Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 19 / Friday, January 28, 2022 / Proposed Rules 4535 

any substantial direct costs on tribal 

governments or preempt tribal law as 

specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 

FR 67249, November 9, 2000). 

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52 

Environmental protection, Air 

pollution control, Incorporation by 

reference, Nitrogen Dioxide, 

Intergovernmental Relations, 

Incorporation by Reference, Ozone, 

Particulate matter, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements, Waste 

treatment and disposal. 

Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq. 

Dated: January 24, 2022. 

Lisa F. Garcia, 

Regional Administrator, Region 2. 

[FR Doc. 2022–01784 Filed 1–27–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R01–OAR–2021–0945; FRL–9487–01– 

R1] 

Air Plan Approval; New Hampshire; 

Conformity 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a 

State Implementation Plan (SIP) 

revision submitted by the State of New 

Hampshire. This submission revises 

previously approved transportation 

conformity criteria and procedures 

related to interagency consultation and 

enforceability of certain transportationrelated control measures and mitigation 

measures. In addition, the revision 

continues to rely on the Federal rule for 

General Conformity. The intended effect 

of this action is to approve State criteria 

and procedures to govern conformity 

determinations. This action is being 

taken in accordance with the Clean Air 

Act. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received on or before February 28, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R01– 

OAR–2021–0945 at https://

www.regulations.gov, or via email to 

rackauskas.eric@epa.gov. For comments 

submitted at Regulations.gov, follow the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. Once submitted, comments 

cannot be edited or removed from 

Regulations.gov. For either manner of 

submission, the EPA may publish any 

comment received to its public docket. 

Do not submit electronically any 

information you consider to be 

Confidential Business Information (CBI) 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Multimedia 

submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 

accompanied by a written comment. 

The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include 

discussion of all points you wish to 

make. The EPA will generally not 

consider comments or comment 

contents located outside of the primary 

submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or 

other file sharing system). For 

additional submission methods, please 

contact the person identified in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section. 

For the full EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

https://www.epa.gov/dockets/ 

commenting-epa-dockets. Publicly 

available docket materials are available 

at https://www.regulations.gov or at the 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 

EPA Region 1 Regional Office, Air and 

Radiation Division, 5 Post Office 

Square—Suite 100, Boston, MA. EPA 

requests that, if at all possible, you 

contact the contact listed in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section to 

schedule your inspection. The Regional 

Office’s official hours of business are 

Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 

4:30 p.m., excluding legal holidays and 

facility closures due to COVID–19. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eric 

Rackauskas, Air Quality Branch, U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 

Region 1, 5 Post Office Square—Suite 

100, (Mail code 05–2), Boston, MA 

02109–3912, tel. (617) 918–1628, email 

rackauskas.eric@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Throughout this document whenever 

‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ or ‘‘our’’ is used, we mean 

EPA. 

Table of Contents 

I. Background and Purpose 

a. What is Transportation Conformity? 

b. What is General Conformity? 

c. Evaluation of State Submittal 

II. Proposed Action 

III. Incorporation by Reference 

IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews 

I. Background and Purpose 

On September 9, 2021, the New 

Hampshire Air Resources Division 

(ARD) submitted a revision to its State 

Implementation Plan (SIP) consisting of 

amendments to Env–A 1500, 

Conformity. This revision consists of 

minor administrative language changes, 

updated definitions and references to 

Federal rules, and clarifications to roles 

and responsibilities for Federal, state, 

and municipal partners. 

a. What is Transportation Conformity? 

Transportation Conformity is required 

under Section 176(c) of the Clean Air 

Act to ensure that Federally-supported 

highway, transit projects, and other 

activities are consistent with (‘‘conform 

to’’) the purpose of the SIP. Conformity 

currently applies to areas that are 

designated nonattainment, and those 

redesignated to attainment after 1990 

(maintenance areas) with plans 

developed under section 175A of the 

Clean Air Act, for the following 

transportation related criteria 

pollutants: Ozone, particulate matter 

(PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide 

(CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). 

