Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 128 / Thursday, July 3, 2014 / Proposed Rules 37973 

1 7 U.S.C. 1 et seq. 

2See 17 CFR part 150. Part 150 of the 

Commission’s regulations establishes federal 

position limits on futures and option contracts in 

nine enumerated agricultural commodities. 

3See 17 CFR 150.2. 

4See 17 CFR 150.3. 

5See 17 CFR 150.4. 

6See Position Limits for Derivatives, 78 FR 75680 

(Dec. 12, 2013). 

7See Aggregation of Positions, 78 FR 68946 (Nov. 

15, 2013). 

In addition, we encourage written or 

electronic comments. Written or 

electronic comments will be accepted 

until October 31, 2014. Please note that 

all comments should be restricted to the 

topics covered by the workshop, as 

described in this Announcement. 

Dated: June 25, 2014. 

Todd A. Stevenson, 

Secretary, U.S. Consumer Product Safety 

Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2014–15241 Filed 7–2–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6355–01–P 

COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING 

COMMISSION 

17 CFR Parts 1, 15, 17, 19, 32, 37, 38, 

140, and 150 

RIN 3038–AD99; 3038–AD82 

Position Limits for Derivatives and 

Aggregation of Positions 

AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; 

extension of comment periods. 

SUMMARY: On December 12, 2013, the 

Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’) published 

in the Federal Register a notice of 

proposed rulemaking (the ‘‘Position 

Limits Proposal’’) to establish 

speculative position limits for 28 

exempt and agricultural commodity 

futures and options contracts and the 

physical commodity swaps that are 

economically equivalent to such 

contracts. On November 15, 2013, the 

Commission published in the Federal 

Register a notice of proposed 

rulemaking (the ‘‘Aggregation 

Proposal’’) to amend existing 

regulations setting out the Commission’s 

policy for aggregation under its position 

limits regime. In addition, the 

Commission directed staff to hold a 

public roundtable on June 19, 2014, to 

consider certain issues regarding 

position limits for physical commodity 

derivatives. In order to provide 

interested parties with an opportunity to 

comment on the issues to be discussed 

at the roundtable, the Commission 

published notice in the Federal Register 

on May 29, 2014, that the comment 

periods for the Position Limits Proposal 

and the Aggregation Proposal were 

reopened, starting June 12, 2014 (one 

week before the roundtable) and ending 

July 3, 2014 (two weeks following the 

roundtable). To provide commenters 

with a sufficient period of time to 

respond to questions raised and points 

made at the roundtable, the Commission 

is now further extending the comment 

period. Comments should be limited to 

the issues of hedges of a physical 

commodity by a commercial enterprise, 

including gross hedging, crosscommodity hedging, anticipatory 

hedging, and the process for obtaining a 

non-enumerated exemption; the setting 

of spot month limits in physicaldelivery and cash-settled contracts and 

a conditional spot-month limit 

exemption; the setting of non-spot limits 

for wheat contracts; the aggregation 

exemption for certain ownership 

interests of greater than 50 percent in an 

owned entity; and aggregation based on 

substantially identical trading strategies. 

DATES: The comment periods for the 

Aggregation Proposal published 

November 15, 2013, at 78 FR 68946, and 

for the Position Limits Proposal 

published December 12, 2013, at 78 FR 

75680, will close on August 4, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by RIN 3038–AD99 for the 

Position Limits Proposal or RIN 3038– 

AD82 for the Aggregation Proposal, by 

any of the following methods: 

• Agency Web site: http://

comments.cftc.gov; 

• Mail: Secretary of the Commission, 

Commodity Futures Trading 

Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 

1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 

20581; 

• Hand delivery/courier: Same as 

mail, above; or 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Please submit your comments using 

only one method. All comments must be 

submitted in English, or if not, 

accompanied by an English translation. 

Comments will be posted as received to 

http://www.cftc.gov. You should submit 

only information that you wish to make 

available publicly. If you wish the 

Commission to consider information 

that may be exempt from disclosure 

under the Freedom of Information Act, 

a petition for confidential treatment of 

the exempt information may be 

submitted under § 145.9 of the 

Commission’s regulations (17 CFR 

145.9). 

