Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Notices 1105 

document via the internet through the 

Commission’s Home Page (http://

www.ferc.gov) using the ‘‘eLibrary’’ link. 

Enter the docket number excluding the 

last three digits in the docket number 

field to access the document. At this 

time, the Commission has suspended 

access to the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room, due to the 

proclamation declaring a National 

Emergency concerning the Novel 

Coronavirus Disease (COVID–19), issued 

by the President on March 13, 2020. For 

assistance, contact FERC at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or call 

toll-free, (886) 208–3676 or TYY, (202) 

502–8659. 

The Commission strongly encourages 

electronic filings of comments, protests 

and interventions in lieu of paper using 

the ‘‘eFile’’ link at http://www.ferc.gov. 

In lieu of electronic filing, you may 

submit a paper copy. Submissions sent 

via the U.S. Postal Service must be 

addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 

1A, Washington, DC 20426. 

Submissions sent via any other carrier 

must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, 

Rockville, Maryland 20852. 

Dated: December 31, 2020. 

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr., 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2020–29326 Filed 1–6–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2019–0668; FRL–10019–17– 

OAR] 

Guidance on the Preparation of Clean 

Air Act Section 179B Demonstrations 

for Nonattainment Areas Affected by 

International Transport of Emissions 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that 

the Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) has posted on its website a final 

guidance document titled, ‘‘Guidance 

on the Preparation of Clean Air Act 

Section 179B Demonstrations for 

Nonattainment Areas Affected by 

International Transport of Emissions.’’ 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

general questions concerning this final 

guidance document, please contact 

Gobeail McKinley, U.S. EPA, Office of 

Air Quality Planning and Standards, Air 

Quality Policy Division, C539–04, 

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, 

telephone (919) 541–5246, email at 

mckinley.gobeail@epa.gov. For 

questions about the technical issues 

discussed in Section 6 of this guidance, 

please contact Barron Henderson, U.S. 

EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards, Air Quality Assessment 

Division, Research Triangle Park, NC 

27711, telephone (919) 541–2760, email 

at henderson.barron@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

How can I get copies of this guidance 

document and other related 

information? 

Docket: The EPA has established a 

docket for this action under Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2019–0668. All 

documents in the docket are listed on 

the https://www.regulations.gov 

website. Although listed in the index, 

some information may not be publicly 

available, e.g., Confidential Business 

Information or other information whose 

disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Certain other material, such as 

copyrighted material, is not placed on 

the internet and will be publicly 

available only in hard copy. Publicly 

available docket materials are available 

electronically through https://

www.regulations.gov. 

Agency Website: The EPA has 

established the EPA Guidance Portal 

website for posting of all active final 

guidance documents. The EPA 

Guidance Portal can be accessed at the 

following website: https://epa.gov/ 

guidance/. 

The EPA has a website to house 

information related to the international 

transport of air pollution at: https://

www.epa.gov/ground-level-ozonepollution/international-transport-airpollution. The website includes the 

EPA’s draft and final Clean Air Act 

(CAA) section 179B guidance 

documents, a recording of and the slides 

presented during the public webinar 

held on February 12, 2020, and other 

technical information and resources 

related to the international transport of 

air pollution. The website provides 

related information that the public may 

find useful. 

What’s the purpose of the EPA’s 

guidance? 

The purpose of this new final 

guidance document is to assist state, 

local, and tribal air agencies that are 

considering the development of a 

demonstration, under section 179B of 

the CAA, that a nonattainment area 

would be able to attain, or would have 

attained, the relevant National Ambient 

Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) but for 

air pollutant emissions emanating from 

outside the United States. The guidance 

describes and provides examples of the 

kinds of information and analyses that 

the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) recommends air agencies 

consider including in a CAA section 

179B demonstration. The guidance also 

describes a weight of evidence approach 

that the EPA intends to use when 

evaluating CAA section 179B 

demonstrations. This nonbinding 

guidance is intended to assist air 

agencies considering the preparation of 

a CAA section 179B demonstration but 

does not limit the types of information 

or analyses that could be provided as 

part of any such demonstration under 

the CAA. 

The EPA has the authority under CAA 

section 179B to assess such an 

international transport demonstration 

when evaluating a state implementation 

plan (SIP) submitted in response to a 

nonattainment designation or 

reclassification of an area, or when the 

EPA determines whether a 

nonattainment area has or has not failed 

to attain the standard by the attainment 

date (and thus would become subject to 

additional CAA requirements). If the 

EPA determines that such a 

demonstration is approvable, the EPA 

will provide certain regulatory relief as 

described in CAA section 179B. If the 

EPA approves a CAA section 179B 

demonstration showing that an area in 

the future would attain the relevant 

NAAQS but for international emissions, 

then the air agency would not be subject 

to the SIP requirement to provide an 

attainment demonstration. If the EPA 

approves a CAA section 179B 

demonstration showing that a 

nonattainment area would have attained 

the relevant NAAQS based on past air 

quality data but for international 

emissions, then the nonattainment area 

would not be subject to reclassification 

to a higher classification and would not 

be subject to additional regulatory 

requirements that come with a higher 

classification. 

In addition to describing the kinds of 

information and analyses that may be 

helpful to include in a CAA section 

179B demonstration, this guidance 

provides: 

• A review of the existing regulatory 

framework for considering CAA section 

179B demonstrations; 

• A review of other existing 

regulatory mechanisms that may be 

more appropriate alternatives to CAA 

section 179B in certain situations; 

• Recommended timeframes for the 

CAA section 179B demonstration 

development and submittal process; and 


jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES
1106 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Notices 

• Background on the nature of 

intracontinental and intercontinental 

transport of air pollution. 

