44882 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 144 / Tuesday, July 28, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 

1 40 CFR 97.412(a)(4)(i), 97.512(a)(4)(i), 

97.612(a)(4)(i), and 97.712(a)(4)(i). First-round 

NUSA allocations may be affected by first-round 

NUSA over-subscription and rounding. 

NORTH CAROLINA—2008 8-HOUR OZONE NAAQS 

[Primary and secondary] 

Designated area 

Designation Classification 

Date 1 Type Date 1 Type 

Charlotte-Rock Hill, NC–SC 2 ....................................... This action is effective 7/

28/2015.

Attainment 

Cabarrus County (part) .................................................

Central Cabarrus Township, Concord Township, 

Georgeville Township, Harrisburg Township, 

Kannapolis Township, Midland Township, Mount 

Pleasant Township, New Gilead Township, Odell 

Township, Poplar Tent Township, Rimertown Township 

Gaston County (part) 

Crowders Mountain Township, Dallas Township, Gastonia Township, Riverbend Township, South Point 

Township 

Iredell County (part) 

Davidson Township, Coddle Creek Township 

Lincoln County (part) 

Catawba Springs Township, Ironton Township, 

Lincolnton Township 

Mecklenburg County 

Rowan County (part) 

Atwell Township, China Grove Township, Franklin 

Township, Gold Hill Township, Litaker Township, 

Locke Township, Providence Township, Salisbury 

Township, Steele Township, Unity Township 

Union County (part) 

Goose Creek Township, Marshville Township, Monroe 

Township, Sandy Ridge Township, Vance Township 

*******

1This date is July 20, 2012, unless otherwise noted. 

2Excludes Indian country located in each area, unless otherwise noted. 

* * * * * 

[FR Doc. 2015–18345 Filed 7–27–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 97 

[FRL–9931–40–OAR] 

Allocations of Cross-State Air 

Pollution Rule Allowances From New 

Unit Set-Asides for the 2015 

Compliance Year 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Final rule; notice of data 

availability (NODA). 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is providing notice of 

emission allowance allocations to 

certain units under the new unit setaside (NUSA) provisions of the CrossState Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) 

federal implementation plans (FIPs) and 

is responding to objections to 

preliminary calculations. EPA has 

completed final calculations for the first 

round of NUSA allowance allocations 

for the 2015 compliance year and has 

posted spreadsheets containing the 

calculations on EPA’s Web site. The 

final allocations are unchanged from the 

preliminary calculations. EPA will 

record the allocated allowances in 

sources’ Allowance Management 

System (AMS) accounts by August 1, 

2015. 

DATES: July 28, 2015. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Questions concerning this action should 

be addressed to Robert Miller at (202) 

343–9077 or miller.robertl@epa.gov or to 

Kenon Smith at (202) 343–9164 or 

smith.kenon@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the 

CSAPR FIPs, a portion of each state 

budget for each of the four CSAPR 

emissions trading programs is reserved 

as a NUSA from which allowances are 

allocated to eligible units through an 

annual one- or two-round process. In a 

NODA published in the Federal 

Register on June 1, 2015 (80 FR 30988), 

EPA described the allocation process 

and provided notice of preliminary 

calculations for the first-round 2015 

NUSA allowance allocations. EPA also 

described the process for submitting any 

objections to the preliminary 

calculations. 

In response to the June 1 NODA, EPA 

received three timely written objections, 

two late written objections, and several 

telephone inquiries. The objections and 

inquiries all concerned the question of 

whether EPA is correct to exclude 

emissions that occurred before a unit’s 

monitor certification deadline from the 

emissions data used to calculate the 

NUSA allowance allocations. As 

explained below, under the regulations 

such emissions are properly excluded 

because they are not emissions during a 

‘‘control period.’’ 

Under the CSAPR FIPs, an eligible 

unit’s first-round NUSA allowance 

allocation for a given compliance year is 

generally based on the unit’s emissions 

‘‘during the immediately preceding 

control period’’ (that is, the control 

period in the year before the compliance 

year).1 An eligible unit’s second-round 

NUSA allowance allocation for a given 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with RULES
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 144 / Tuesday, July 28, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 44883 

2 40 CFR 97.412(a)(9)(i), 97.512(a)(9)(i), 

97.612(a)(9)(i), and 97.712(a)(9)(i). Second-round 

NUSA allocations occur only if all NUSA 

allowances were not allocated in the first round and 

may be affected by second-round NUSA oversubscription and rounding. 

3 40 CFR 97.402, 97.502, 97.602, and 97.702 

(definitions of ‘‘control period’’); see also 40 CFR 

97.406(c)(3), 97.506(c)(3), 97.606(c)(3), and 

97.706(c)(3) (exclusion of periods before monitor 

certification deadline). 

4The CSAPR regulations’ exclusion of periods 

before a unit’s monitor certification deadline from 

‘‘control periods’’ is explicit with respect to control 

periods in and after 2015, the first year of 

obligations to hold CSAPR allowances. The 

regulations’ only operative references to control 

periods before 2015 are the references in the NUSA 

allowance allocation provisions to ‘‘the 

immediately preceding control period,’’ which, in 

the context of the 2015 compliance year, indicate 

2014 ‘‘control periods.’’ EPA interprets the NUSA 

provisions as intended to operate in the same 

manner in all compliance years and accordingly 

interprets the exclusion of periods before a unit’s 

monitor certification deadline as applying to all 

control periods, including the 2014 ‘‘control 

periods.’’ 

