Notice2024-04291
Information Regarding Allowances Used in Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) Trading Programs
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
March 1, 2024
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice of the availability of data on emission allowance allocations to certain units under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) trading programs. EPA has completed preliminary calculations for the allocations of allowances from the new unit set-asides (NUSAs) for the 2023 control periods and has posted spreadsheets containing the calculations on EPA's website. EPA will consider timely objections to the preliminary calculations (including objections concerning the identification of units eligible for allocations) before determining the final amounts of the allocations. Additionally, EPA is making available an estimate of the data and calculations to be used in the allowance bank recalibration process for the 2024 control period under the CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 Trading Program.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 42 (Friday, March 1, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 42 (Friday, March 1, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15199-15201]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04291]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9542-05-OAR]
Information Regarding Allowances Used in Cross-State Air
Pollution Rule (CSAPR) Trading Programs
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of data availability.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing notice
of the availability of data on emission allowance allocations to
certain units under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) trading
programs. EPA has completed preliminary calculations for the
allocations of allowances from the new unit set-asides (NUSAs) for the
2023 control periods and has posted spreadsheets containing the
calculations on EPA's website. EPA will consider timely objections to
the preliminary calculations (including objections concerning the
identification of units eligible for allocations) before determining
the final amounts of the allocations. Additionally, EPA is making
available an estimate of the data and calculations to be used in the
allowance bank recalibration process for the 2024 control period under
the CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 Trading Program.
DATES: Objections to the information referenced in this notice
concerning NUSA allocations must be received on or before April 1,
2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit your objections via email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#eba8b8aabbb9ab8e9b8ac58c849d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6625352736342603160748010910">[email protected]</span></a>. Include
``2023 NUSA allocations'' in the email subject line and include your
name, title, affiliation, address, phone number, and email address in
the body of the email.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions concerning this action
should be addressed to Garrett Powers at (202) 564-2300 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a5d5cad2c0d7d68bcfc4c8c0d6c2e5c0d5c48bc2cad3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f1819e86948382df9b909c948296b1948190df969e87">[email protected]</span></a> or Morgan Riedel at (202) 564-1144 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1163787475747d3f7c7e6376707f517461703f767e67"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1163787475747d3f7c7e6376707f517461703f767e67">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Allocations From New Unit Set-Asides
Under each CSAPR trading program where EPA is responsible for
determining emission allowance
[[Page 15200]]
allocations, a portion of each state's emissions budget for the program
for each control period is reserved in a NUSA (and, under most of the
trading programs, in an additional Indian country NUSA in the case of
states with Indian country within their borders) for allocation to
certain units that would not otherwise receive allowance allocations.
The procedures for identifying the eligible units for each control
period and for allocating allowances from the NUSAs and Indian country
NUSAs to these units are set forth in the CSAPR trading program
regulations at 40 CFR 97.411(b) and 97.412 (NO<INF>X</INF> Annual),
97.511(b) and 97.512 (NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 1), 97.611(b)
and 97.612 (SO<INF>2</INF> Group 1), 97.711(b) and 97.712
(SO<INF>2</INF> Group 2), 97.811(b) and 97.812 (NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone
Season Group 2), and 97.1012 (NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3).
Each NUSA allowance allocation process involves allocations to eligible
units, termed ``new'' units, followed by the allocation to ``existing''
units of any allowances not allocated to new units.\1\
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\1\ The CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 Trading
Program serves as the compliance mechanism for electricity
generating units under the Good Neighbor Plan (88 FR 36654, June 5,
2023). As of the date of signature of this notice, applications for
a stay of the Good Neighbor Plan are pending before the Supreme
Court of the United States. If a stay order is issued and depending
on its nature, it could affect EPA's ability to implement the
regulatory provisions of the CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group
3 Trading Program that are described in this notice.
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This notice concerns preliminary calculations for the NUSA
allowance allocations for the 2023 control periods. Generally, the
allocation procedures call for each eligible ``new'' unit to receive a
2023 NUSA allocation equal to its 2023 control period emissions as
reported under 40 CFR part 75 unless the total of such allocations to
all such eligible units would exceed the amount of allowances in the
NUSA, in which case the allocations are reduced on a pro-rata basis.
(EPA notes that, under 40 CFR 97.406(c)(3), 97.506(c)(3), 97.606(c)(3),
97.706(c)(3), 97.806(c)(3), and 97.1006(c)(3), a unit's emissions
occurring before its monitor certification deadline are not considered
to have occurred during a control period and consequently are not
included in the emission amounts used to determine NUSA allocations.)
Any allowances not allocated to eligible ``new'' units are allocated to
the state's ``existing'' units in proportion to such existing units'
previous allocations from the portion of the respective state's
emissions budget for the control period that was not reserved in a NUSA
(or Indian country NUSA).
The detailed unit-by-unit data and preliminary allowance allocation
calculations for ``new'' units are set forth in Excel spreadsheets
titled ``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_NO<INF>X</INF>_Annual_Prelim_Data_New_Units'',
``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_NO<INF>X</INF>_OS_Prelim_Data_New_Units'', and
``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_SO<INF>2</INF>_Prelim_Data_New_Units'', available on
EPA's website at <a href="http://www.epa.gov/csapr/csapr-allowance-allocations#nusa">www.epa.gov/csapr/csapr-allowance-allocations#nusa</a>.