The EPA accepted comments on the 

draft guidance from January 9, 2020, 

through March 10, 2020. The EPA 

received comments from 15 entities. All 

comments received by the EPA are 

included in the docket for this guidance. 

The EPA thoroughly considered the 

points raised in the comments in the 

development of this final guidance. 

1. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory 

Planning and Review and Executive 

Order 13563: Improving Regulation and 

Regulatory Review 

This action is a significant guidance 

document that was submitted to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for review. Any changes made in 

response to OMB recommendations 

have been documented in the docket. 

2. Executive Order 13771: Reducing 

Regulations and Controlling Regulatory 

Costs 

This action is not considered an 

Executive Order 13771 deregulatory or 

regulatory action. This action is 

considered a significant guidance 

action. There are no quantified cost 

estimates for this guidance because it 

does not create regulatory requirements 

for states. To the extent the 

clarifications in the guidance influence 

the behaviors of states, this guidance 

could help a state develop an 

approvable CAA section 179B 

demonstration, which in turn would be 

expected to reduce the state’s burden 

associated with implementing 

nonattainment area requirements. 

3. Executive Order 13609: Promoting 

International Regulatory Cooperation 

This guidance does not impact 

regulatory cooperation because it is not 

a regulation. 

4. Executive Order 13777: Enforcing the 

Regulatory Reform Agenda 

This guidance is not being issued as 

a result of the agency’s regulatory 

reform agenda or through a 

recommendation from the Agency’s 

Regulatory Reform Task Force because it 

is not a regulation. 

5. Executive Order 13891: Promoting the 

Rule of Law Through Improved Agency 

Guidance Documents 

This guidance complies with all the 

requirements of Executive Order 13891. 

Dated: December 18, 2020. 

Panagiotis Tsirigotis, 

Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00026 Filed 1–6–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–10016–84–OAR] 

Official Release of the MOVES3 Motor 

Vehicle Emissions Model for SIPs and 

Transportation Conformity 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is announcing the 

availability of the MOtor Vehicle 

Emission Simulator model (MOVES3) 

for official purposes outside of 

California. MOVES3 is the latest stateof-the art upgrade to EPA’s modeling 

tools for estimating emissions from cars, 

trucks, buses, and motorcycles based on 

the latest data and regulations. MOVES3 

is available for use in state 

implementation plans (SIPs) and 

transportation conformity analyses 

outside of California. This notice starts 

a two-year grace period before MOVES3 

will need to be used as the latest EPA 

emissions model in new regional 

emissions analyses and a two-year grace 

period before MOVES3 will need to be 

used in new hot-spot analyses for 

transportation conformity 

determinations outside of California. 

DATES: EPA’s announcement of the 

MOVES3 emissions model for SIPs and 

transportation conformity analyses in 

states other than California is effective 

January 7, 2021. This announcement 

starts a two-year transportation 

conformity grace period that ends on 

January 9, 2023. After this date, 

MOVES3 will need to be used as the 

latest EPA emissions model in both 

regional emissions analyses and in hotspot analysis for new transportation 

conformity analyses outside of 

California. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

technical model questions regarding the 

official release or use of MOVES3, 

please email EPA at mobile@epa.gov. 

For questions about SIPs, contact Rudy 

Kapichak at Kapichak.Rudolph@

epa.gov, 734–214–4574. For 

transportation conformity questions, 

contact Astrid Terry at Terry.Astrid@

epa.gov, 734–214–4812. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

contents of this notice are as follows: 

I. General Information 

II. What is MOVES3? 

III. SIPs and MOVES3 

IV. Transportation Conformity and MOVES3 

I. General Information 

A. Does this action apply to me? 

Entities potentially impacted by the 

approval of MOVES3 are those that 

adopt, approve, or fund transportation 

plans, transportation improvement 

programs (TIPs), or projects under title 

23 U.S.C. or title 49 U.S.C. Chapter 53 

and those that develop and submit SIPs 

to EPA. Regulated categories and 

entities affected by today’s action 

include: 

Category Examples of regulated 

entities 

Local government.Local air quality and transportation agencies, including metropolitan planning 

organizations (MPOs). 

State government.State air quality and transportation agencies. 

Federal government.Department of Transportation (Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA) 

and Federal Transit Administration (FTA)). 

This table is not intended to be 

exhaustive, but rather provides a guide 

for readers regarding entities likely to be 

affected by the release of MOVES. Other 

entities not listed in the table could also 

be affected. To determine whether your 

organization is affected by this action, 

you should carefully examine the 

transportation conformity applicability 

requirements in 40 CFR 93.102. If you 

have questions regarding the 

applicability of this action to a 

particular entity, consult the persons 

listed in the preceding FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

B. How can I get copies of MOVES3 and 

other related information? 

The official version of the MOVES3 

model, along with user guides and 

supporting documentation, are available 

on EPA’s MOVES website: 

www.epa.gov/moves. Individuals who 

wish to receive EPA announcements 

related to the MOVES3 model should 

subscribe to the EPA–MOBILENEWS 

email listserv, which can be done at 

EPA’s website at: www.epa.gov/moves/ 

forms/epa-mobilenews-listserv. 

Available guidance on how to apply 

MOVES3 for SIPs and transportation 

conformity purposes can be found on 

EPA’s transportation conformity 

website, www.epa.gov/state-and-localtransportation/policy-and-technicalguidance-state-and-localVerDate Sep<11>2014 18:12 Jan 06, 2021 Jkt 253001 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\07JAN1.SGM 07JAN1

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with NOTICES