1 State of California

AIR RESOURCES BOARD

Notice of Public Availabili ty of Modified Text

PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER AMEN DMENTS TO THE REGULATIONS “FUEL

SULFUR AND OTHER OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR OCEAN-GOING

VESSELS WITHIN CALIFORNIA WATERS AND 24 NAUTICAL MILES OF THE

CALIFORNIA BASELINE”

Public Hearing Date: June 23, 2011 Public Availability of Modified Text Date: July 25, 2011
Deadline for Public Comm ent: August 9, 2011

At its June 23, 2011, public he aring, the Air Resources B oard (ARB or the Board) approved amendments to the r egulations “Fuel Sulfur and Other Operational Requirements for Ocean-Going Vessels within California Waters and 24 Nautical Miles of the California Baseline” (title 13, Ca lifornia Code of Regulations [CCR], section 2299.2, and title 17 California Co de of Regulations, section 93 118.2). Section 2299.2 is a regulation for ocean-going vessels (OGV ) and section 93118.2 is a substantively identical airborne toxic control measure (A TCM). Both sections will be referred to collectively hereafter as the “OGV Clean Fuel Regulations” or “regulat ions”. Information regarding the amendments to the regulations can be found in the Initial Statement of Reasons (ISOR) at the following link: http://www.arb.ca.gov/r egact/2011/ogv11/ogv11.htm

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The OGV Clean Fuel Regulations reduce the pub lic’s exposure to air pollutants from theuse of marine diesel fuel in main and auxiliary engines, and auxiliary boilers, on oceangoing vessels operating within 24 nautical miles of the Califor nia shoreline (baseline). The emissions from the engi nes and boilers on ocean-going vessels are transported onshore where they contribute to higher levels of diesel particulate matter (diesel PM), other PM (e.g., secondarily formed nitr ate and sulfate PM), and ozone pollution in

California’s coastal air basins. The OGV Clean Fuel Regulations require the use of

cleaner marine distillate fuels which subst antially reduce emissions from ocean-going vessels. These emission reductions help to improve regional ambi ent air quality and provide significant health benefit s. The regulations also provide critical emission reductions needed by the South Coast Air Qua lity Management Distric t to fulfill State Implementation Plan obligations and attain the PM2.5 standard in the South Coast Air

Basin.

The Board’s Action

At the June 23, 2011 hearing, the Board adopted Resolution 11-25 in which it approved the originally proposed amendments with mo difications. The modifications had been suggested by ARB staff in a document entitl ed “Staff’s Suggested M odifications to the Original Proposal” that was distributed at the hearing as Attachment B to the Resolution.2 These suggested modifications were made in response to comments on staff’s initial proposal that were received before the B oard hearing. In accordance with section
11346.8 of the Government C ode, the Board directed the Executive Officer to adopt amendments to title 13, CCR section 2299.2 and title 17, CCR section 93118.2, with the

modifications as described in Attachment B to Resolution 11-25, after making the

modified text available to t he public for comment for a peri od of at least 15 days. The Board further provided that the Executive Officer shall consider such written comments as may be submitted during this period, sh all make such modifications as may be appropriate in light of the comments received, and shall present the regulations to the

Board for further consider ation if warranted.

Resolution 11-25 and all other r egulatory documents for this rulemaking are available

online at the followi ng ARB website: http://www.arb.ca.gov/r egact/2011/ogv11/ogv11.htm.

Summary of Proposed Modifications

A summary of the modifications and the rationale for the modifications to the originally proposed regulatory amendments ar e set forth below. Subst antively identical changes are made to both regulations. All refe rences to CCR, section 2299.2 and section 93118.2 are to titles 13 and 17, respectively, unless otherwise noted. For a complete

account of all modifications in the proposed regulations, please refer to the underline

and strikeout text in Attachment 1.

At the public hearing, ARB staff suggest ed that another amendm ent be incorporated into the regulations to help further ali gn the OGV Clean Fuel Regulations with the recently adopted North American Emission Control Area (ECA). As background, the United States and Canada jointly applied for an ECA designation in July, 2009. On March 26, 2010, the Internationa l Maritime Organization offici ally designated waters of

the United States and Canadi an coastlines as an ECA, referred to as the North

American ECA. Under the North American ECA, OGVs traveling within a 200 nm zone

of the North American coastli ne are required to use fuels with no more than 1.0 percent sulfur beginning on August 1, 2012 and no more than 0.1 percent su lfur beginning on January 1, 2015. The North Amer ican ECA does not specify what type of fuel must be used; it only establishes a fuel sulfur lim it. To align California’s Phase 1 fuel requirements with the North Am erican ECA’s August 2012 fuel sulfur requirement, ARB staff suggested that a 1.0 perc ent fuel sulfur limit for the Phase 1 marine gas oil be included in the regulations and that this limit begi n August 1, 2012 to coincide with the North American ECA implementati on date. This modification wi ll ensure that there is no

conflict between the Phase 1 r equirements of the North Amer ican ECA and those in the OGV Clean Fuel Regulations.