Conformity to the purpose of the SIP 

means that transportation activities will 

not cause new air quality violations, 

worsen existing violations, or delay 

timely attainment of the relevant 

national ambient air quality standards. 

The transportation conformity 

regulation is found in 40 CFR part 93, 

subpart A and provisions related to 

conformity SIPs are found in 40 CFR 

51.390. 

b. What is General Conformity? 

General Conformity is a requirement 

of section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act 

(CAA) Amendments of 1990. General 

Conformity is a safeguard that no action 

by the Federal government interferes 

with a SIP’s protection of the National 

Ambient Air Quality Standards 

(NAAQS). Under General Conformity, 

any action by the Federal government 

cannot: Cause or contribute to any new 

violation of any standard in any area; 

interfere with provisions in the 

applicable SIP for maintenance of any 

standard; increase the frequency or 

severity of any existing violation of any 

standard in any area; or delay timely 

attainment of any standard, any 

required interim emission reductions, or 

any other milestones, in any area. The 

general conformity regulation is found 

in 40 CFR part 93, subpart B and 

provisions related to conformity SIPs 

are found in 40 CFR 51.851. 

On April 5, 2010, EPA revisited the 

Federal General Conformity 

Requirements Rule to clarify the 

conformity process, authorize 

innovative and flexible compliance 

approaches, remove outdated or 

unnecessary requirements, reduce the 

paperwork burden, provide transition 

tools for implementing new standards, 

address issues raised by Federal 

agencies affected by the rules, and 

provide a better explanation of 

conformity regulations and policies (75 


jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
4536 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 19 / Friday, January 28, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

1See Docket for letter to NHDOT. 

FR 17254). This April 2010 General 

Conformity rule eliminated the Federal 

regulatory requirement for states to 

adopt and submit general conformity 

SIPs, instead making submission of a 

general conformity SIP a state option. 

c. Evaluation of State Submittal 

EPA previously approved a version of 

EnvA–1500 into the New Hampshire 

SIP on November 29, 2013 (78 FR 

71504). For transportation conformity, 

the September 9, 2021, revision contains 

updated references to the Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR), updates to 

public comment period timeframes, and 

clarifications to roles of interagency 

partners. Specifically, the rule updates 

multiple references to the CFR to the 

April 1, 2018, version from April 1, 

2011. The rule also changes language for 

a public comment for planning 

organizations and New Hampshire 

Department of Transportation (NHDOT) 

from ‘‘a minimum of 10 days’’ to 

‘‘between 10 and 30 days,’’ to match 

language in the NHDOT Statewide 

Transportation Improvement Program 

(STIP) Revision Procedures. 

The New Hampshire submittal also 

provides updated language to projectlevel conformity determinations for 

carbon monoxide (CO) hot spot areas. 

EPA notes that New Hampshire’s 

twenty-year maintenance period for the 

CO NAAQS expired on January 29, 

2021. As a result of this maintenance 

period expiration, conformity 

requirements for the CO standard, 

including hot spot analyses, also 

expired.1 No conformity or project level 

hot spot analyses are required for the 

State’s CO maintenance area, but the 

language would continue to apply in the 

event of a future more stringent CO 

NAAQS and/or future nonattainment 

classification. 

The NH submittal contains updated 

language for General Conformity. As 

noted above, States are not required to 

submit state-level General Conformity 

regulations into the SIP, rather they can 

rely upon the federal provisions. The 

New Hampshire submittal adequately 

refers to the General Conformity Federal 

rule for implementation and contains 

only minor changes in references to the 

2018 Code of Federal Regulations, as 

mentioned above. 

