Rulemaking on Section 126 Petition From North Carolina To Reduce Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone; Federal Implementation Plans To Reduce Interstate Transport of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone; Revisions to the Clean Air Interstate Rule; Revisions to the Acid Rain Program

Today, EPA is taking actions to address the interstate transport of emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO<INF>X</INF>) and sulfur dioxide (SO<INF>2</INF>) that contribute significantly to nonattainment and maintenance problems with respect to the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM<INF>2.5</INF>) and 8-hour ozone. As one part of today's action, EPA is providing its final response to a petition submitted to EPA by the State of North Carolina under section 126 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). The petition requests that EPA find that SO<INF>2</INF> and/or NO<INF>X</INF> emissions from electric generating units (EGUs) in 13 States are significantly contributing to PM<INF>2.5</INF> and/or 8-hour ozone nonattainment and maintenance problems in North Carolina, and requested that EPA establish control requirements to prohibit such significant contribution. The EPA is denying the petition because, in today's action, EPA is promulgating Federal implementation plans (FIPs) for all jurisdictions covered by the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) to address interstate transport. The FIPs will regulate EGUs in the affected States and achieve the emissions reductions requirements established by the CAIR until States have approved State implementation plans (SIPs) to achieve the reductions. As the control requirement for the FIPs, EPA is adopting the model trading rules that EPA provided in CAIR as a control option for States, with minor changes to account for Federal rather than State implementation. Today's action also revises CAIR SIP model trading rules in order to address the interaction between the EPA-administered CAIR FIP trading programs being promulgated today and the EPA-administered CAIR State trading programs that will be created by any State that elects to submit a SIP establishing such a trading program to meet the requirements of the CAIR. In addition, EPA is taking final action on our reconsideration of the definition of "EGU" as it re