Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-0464-0001
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Access by Contractors to Information Claimed as Confidential Business Information Submitted under the Clean Air Act and Related Regulations
Posted Date: 2020-10-26T04:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 207 (Monday, October 26, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67738-67739]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-23553]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-0464; FRL 10016-13-OAR]

Access by EPA Contractors to Information Claimed as Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) Submitted Under Title II of the Clean Air 
Act and Related Regulations

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) plans to 
authorize various contractors to access information which is submitted 
to us under the Clean Air Act and which may be claimed as, or may be 
determined to be, confidential business information (CBI). The 
information is related to the registration of fuels and fuel additives 
under 40 CFR part 79 and to various compositional and performance 
standards for reformulated gasoline, conventional gasoline, diesel 
fuel, detergents, and the renewable fuel standard (RFS) under 40 CFR 
part 80.

DATES: The EPA will accept comments on this Notice through November 2, 
2020.

ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No EPA-HQ-
OAR-2020-0464, by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Submit your comments at 
https://www.regulations.gov/ (our preferred method). Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: Email your comments to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov. 
Include Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-0464 in the subject line of the 
message.
     Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket 
Center, Air & Radiation Docket, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460.
     Hand Delivery or Courier (by scheduled appointment only): 
EPA Docket Center, WJC West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004. The Docket Center's hours of 
operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday (except Federal 
Holidays).
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID 
No. for this notice. Comments received may be posted without change to 
https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal information 
provided. For detailed instructions on sending comments and additional 
information on this action, see the ``Public Participation'' heading of 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document. Out of an 
abundance of caution for members of the public and our staff, the EPA 
Docket Center and Reading Room are closed to the public, with limited 
exceptions, to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19. Our Docket 
Center staff will continue to provide remote customer service via 
email, phone, and webform. We encourage the public to submit comments 
via https://www.regulations.gov/ or email, as there may be a delay in 
processing mail and faxes. Hand deliveries and couriers may be received 
by scheduled appointment only. For further information on EPA Docket 
Center services and the current status, please visit us online at 
https://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anne-Marie Pastorkovich, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, MC 6405A, Washington, DC 
20460; telephone number: 202-343-9623; email address: 
pastorkovich.anne-marie@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Does this Notice apply to me?

    This action is directed to the general public. However, this action 
may be of particular interest to parties who submit information to the 
EPA regarding fuel and fuel additive registration (40 CFR part 79) and 
related to various standards for reformulated and conventional 
gasoline, diesel fuel, detergents, and the renewable fuel standard (40 
CFR part 80). Parties who may be interested in this action include fuel 
manufacturers (such as refiners and importers), manufacturers of fuel 
additives, producers of renewable fuels, exporters, parties who engage 
in Renewable Identification Number (RIN) transactions, and all those 
who submit 40 CFR part 79 and part 80 registrations or reports to the 
EPA via any method or system. Such systems include the EPA Central Data 
Exchange (CDX), DCFUEL, OTAQReg, and the EPA Moderated Transaction 
System (EMTS).
    This Federal Register notice may be of relevance to parties that 
submit data under the above-listed programs or systems. Since other 
parties may also be interested, the Agency has not attempted to 
describe all the specific parties that may be affected by this action. 
If you have further questions regarding the applicability of this 
action to a party, please contact the person listed in FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

II. Public Participation

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2020-
0464 at https://www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), or the 
other methods identified in the ADDRESSES section. Once submitted, 
comments cannot be edited or removed from the docket. The EPA may 
publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit to 
EPA's docket at https://www.regulations.gov 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, 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.
    As mentioned above, EPA is suspending its Docket Center and Reading 
Room for public visitors, with limited exceptions, to reduce the risk 
of transmitting COVID-19. Our Docket Center staff will continue to 
provide remote customer service via email, phone, and webform. We 
encourage the public to submit comments via https://www.regulations.gov/ as there may be a delay in processing mail and 
faxes. Hand deliveries or couriers will be received by scheduled 
appointment only. For further information and updates on EPA Docket 
Center services, please visit us online at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    The EPA continues to carefully and continuously monitor information 
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local area 
health departments, and our Federal partners so that we can respond 
rapidly as conditions change regarding COVID-19.

[[Page 67739]]

III. Description of Programs and Potential Disclosure of Information 
Claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) to Contractors