The Commission reserves the right, 

but shall have no obligation, to review, 

pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or 

remove any or all of your submission 

from http://www.cftc.gov that it may 

deem to be inappropriate for 

publication, such as obscene language. 

All submissions that have been redacted 

or removed that contain comments on 

the merits of the rulemaking will be 

retained in the public comment file and 

will be considered as required under the 

Administrative Procedure Act and other 

applicable laws, and may be accessible 

under the Freedom of Information Act. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Stephen Sherrod, Senior Economist, 

Division of Market Oversight, (202) 418– 

5452, ssherrod@cftc.gov; or Riva Spear 

Adriance, Senior Special Counsel, 

Division of Market Oversight, (202) 418– 

5494, radriance@cftc.gov; Commodity 

Futures Trading Commission, Three 

Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., 

Washington, DC 20581. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The Commission has long established 

and enforced speculative position limits 

for futures and options contracts on 

various agricultural commodities as 

authorized by the Commodity Exchange 

Act (‘‘CEA’’).1 The part 150 position 

limits regime 2 generally includes three 

components: (1) The level of the limits, 

which set a threshold that restricts the 

number of speculative positions that a 

person may hold in the spot-month, 

individual month, and all months 

combined,3 (2) exemptions for positions 

that constitute bona fide hedging 

transactions and certain other types of 

transactions,4 and (3) rules to determine 

which accounts and positions a person 

must aggregate for the purpose of 

determining compliance with the 

position limit levels.5 The Position 

Limits Proposal generally sets out 

proposed changes to the first and 

second component of the position limits 

regime and would establish speculative 

position limits for 28 exempt and 

agricultural commodity futures and 

option contracts, and physical 

commodity swaps that are 

‘‘economically equivalent’’ to such 

contracts (as such term is used in CEA 

section 4a(a)(5)).6 The Aggregation 

Proposal generally sets out proposed 

changes to the third component of the 

position limits regime.7

In order to provide interested parties 

with an opportunity to comment on the 

Aggregation Proposal during the 

comment period on the Position Limits 

Proposal, the Commission extended the 

comment period for the Aggregation 

Proposal to February 10, 2014, the same 


ehiers on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
37974 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 128 / Thursday, July 3, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

8See 79 FR 2394 (Jan. 14, 2014). 

end date as the comment period for the 

Position Limits Proposal.8

Comment letters received on the 

Position Limits Proposal are available at 

http://comments.cftc.gov/

PublicComments/

CommentList.aspx?id=1436. Comment 

letters received on the Aggregation 

Proposal are available at http://

comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/

CommentList.aspx?id=1427. 

II. Extension of Comment Period 

Subsequent to publication of the 

Position Limits Proposal and the 

Aggregation Proposal, Commission 

directed staff to schedule a June 19, 

2014, public roundtable to consider 

certain issues regarding position limits 

for physical commodity derivatives. The 

roundtable focused on hedges of a 

physical commodity by a commercial 

enterprise, including gross hedging, 

cross-commodity hedging, anticipatory 

hedging, and the process for obtaining a 

non-enumerated exemption. Discussion 

included the setting of spot month 

limits in physical-delivery and cashsettled contracts and a conditional spotmonth limit exemption. Further, the 

roundtable included discussion of: the 

aggregation exemption for certain 

ownership interests of greater than 50 

percent in an owned entity; and 

aggregation based on substantially 

identical trading strategies. As well, the 

Commission invited comment on 

whether to provide parity for wheat 

contracts in non-spot month limits. In 

conjunction with the roundtable, staff 

questions regarding these topics were 

posted on the Commission’s Web site. 

To provide commenters with a 

sufficient period of time to respond to 

questions raised and points made at the 

roundtable, the Commission is further 

extending the comment periods for the 

Position Limit Proposal and the 

Aggregation Proposal. Thus, both 

comment periods will end on August 4, 

2014. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on June 27, 

2014, by the Commission. 

Christopher J. Kirkpatrick, 

Acting Secretary of the Commission. 

Note: The following appendix will not 

appear in the Code of Federal Regulations. 

Appendix to Position Limits for 

Derivatives and Aggregation of 

Positions Extension of Comment 

Periods—Commission Voting Summary 

On this matter, Chairman Massad and 

Commissioners O’Malia, Wetjen, and 

Giancarlo voted in the affirmative. No 

Commissioner voted in the negative. 