II. Proposed Action 

EPA is proposing to approve New 

Hampshire’s Env–A 1500 Conformity 

into the New Hampshire SIP. This 

revision and proposed approval are 

consistent with the CAA. EPA is 

soliciting public comments on the 

issues discussed in this notice or on 

other relevant matters. These comments 

will be considered before taking final 

action. Interested parties may 

participate in the Federal rulemaking 

procedure by submitting written 

comments to this proposed rule by 

following the instructions listed in the 

ADDRESSES section of this Federal 

Register. 

III. Incorporation by Reference 

In this rule, the EPA is proposing to 

include in a final EPA rule regulatory 

text that includes incorporation by 

reference. In accordance with 

requirements of 1 CFR 51.5, the EPA is 

proposing to incorporate by reference of 

NH’s updated Env–A 1500, Conformity, 

as discussed in sections I. and II. of this 

preamble, into 40 CFR part 52. The EPA 

has made, and will continue to make, 

these documents generally available 

through https://www.regulations.gov 

and at the EPA Region 1 Office (please 

contact the person identified in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 

this preamble for more information). 

IV. Statutory and Executive Order 

Reviews 

Under the Clean Air Act, the 

Administrator is required to approve a 

SIP submission that complies with the 

provisions of the Act and applicable 

Federal regulations. 42 U.S.C. 7410(k); 

40 CFR 52.02(a). Thus, in reviewing SIP 

submissions, EPA’s role is to approve 

state choices, provided that they meet 

the criteria of the Clean Air Act. 

Accordingly, this proposed action 

merely approves state law as meeting 

Federal requirements and does not 

impose additional requirements beyond 

those imposed by state law. For that 

reason, this proposed action: 

• Is not a significant regulatory action 

subject to review by the Office of 

Management and Budget under 

Executive Orders 12866 (58 FR 51735, 

October 4, 1993) and 13563 (76 FR 3821, 

January 21, 2011); 

• Does not impose an information 

collection burden under the provisions 

of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.); 

• Is certified as not having a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities 

under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 

U.S.C. 601 et seq.); 

• Does not contain any unfunded 

mandate or significantly or uniquely 

affect small governments, as described 

in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–4); 

• Does not have federalism 

implications as specified in Executive 

Order 13132 (64 FR 43255, August 10, 

1999); 

• Is not an economically significant 

regulatory action based on health or 

safety risks subject to Executive Order 

13045 (62 FR 19885, April 23, 1997); 

• Is not a significant regulatory action 

subject to Executive Order 13211 (66 FR 

28355, May 22, 2001); 

• Is not subject to requirements of 

Section 12(d) of the National 

Technology Transfer and Advancement 

Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) because 

application of those requirements would 

be inconsistent with the Clean Air Act; 

and 

• Does not provide EPA with the 

discretionary authority to address, as 

appropriate, disproportionate human 

health or environmental effects, using 

practicable and legally permissible 

methods, under Executive Order 12898 

(59 FR 7629, February 16, 1994). 

In addition, the SIP is not approved 

to apply on any Indian reservation land 

or in any other area where EPA or an 

Indian tribe has demonstrated that a 

tribe has jurisdiction. In those areas of 

Indian country, the rule does not have 

tribal implications and will not impose 

substantial direct costs on tribal 

governments or preempt tribal law as 

specified by Executive Order 13175 (65 

FR 67249, November 9, 2000). 

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52 

Environmental protection, Air 

pollution control, Carbon monoxide, 

Incorporation by reference, 

Intergovernmental relations, Lead, 

Nitrogen dioxide, Ozone, Particulate 

matter, Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements, Sulfur oxides, Volatile 

organic compounds. 

Dated: January 24, 2022. 

Deborah Szaro, 

Acting Regional Administrator, EPA Region 

1. 

[FR Doc. 2022–01627 Filed 1–27–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 241 

[EPA–HQ–OLEM–2020–0550; 7815–02– 

OLEM] 

RIN 2050–AH13 

Petition To Revise the Non-Hazardous 

Secondary Material Standard: 

Proposed Response 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notification of tentative 

response to petition for rulemaking. 


jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with PROPOSALS1