5See 40 CFR 97.411(c), 97.511(c), 97.611(c), and 

97.711(c). 

compliance year is generally based on 

the positive difference, if any, between 

the unit’s emissions ‘‘during such 

control period’’ (that is, the control 

period in the compliance year) and the 

unit’s first-round NUSA allocation for 

the compliance year.2 A ‘‘control 

period’’ is defined as either a calendar 

year or a May-September period—for 

the SO2 and NOX annual programs and 

for the NOX ozone season program, 

respectively—subject in both cases to an 

exclusion, for any given unit, of periods 

before the unit’s monitor certification 

deadline, thereby ensuring that the 

unit’s ‘‘control periods’’ generally 

represent the periods for which the unit 

must hold CSAPR allowances equal to 

its emissions.3 The emissions data used 

in calculating NUSA allowance 

allocations under the CSAPR FIPs thus 

properly exclude any emissions 

occurring before a unit’s monitor 

certification deadline because such 

emissions are not emissions ‘‘during the 

immediately preceding control period’’ 

or ‘‘during such control period.’’ 4

EPA excluded emissions before units’ 

monitor certification deadlines from the 

preliminary calculations of first-round 

2015 NUSA allowance allocations 

discussed in the June 1 NODA. In the 

final calculations, EPA has likewise 

excluded emissions before units’ 

monitor certification deadlines and has 

made no other changes to the data used 

in the preliminary calculations. The 

final first-round 2015 NUSA allowance 

allocations are therefore unchanged 

from the preliminary calculations. 

The final unit-by-unit data and 

allowance allocation calculations are set 

forth in Excel spreadsheets titled 

‘‘CSAPR_NUSA_2015_NOx_Annual_

1st_Round_Final_Data’’, ‘‘CSAPR_

NUSA_2015_NOx_OS_1st_Round_

Final_Data’’, and ‘‘CSAPR_NUSA_2015_

SO2_1st_Round_Final_Data,’’ available 

on EPA’s Web site at http://

www.epa.gov/crossstaterule/

actions.html. The three spreadsheets 

show EPA’s final determinations of firstround 2015 NUSA allocations under the 

CSAPR NOX annual, NOX ozone season, 

and SO2 (Group 1 and Group 2) trading 

programs, respectively. 

Pursuant to CSAPR’s allowance 

recordation timing requirements, the 

allocated NUSA allowances will be 

recorded in sources’ AMS accounts by 

August 1, 2015. EPA notes that an 

allocation or lack of allocation of 

allowances to a given unit does not 

constitute a determination that CSAPR 

does or does not apply to the unit. EPA 

also notes that NUSA allocations are 

subject to potential correction if a unit 

to which NUSA allowances have been 

allocated for a given compliance year is 

not actually an affected unit as of 

January 1 (or May 1 in the case of the 

NOX ozone season program) of the 

compliance year.5

(Authority: 40 CFR 97.411(b), 97.511(b), 

97.611(b), and 97.711(b).) 

Dated: July 20, 2015. 

Reid P. Harvey, 

Director, Clean Air Markets Division. 

[FR Doc. 2015–18516 Filed 7–27–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 300 

[Docket No. 150619537–5615–01] 

RIN 0648–XE037 

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries 

for Highly Migratory Species; 2015 

Bigeye Tuna Longline Fishery Closure 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Temporary rule; fishery closure. 

SUMMARY: NMFS is closing the U.S. 

pelagic longline fishery for bigeye tuna 

in the western and central Pacific Ocean 

as a result of the fishery reaching the 

2015 catch limit. This action is 

necessary to prevent additional fishing 

pressure on this fish stock. 

DATES: Effective August 5, 2015, through 

December 31, 2015. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom 

Graham, NMFS Pacific Islands Region, 

808–725–5032. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pelagic 

longline fishing in the western and 

central Pacific Ocean is managed, in 

part, under the Western and Central 

Pacific Fisheries Convention 

Implementation Act (Act). Regulations 

governing fishing by U.S. vessels in 

accordance with the Act appear at 50 

CFR part 300, subpart O. 

NMFS established a calendar year 

2015 limit of 3,502 metric tons (mt) of 

bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) that may 

be caught and retained in the U.S. 

pelagic longline fishery in the area of 

application of the Convention on the 

Conservation and Management of 

Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the 

Western and Central Pacific Ocean 

(Convention Area) (80 FR 43634, July 

23, 2015; 50 CFR 300.224). NMFS 

monitored the retained catches of bigeye 

tuna using logbook data submitted by 

vessel captains and other available 

information, and determined that the 

2015 catch limit would be reached by 

August 5, 2015. In accordance with 50 

CFR 300.224(e), this rule serves as 

advance notification to fishermen, the 

fishing industry, and the general public 

that the U.S. longline fishery for bigeye 

tuna in the Convention Area will be 

closed during the dates provided in the 

DATES heading. The fishery is scheduled 

to reopen on January 1, 2016. This rule 

does not apply to the longline fisheries 

of American Samoa, Guam, or the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, collectively ‘‘the territories,’’ as 

described below. 

During the closure, a U.S. fishing 

vessel may not retain on board, 

transship, or land bigeye tuna captured 

by longline gear in the Convention Area, 

except that any bigeye tuna already on 

board a fishing vessel upon the effective 

date of the restrictions may be retained 

on board, transshipped, and landed, 

provided that they are landed within 14 

days of the start of the closure, that is, 

by August 19, 2015. This 14-day landing 

requirement does not apply to a vessel 

that has declared to NMFS, pursuant to 

50 CFR 665.803(a), that the current trip 

type is shallow-setting. 

Longline-caught bigeye tuna may be 

retained on board, transshipped, and 

landed if the fish are caught by a vessel 

with a valid American Samoa longline 

permit, or landed in the territories. In 

either case, the following conditions 

must be met: 

(1) The fish is not caught in the U.S. 

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around 

Hawaii; 

(2) Other applicable laws and 

regulations are followed; and 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with RULES