81 FR 90294 - Notice of Data Availability Concerning the Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support Rule

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 240 (December 14, 2016)

This Notice provides an opportunity to comment on new information that pertains to the proposed provisions for ethanol flex fuel contained in the Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) rule which was published in the Federal Register on November 16, 2016. The new information is contained in the report titled ``Property Analysis of Ethanol--Natural Gasoline--BOB Blends to Make Flex Fuel'' that has been placed in the public docket for this action. In the proposed REGS rule, the EPA proposed volatility standards for ethanol flex fuel (EFF) to prevent excessive evaporative emissions that could adversely affect the emissions control systems of flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) and human health. The EPA proposed a fuel volatility compliance tool for use by regulated entities to demonstrate compliance with the proposed volatility standards for EFF. The new information being made available by this notice indicates that the proposed compliance tool may need to be modified to adequately estimate the volatility of EFF when natural gasoline is used as a blendstock.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 240 (Wednesday, December 14, 2016)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 90294-90295]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29896]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Parts 79 and 80

[EPA-HQ-OAR-2016-0041; FRL-9956-44-OAR]
RIN 2060-AS66


Notice of Data Availability Concerning the Renewables Enhancement 
and Growth Support Rule

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of data availability.

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SUMMARY: This Notice provides an opportunity to comment on new 
information that pertains to the proposed provisions for ethanol flex 
fuel contained in the Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) 
rule which was published in the Federal Register on November 16, 2016. 
The new information is contained in the report titled ``Property 
Analysis of Ethanol--Natural Gasoline--BOB Blends to Make Flex Fuel'' 
that has been placed in the public docket for this action. In the 
proposed REGS rule, the EPA proposed volatility standards for ethanol 
flex fuel (EFF) to prevent excessive evaporative emissions that could 
adversely affect the emissions control systems of flexible fuel 
vehicles (FFVs) and human health. The EPA proposed a fuel volatility 
compliance tool for use by regulated entities to demonstrate compliance 
with the proposed volatility standards for EFF. The new information 
being made available by this notice indicates that the proposed 
compliance tool may need to be modified to adequately estimate the 
volatility of EFF when natural gasoline is used as a blendstock.

DATES: Comments. Comments must be received on or before January 17, 
2017.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2016-0041, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn from 
Regulations.gov. 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, 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: Julia MacAllister, Assessment and 
Standards Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, 
Environmental Protection Agency, 2000 Traverwood Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 
48105; telephone number: (734) 214-4131; email address: 
[email protected].

Outline of This Preamble

I. General Information
    A. Does this action apply to me?
    B. What is the Agency's authority for taking this action?
II. Request for Comment
    A. Background
    B. Potential Changes to the Proposed Ethanol Flex Fuel 
Volatility Compliance Tool

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action relates to provisions in a previously promulgated 
Proposed Rule that would potentially affect companies involved with the 
production, distribution, and sale of blends of ethanol and gasoline. 
Potentially regulated categories include:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Examples of potentially
         Category             NAICS \1\ code        affected entities
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Industry.................  211112.............  Natural gas liquids
                                                 extraction and
                                                 fractionation.
Industry.................  211112, 324110.....  Ethanol denaturant
                                                 manufacturers.
Industry.................  324110.............  Petroleum refineries
                                                 (including importers).
Industry.................  325110.............  Butane and pentane
                                                 manufacturers.
Industry.................  325193.............  Ethyl alcohol
                                                 manufacturing.
Industry.................  424710, 424720.....  Petroleum Bulk Stations
                                                 and Terminals;
                                                 Petroleum and Petroleum
                                                 Products Wholesalers.

[[Page 90295]]

 
Industry.................  447110, 447190.....  Fuel Retailers.
Industry.................  454310.............  Other fuel dealers.
Industry.................  486910.............  Natural gas liquids
                                                 pipelines, refined
                                                 petroleum products
                                                 pipelines.
Industry.................  493190.............  Other warehousing and
                                                 storage--bulk petroleum
                                                 storage.
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\1\ 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

    This table is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather provides a 
guide for readers regarding entities likely to be regulated by this 
action. This table lists the types of entities that the EPA is now 
aware could potentially be regulated by this action. Other types of 
entities not listed in the table could also be regulated. To determine 
whether your entity is regulated by this action, you should carefully 
examine the applicability criteria in the referenced regulations. If 
you have any questions regarding the applicability of this action to a 
particular entity, consult the person listed in the FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT section.