    The EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) has 
responsibility for protecting public health and the environment by 
regulating air pollution from motor vehicles, engines, and the fuels 
used to operate them, and by encouraging travel choices that minimize 
emissions. In order to implement various Clean Air Act programs, and to 
permit regulated entities flexibility in meeting regulatory 
requirements (e.g., compliance on average), we collect compliance 
reports and other information from them. The information submitted may 
be claimed as CBI. Information submitted under such a claim is handled 
in accordance with EPA's regulations at 40 CFR part 2, subpart B and in 
accordance with Agency procedures, including comprehensive system 
security planning. When the EPA has determined that disclosure of 
information claimed as CBI to contractors is necessary, the 
corresponding contract must address the appropriate use and handling of 
the information by the contractor and the contractor must require its 
personnel who require access to information claimed as CBI to sign 
written non-disclosure agreements before they are granted access to 
data.
    In accordance with 40 CFR 2.301(h), we have determined that the 
contractors, subcontractors, and grantees (collectively referred to as 
``contractors'') listed below require access to CBI submitted to us 
under the Clean Air Act and in connection with various programs related 
to the regulation of fuels and fuel additives under both 40 CFR part 79 
(subparts A through F) and 40 CFR part 80--(subparts A through O, and 
appendices). OTAQ collects this data in order to monitor compliance 
with Clean Air Act programs and, in many cases, to permit regulated 
parties flexibility in meeting regulatory requirements. For example, 
data that may contain CBI are collected to register fuels and fuel 
additives prior to introduction into commerce under 40 CFR part 79. 
Certain programs under 40 CFR part 80 are designed to permit regulated 
parties an opportunity to comply on average, or to engage in 
transactions using various types of credits. Programs utilizing credits 
include gasoline sulfur, gasoline benzene, and RFS. Data submitted 
under 40 CFR part 80 includes information related to reformulated and 
conventional gasoline, diesel fuel, detergents, and renewable fuels. 
Fuels program data is reviewed and assessed to determine the success of 
the programs or to plan for regulatory improvements. We are issuing 
this Federal Register notice to inform all affected submitters of 
information that we plan to grant access to material that may be 
claimed as CBI to the contractors identified below on a need-to-know 
basis.
    Under EPA Contract Number EP-C-16-012, General Dynamics Information 
Technology (GDIT) located at 650 Peter Jefferson Parkway, Suite 300 
Charlottesville, Virginia 22911 provides report processing, program 
support, technical support and analysis and information technology 
services that involve access to information claimed as CBI related to 
40 CFR parts 79 and 80. The original contractor, CSRA, was purchased by 
GDIT. The following subcontractors of GDIT continue to provide work 
under this contract:
     CGI Federal, Inc., 12601 Fair Lakes Circle, Fairfax, VA 
22033-4902;
     Powersolv, Inc., 1801 Robert Fulton Drive, Suite 550, 
Reston, VA 20191 and their subcontractor, Premier Itech, Inc., 8869 
Grand Ave., Beulah, CO 81023.
    GDIT has added a subcontractor, Potomac Economics, LTD, 9990 
Fairfax Blvd., Suite 560, Fairfax, VA 22030 to provide program support, 
technical support, and data analysis services that involve access to 
information claimed as CBI related to 40 CFR parts 79 and 80. Access by 
this subcontractor will begin on November 5, 2020.
    Access to data under the GDIT contract will continue until June 30, 
2021. If the contract is extended, this access will continue for the 
remainder of the contract without further notice. If the contract 
expires prior to June 30, 2021, the access will cease at that time. If 
GDIT employs additional subcontractors to support EPA on a regular 
basis or on a limited or one-time basis under the above-listed 
contract, and those subcontractors require access to CBI, EPA will 
notify interested parties of the contemplated disclosure and provide 
them with an opportunity to comment by publishing a notice in the 
Federal Register.
    Under Contract Number EP-C-16-020, ICF Incorporated, LLC, 9300 Lee 
Highway, Fairfax, Virginia 22031, provides technical support and data 
analysis services that involve access to information claimed as CBI 
related to 40 CFR parts 79 and 80. Access to data will begin and will 
continue until September 30, 2021. If the contract is extended, this 
access will continue for the remainder of the contract without further 
notice. If the contract expires prior to September 30, 2021, the access 
will cease at that time. If ICF employs subcontractors to support EPA 
on a regular basis or on a limited or one-time basis under the above-
listed contract, and those subcontractors require access to CBI, EPA 
will notify interested parties of the contemplated disclosure and 
provide them with an opportunity to comment by publishing a notice in 
the Federal Register.
    Under Contract Number 68HERD20A0004, Research Triangle Institute, 
RTI, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, and its 
subcontractors, Dr. Ruiqing Miao, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 
and Dr. Madhu Khanna, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 
Urbana, Illinois, provide technical support and data analysis services 
that involve access to information claimed as CBI related to 40 CFR 
parts 79 and 80. Access to data will begin November 5, 2020 and will 
continue until July 19, 2021. If the contract is extended, this access 
will continue for the remainder of the contract without further notice. 
If the contract expires prior to July 19, 2021, the access will cease 
at that time. If RTI employs additional subcontractors to support EPA 
on a regular basis or on a limited or one-time basis under the above-
listed contract, and those subcontractors require access to CBI, EPA 
will notify interested parties of the contemplated disclosure and 
provide them with an opportunity to comment by publishing a notice in 
the Federal Register.
    Parties who want further information about this Federal Register 
notice or about OTAQ's disclosure of information claimed as CBI to 
contactors may contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT.

    Dated: October 19, 2020.
Byron J. Bunker,
Director, Compliance Division, Office of Transportation & Air Quality, 
Office of Air and Radiation.
[FR Doc. 2020-23553 Filed 10-23-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P