Commissioner Bowen did not 

participate in this matter. 

[FR Doc. 2014–15618 Filed 7–2–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6351–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 35 

[EPA–R09–0AR–2014–0203; FRL–9913–10– 

Region–9] 

Clean Air Act Grant: Santa Barbara 

County Air Pollution Control District; 

Opportunity for Public Hearing 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed action; Determination 

with request for comments and notice of 

opportunity for public hearing. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) has made a proposed 

determination that the reduction in 

expenditures of non-Federal funds for 

the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution 

Control District (SBCAPCD) in support 

of its continuing air program under 

section 105 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), 

for the calendar year 2013 is a result of 

non-selective reductions in 

expenditures. This determination, when 

final, will permit the SBCAPCD to 

receive grant funding for FY2014 from 

the EPA under section 105 of the Clean 

Air Act. 

DATES: Comments and/or requests for a 

public hearing must be received by EPA 

at the address stated below by August 4, 

2014. 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments, 

identified by docket ID No. EPA–R09– 

OAR–2014–0203, by one of the 

following methods: 

1. Federal Portal: 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions. 

2. Email to: bartholomew.sara@

epa.gov or 

3. Mail to: Sara Bartholomew (Air-8), 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Region IX, 75 Hawthorne Street, San 

Francisco, CA 94105–3901. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sara 

Bartholomew, EPA Region IX, Grants & 

Program Integration Office, Air Division, 

75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 

94105; phone: (415) 947–4100, fax: (415) 

947–3579 or email address at 

bartholomew.sara@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 

105 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), 42 

U.S.C. 7405, provides grant support for 

the continuing air programs of eligible 

state, local, and tribal agencies. In 

accordance with CAA section 

105(a)(1)(A) and 40 CFR 35.145(a), the 

Regional Administrator may provide air 

pollution control agencies up to threefifths of the approved costs of 

implementing programs for the 

prevention and control of air pollution. 

Section 105 contains two cost-sharing 

provisions which recipients must meet 

to qualify for a CAA section 105 grant. 

An eligible entity must meet a minimum 

40% match. In addition, to remain 

eligible for section 105 funds, an eligible 

entity must continue to meet the 

minimum match requirement as well as 

meet a maintenance of effort (MOE) 

requirement under section 105(c)(1) of 

the CAA and 40 CFR 35.146. 

Program activities relevant to the 

match consist of both recurring and 

non-recurring expenses. The MOE 

provision requires that a state or local 

agency spend at least the same dollar 

level of funds as it did in the previous 

grant year, but only for the costs of 

recurring activities. Specifically, section 

105(c)(1) provides that ‘‘no agency shall 

receive any grant under this section 

during any fiscal year when its 

expenditures of non-Federal funds for 

recurrent expenditures for air pollution 

control programs will be less than its 

expenditures were for such programs 

during the preceding fiscal year.’’ 

Pursuant to CAA section 105(c)(2), 

however, EPA may still award a grant to 

an agency not meeting the requirements 

of section 105(c)(1), ‘‘if the 

Administrator, after notice and 

opportunity for public hearing, 

determines that a reduction in 

expenditures is attributable to a nonselective reduction in the expenditures 

in the programs of all Executive branch 

agencies of the applicable unit of 

Government.’’ These statutory 

requirements are repeated in EPA’s 

implementing regulations at 40 CFR 

35.140–35.148. EPA issued additional 

guidance to recipients on what 

constitutes a nonselective reduction on 

September 30, 2011. In consideration of 

legislative history, the guidance 

clarified that a non-selective reduction 

does not necessarily mean that each 

Executive branch agency need be 

reduced in equal proportion. However, 

it must be clear to EPA, from the weight 

of evidence, that a recipient’s CAArelated air program is not being 

disproportionately impacted or singled 

out for a reduction. 

A section 105 recipient must submit 

a final financial status report no later 

than 90 days from the close of its grant 

period that documents all of its federal 

and non-federal expenditures for the 

completed period. The recipient seeking 

an adjustment to its MOE for that period 

must provide the rationale and the 


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