ccd5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1d6d7c6e69726f76726b747e75337c73737830707c6f74785d786d7c337a726b">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Does this notice apply to me?
This action is directed to the public. However, this action may be
of particular interest to parties who submit information to EPA
regarding various fuel standards, such as fuel and fuel additive
registration under 40 CFR part 79; the renewable fuel standard (RFS)
under 40 CFR part 80; and the standards for reformulated and
conventional gasoline, regulated blendstocks, diesel fuel, and
detergent under 40 CFR part 1090. Parties who may be interested in this
action include fuel manufacturers (such as refiners and importers),
renewable fuel producers, biointermediate producers, manufacturers of
fuel additives, renewable fuel exporters, parties in the fuel
distribution chain, and all those who submit registrations or reports
to EPA via any method or system. Existing e-registration and e-
reporting systems include the EPA Central Data Exchange (CDX), DCFUEL,
OTAQREG, and the EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS).
This Federal Register notice may be of relevance to parties that
submit data and other information under the above-listed programs or
systems. Since other parties may also be interested, we have not
attempted to describe all the specific parties that may be affected by
this action. If you have further questions regarding the applicability
of this action to a party, please contact the person listed in FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
II. Public Participation
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-
0710 at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> (our preferred method), or the
other methods identified in the ADDRESSES section. Once submitted,
comments cannot be edited or removed from the docket. EPA may publish
any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit to EPA's
docket at <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> any information you consider to
be confidential business information (CBI) or other information whose
disclosure is restricted by statute. 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 (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). 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 <a href="https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets">https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets</a>.
III. Description of Programs and Potential Disclosure of Information
Claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) to Contractors
EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) has
responsibility for protecting public health and the environment by
regulating air pollution from motor vehicles, engines, and the fuels
used to operate them, and by encouraging travel choices that minimize
emissions. To implement various Clean Air Act (CAA) programs, and to
permit regulated entities flexibility in meeting regulatory
requirements (e.g., compliance on average), we collect compliance
reports and other information from them. Parties may claim the
submitted information as CBI. Information submitted under such a claim
is handled in accordance with EPA's regulations at 40 CFR part 2,
subpart B and in accordance with EPA procedures, including
comprehensive system security planning. When EPA has determined that
disclosure of information claimed as CBI to contractors is necessary,
the corresponding contract must address the appropriate use and
handling of the information by the contractor and the contractor must
require its personnel who require access to information claimed as CBI
to sign written non-disclosure agreements before they are granted
access to data.
In accordance with 40 CFR 2.301(h), we have determined that the
contractors, subcontractors, and grantees (collectively referred to as
``contractors'') listed below require access to CBI submitted to us
under the CAA and in connection with various programs related to the
regulation of fuels under 40 CFR parts 79, 80 and 1090. OTAQ collects
this data to monitor compliance with CAA programs and, in many cases,
to permit regulated parties flexibility in meeting regulatory
requirements. Certain programs under 40 CFR parts 79, 80 and 1090 are
designed to permit regulated parties an opportunity to comply on
average, or to engage in transactions using various types of credits.
For example, parties that participate in programs that utilize credits
(e.g., the gasoline sulfur and gasoline benzene
[[Page 56946]]
program, or renewable identification numbers, RINs, in RFS) submit
information related to credit or RIN transactions. Data submitted under
40 CFR parts 79, 80 and1090 includes information related to fuel and
fuel additives (e.g., chemical formulas), renewable fuels, gasoline,
diesel fuel, gasoline detergent additives, and regulated blendstocks.
Fuels program data is reviewed and assessed to determine the
environmental performance of the programs or to plan for regulatory
improvements. We are issuing this notice to inform all affected
submitters of information that we plan to grant access to material that
may be claimed as CBI to the contractors identified below on a need-to-
know basis.
Under EPA Contract Number HHSN316201200188, VMD Systems
Integrators, Incorporated (``VMD''), 4114 Legato Rd. Suite 700, Fairfax
Virginia 22033-4002 provides report processing, program support,
technical support and analysis and information technology services that
involve access to information claimed as CBI related to 40 CFR parts
79, 80, and 1090. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), 3150
Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church, Virginia, 22042, is a subcontractor
of VMD performing work on this contract. GDIT, in turn, has the
following subcontractors:
<bullet> Ferguson Digital Solutions Inc., 12639 Blue Sky Drive,
Clarksburg Maryland 20871;
<bullet> Powersolv, Inc., 1801 Robert Fulton Drive, Suite 550,
Reston, Virginia 20191;
<bullet> Potomac Economics, LTD, 9990 Fairfax Blvd., Suite 560,
Fairfax, Virginia 22030; and
<bullet> Premier ITech, Inc., 8869 Grand Ave., Beulah, Colorado
81023.
Access to data by VMD and its subcontractors will begin September
26, 2022 and will continue until June 30, 2027. If the contract is
extended, this access will continue for the remainder of the contract
without further notice. If the contract expires prior to June 30, 2027,
the access will cease at that time. If VMD employs additional
subcontractors to support EPA on a regular basis or on a limited or
one-time basis under the above-listed contract, and those
subcontractors require access to CBI, EPA will notify interested
parties of the contemplated disclosure and provide them with an
opportunity to comment by publishing a notice in the Federal Register.
Under General Services Administration (GSA) Alliant Contract number
GS00Q09BGD0022, FEDSIM Task Order 47QFCA-18-F-0009, Project Number:
00045-OAR-000, CGI Federal, Incorporated, 12601 Fair Lakes Circle,
Fairfax, Virginia 22033-4902, provides report processing, program
support, technical support and analysis and information technology
services that involve access to information claimed as CBI related to
40 CFR parts 79, 80, and 1090. Access to data by CGI will begin
September 26, 2022 and will continue until at least February 25, 2023.
If the project date extended, this access will continue without further
notice. If the project ends prior to February 25, 2023, the access will
cease at that time. If CGI employs subcontractors to support EPA on a
regular basis or on a limited or one-time basis under the above-listed
contract, and those subcontractors require access to CBI, EPA will
notify interested parties of the contemplated disclosure and provide
them with an opportunity to comment by publishing a notice in the
Federal Register.
EPA uses the services of Senior Environmental Employees (SEEs)
whose involve access to information claimed as CBI. These SEEs are
provided by the Center for Workforce Inclusion (CWI). The Grant Numbers
are 84021701--Washington, DC; and Grant Number 83967201--Ann Arbor, MI.
CWI is located at 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 200, Silver Spring, MD
20910. The Ann Arbor, MI Grant Number 83967201 will expire on September
30, 2022, and the work will continue with CWI under new Grant Number
8404420, starting October 1, 2022. Access to data by CWI SEEs will
begin September 26, 2022 and will continue indefinitely thereafter. If
the grantee providing SEEs changes, EPA will notify interested parties
of the contemplated disclosure and provide them with an opportunity to
comment by publishing a notice in the Federal Register.
Parties who want further information about this notice or about
OTAQ's disclosure of information claimed as CBI to contactors may
contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Byron Bunker,
Director, Compliance Division, Office of Transportation & Air Quality.
[FR Doc. 2022-20024 Filed 9-15-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 16, 2022.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.