B. What is the Agency's authority for taking this action?

    This action is issued under the authority of CAA sections 208, 211 
and 301.

II. Request for Comment

A. Background

    In the Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) Rule,\1\ 
EPA is proposing enhancements to its Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) 
program and other related fuel regulations to support market growth of 
ethanol and other renewable fuels in the U.S. These proposed changes 
will provide the opportunity for increasing the production and use of 
renewable fuels by allowing the market to operate in the most efficient 
and economical way to introduce greater volumes of renewable fuels 
under the program. The proposed provisions for ethanol flex fuel (EFF) 
\2\ in the REGS rule would provide additional flexibility to use 
natural gasoline as an EFF blendstock while maintaining the 
environmental performance of these fuels. The use of lower cost natural 
gasoline to make EFF may reduce the price to consumers of these fuels, 
thereby encouraging the use of additional ethanol and furthering the 
goals for the RFS program.
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    \1\ 81 FR 80828, November 16, 2016.
    \2\ In the REGS rule, EPA is proposing that all EFF blends that 
contain 16 to 83 volume percent ethanol (E16-E83) would be subject 
to the same set of regulatory controls rather than continuing to 
treat E16-E50 blends as gasoline. E85 is a trade name that has 
historically been used for blends that contain 51 to 83 volume 
percent ethanol (E51-E83).
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B. Request for Comment

    To support the use of natural gasoline as an EFF blendstock while 
meeting the EPA's evaporative emission control and public health 
protection goals, the EPA proposed that a fuel volatility compliance 
tool could be used to demonstrate compliance with the proposed 
volatility standards for EFF. The proposed compliance tool was based on 
a fuel volatility model that was developed using data on the volatility 
of gasoline--ethanol fuel blends.\3\ This fuel volatility model, which 
is well accepted by industry, is used to estimate the volatility of 
ethanol blends made with gasoline and/or blendstock for oxygenate 
blending.\4\ At proposal, we explained why we believed that the 
proposed compliance tool would also be a satisfactory means of 
estimating ethanol blend volatility when natural gasoline is used as a 
blendstock even though we only had limited data that evaluated its 
suitability for this purpose. In sum, we reasoned that blendstock for 
oxygenate blending and natural gasoline blend linearly and would thus, 
behave as a single component in compliance tool calculations. The 
report that this notice adds to the docket for the REGS proposed rule, 
and for which we seek public comment, contains the results of a test 
program that compares empirical data on E51-83 blend volatility when 
natural gasoline is used as a blendstock to the volatility estimated by 
the proposed compliance tool.\5\ These test data in this report 
indicate that the proposed compliance tool may significantly 
underestimate the volatility of some higher level ethanol blends when 
natural gasoline is used as a blendstock. These data, therefore, 
contradict the assumption that blendstock for oxygenate blending and 
natural gasoline blend linearly and behave as a single component in 
compliance tool calculations. The report also suggests that other 
aspects of the final blend may need to be taken into account for the 
compliance tool to provide a satisfactory estimate of ethanol blend 
volatility when natural gasoline is used as a blendstock. The EPA 
requests comment on all aspects of this report and the proposed fuel 
volatility compliance tool as well as how it might be modified to 
better estimate the effect of natural gasoline on the volatility of 
ethanol fuel blends. The EPA will consider the information contained in 
the report made available by this notice and the resulting public 
comments from this notice in developing a final rule from the REGS 
proposed rule.
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    \3\ SAE technical paper 2007-01-4006, ``A Model for Estimating 
Vapor Pressures of Commingled Ethanol Fuels,'' Sam R. Reddy. See the 
discussion in Section IV.F.3. of the REGS proposed rule beginning on 
page 81 FR 80867.
    \4\ A blendstock for oxygenate blending (BOB) is formulated to 
manufacture compliant gasoline after the addition of ethanol.
    \5\ Property Analysis of Ethanol--Natural Gasoline--BOB Blends 
to Make Flex Fuel, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 
technical report 5400-67243, November 2016.

    Dated: December 1, 2016.
Christopher Grundler,
Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality.
[FR Doc. 2016-29896 Filed 12-13-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P