Each of the spreadsheets contains a separate worksheet for each state
covered by that program showing, for each unit identified as eligible
for a NUSA allocation, (1) the unit's emissions in the 2023 control
period (annual or ozone season as applicable), (2) the maximum 2023
NUSA allowance allocation for which the unit is eligible (typically the
unit's emissions in the 2023 control period), (3) various adjustments
to the unit's maximum allocation if the NUSA pool is oversubscribed,
and (4) the preliminary calculation of the unit's 2023 NUSA allowance
allocation.
Each state worksheet for ``new'' units also contains a summary
showing (1) the quantity of allowances initially available in that
state's 2023 NUSA, (2) the sum of the 2023 NUSA allowance allocations
that will be made to new units in that state, assuming there are no
corrections to the data, and (3) the quantity of allowances that would
remain in the 2023 NUSA for allocation to existing units, again
assuming there are no corrections to the data.
The preliminary calculations of allocations of the remaining
unallocated allowances to ``existing'' units are set forth in Excel
spreadsheets titled
``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_NO<INF>X</INF>_Annual_Prelim_Data_Existing_Units'',
``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_NO<INF>X</INF>_OS_Prelim_Data_Existing_Units'', and
``CSAPR_NUSA_2023_SO<INF>2</INF>_Prelim_Data_Existing_Units'',
available at the same location.
Objections should be strictly limited to the data and calculations
upon which the NUSA allowance allocations are based and should be
emailed to the address identified in ADDRESSES. Objections must
include: (1) precise identification of the specific data and/or
calculations the commenter believes are inaccurate, (2) new proposed
data and/or calculations upon which the commenter believes EPA should
rely instead to determine allowance allocations, and (3) the reasons
why EPA should rely on the commenter's proposed data and/or
calculations and not the data referenced in this notice.
EPA notes that an allocation or lack of allocation of allowances to
a given unit under a given CSAPR trading program does not constitute a
determination that the trading program does or does not apply to the
unit. EPA also notes that, under 40 CFR 97.411(c), 97.511(c),
97.611(c), 97.711(c), 97.811(c), 97.1011(c), and 97.1012(c),
allocations are subject to potential correction if a unit to which
allowances have been allocated for a given control period is not
actually an affected unit as of the start of that control period.
II. Information for the Allowance Bank Recalibration Procedures
The CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 Trading Program
includes provisions calling for EPA to annually recalibrate the bank of
CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 allowances if the total
quantity of banked allowances from previous control periods held in all
facility and general accounts after compliance deductions for those
control periods exceeds an allowance bank ceiling target for the
current control period. The allowance bank recalibration procedures are
set forth in the trading program regulations at 40 CFR 97.1026(d).
Generally, if recalibration takes place for a given control period, the
amount of banked CSAPR NO<INF>X</INF> Ozone Season Group 3 allowances
from previous control periods held in each facility or general account
will be adjusted so that the amount of such banked allowances held in
the account after recalibration will equal the amount held in the
account immediately before recalibration multiplied by the allowance
bank ceiling target, divided by the total amount of such banked
allowances held in all facility and general accounts immediately before
recalibration, and rounded up to the nearest allowance. Allowance bank
recalibration for a given control period applies only to holdings of
banked allowances issued for previous control periods; it does not
affect any holdings of allowances issued for that control period. The
regulations call for EPA to carry out the allowance bank recalibration
procedures for the 2024 control period as soon as practicable on or
after August 1, 2024.\2\
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\2\ See note 1, supra.
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For the 2024 control period, the allowance bank ceiling target is
expected to be 12,605 tons, computed as 21% the sum of the 2024 state
emission budgets for the ten states currently covered by the trading
program. Based on the emissions and allowance data available at
<a href="http://campd.epa.gov">campd.epa.gov</a> as of the date of signature of this notice, EPA estimates
that after allowance deductions for 2023 compliance are completed in
June 2024, approximately
[[Page 15201]]
38,585 banked vintage 2021-2023 allowances will be held in facility or
general accounts (84,378 current allowance holdings + 3,365 upcoming
NUSA allocations-49,158 reported 2023 ozone season emissions = 38,585
estimated remaining allowances). Based on these figures, EPA expects
that allowance bank recalibration will take place for the 2024 control
period and estimates that the amount of banked vintage 2021-2023
allowances that will be held in each facility or general account after
recalibration will be the amount of such banked allowances held in the
account immediately before recalibration multiplied by 12,605 and
divided by 38,585 (or, equivalently, the amount of such banked
allowances held in the account immediately before recalibration
multiplied by approximately 33%). In the actual allowance bank
recalibration process, instead of using the estimated figures described
in this notice, EPA will use the most current information available as
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of the recalibration date.
(Authority: 40 CFR 97.411(b), 97.511(b), 97.611(b), 97.711(b),
97.811(b), and 97.1012(a).)
Rona Birnbaum,
Director, Clean Air Markets Division, Office of Atmospheric Protection,
Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2024-04291 Filed 2-29-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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