Air Plan Approval; Mississippi: Prevention of Significant Deterioration Updates

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule.

SUMMARY:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve a portion of the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by Mississippi, through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Office of Pollution Control, on June 7, 2016. Specifically, this action proposes to approve the portion of the SIP revision making changes to Mississippi's Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program by modifying the incorporating by reference (IBR) date for the Federal PSD regulations promulgated by EPA. This proposed SIP revision will modify the existing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) PSD permitting program and incorporates provisions related to the 1997, 2006 and 2012 fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This action is being proposed pursuant to the Clean Air Act and its implementing regulations.

DATES:

Written comments must be received on or before September 7, 2017.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R04-OAR-2017-0188 at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. 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. 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 http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Andres Febres of the Air Regulatory Management Section, Air Planning and Implementation Branch, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street SW., Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8960. Mr. Febres can be reached via telephone at (404) 562-8966 or via electronic mail at febres-martinez.andres@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In the Final Rules Section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving Mississippi's June 7, 2016 SIP revision that modifies the State's PSD program by changing the IBR date for the Federal PSD regulations to February 17, 2016, as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule and incorporated herein by reference. If no adverse comments are received in response to this rule, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all adverse comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this document. Any parties interested in commenting on this document should do so at this time.