The following is a summary of proposed mo difications to the regulatory text to incorporate the 1.0 percent fuel limit for marine gas oil.3 Operational Requirements (subsect ions 2299.2[e] and 93118.2[e]): The requirements in subsection (e)(1)(A) and (B) we re modified to incorporate a 1.0 percent sulfur by weight limit for marine gas o il that will become effe ctive August 1, 2012.

Noncompliance Fee in Lieu of Meeting subsection (e)(1). (subsections 2299.2[h] and 93118.2[h]): The requirements in subsection (h)(5)(C) were modified to incorporate a 1.0 percent su lfur by weight limit for marine gas oil that will become effective August 1, 2012.

Based on the fuel availability analysis condu cted for the OGV Clean Fuel Regulations 2008 original rulemaking and add itional fuel sulfur cont ent data collected from enforcement inspections since implementati on of the regulations began in July 2009, ARB staff believes marine gas oil that meets the 1.0 percent f uel sulfur limit is readily available and is already being used by the vast majority of vessels visiting California ports. The data collected to investigate fuel av ailability reveals that over 95 percent of the marine gas oil available worl dwide can meet a 1.0 percent fu el sulfur limit. The fuel inspection data indicates that on average, many of the most significant bunkering regions are providing fuel at or within a few t enths of a percent of 0.1 percent sulfur, far below 1.0 percent. In the rare cases w here the fuel may not be available, the regulations include a provision to allow a ship operator to purchase the fuel in California and pay a reduced fee under the nonc ompliance fee provision. As such, ARB staff does not anticipate any adverse environmental impacts from the modification or any increased costs to the regul ated industry above and beyond those costs already being incurred due to implementation of the regulation. Informat ion on the fuel availability analysis conducted for the OGV Clean Fuel Regulations 2008 original rulemaking can be found in Appendix F located at : http://www.arb.ca.gov/regac t/2008/fuelogv08/appffuel.pdf . Information on the fuel inspection data is presented in Chapter II of the Initial Statem ent of Reasons for Proposed Rulemaking at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/r egact/2011/ogv11/ogv11isor.pdf

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In addition to the changes discussed above, a proposed modification was made to the original implementation date of the auxiliary diesel engine f uel requirement. In the original rulemaking, the implementati on date began upon the effective date of the regulation as approved by the Office of Ad ministrative Law. To avoid any confusion

between the effective date of the original rulemaking and the effective date of the amendments, the exact date of the original implementation was included in the modified

text.

Modified Regulations Being Made Available

With this notice, the modi fied regulations are being made available for public comment prior to the final action by the Board’s Executive Officer. As noted above, the modified regulations included in the at tachment to this notice c an be obtained from the ARB’s website at the following address: http://www.arb.ca.gov/r egact/2011/ogv11/ogv11.htm , or from the Public4 Information Office, Ai r Resources Board, 1001 I Stree t, Visitors and Environmental Services Center, First Floor, Sacramento, Californi a, 95814. If you would like a paper copy of the attachment sent to you through postal mail, please call Ms. Bonnie Soriano at (916) 327-6888 and give your name, company name, if any, and mailing address.

Public Comments

Written comments will only be accepted on the m odifications identified in this notice, and may be submitted by postal mail or electronic mail submittal as follows:

Postal mail: Clerk of the Board, Air Resources Board 1001 I Street, Sacramento, California 95814

Electronic submittal: http://www.arb.ca.gov/lispub/comm/bclist.php

Please note that under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code § 6250 et seq.), your written and oral comments, attachment s, and associated contact information (e.g., your address, phone, email, etc. ) become part of the public record and can be released to the public upon request. Additionally, this information may become available via Google, Yahoo, and any other search engines.

In order to be considered by the Executive Officer, comm ents must be directed to ARB

in one of the two forms described above and received by ARB by 5:00 p.m., on the deadline date for public comment listed at the beginning of this notice. Only comments relating to the above-described modifications to the text of the regulations shall be considered by the Executive Officer.

If you need this document in an alternate format (i.e., Braille, large pr int, etc.) or another language, please contact the Cle rk of the Board at (916) 322-5594 or by facsimile at (916) 322-3928 no later than five (5) business days from the release date of this notice. TTY/TDD/Speech to Speech users may dial 711 for the California Relay

Service.

Si necesita este documento en un formato al terno (por decir, si stema Braille, o en impresión grande) u otro idioma, por favor llame a la oficina del Secretario del Consejo de Recursos Atmosféricos al (916) 322-5594 o envíe un fax al (916) 322-3928 no menos de cinco (5) días laborales a partir de la fecha del lanzamiento de este aviso.

Para el Servicio Telefónico de California para Personas con Problemas Auditivos, ó de teléfonos TDD pueden marcar al 711.

Attachments

The energy challenge facing California is real . Every Californian needs to take imm ediate action to reduce energy consumption. For a list of simple ways you can reduce demand a nd cut your energy costs, see ARB’s website at www.arb.ca.gov

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