Non-attainment provisions - baseline for determining credit for emission and air

quality offsets. (A) Applicability. This Rule applies to any new major stationary source or major modification at an existing major stationary source that will be constructed in an area designated in 40 CFR 81.355 as nonattainment for an air pollutant for which the major stationary source or major modification is major. Page | 54 (B) Baseline for determining credit for emission offsets. (1) The baseline for determining credit for emission offsets shall be the emission limit under the Puerto Rico state implementation plan in effect at the time the application to construct or modify a source is filed. Thus, credit for emission offset purposes may be allowed for existing control that goes beyond that required by the Puerto Rico state implementation plan. Where the Puerto Rico state implementation plan does not contain an emission limitation for that source or source category, the emission offset baseline involving such sources shall be the actual emissions determined in accordance with the following: (a) The baseline emissions for existing sources providing the offsets shall be calculated using the actual emissions definition specified in Rule 102 of the RCAP. The DNER shall allow a pounds per hour averaging period for determining emission offsets when a ton per year averaging period results in a significant over or underestimation of emission offset credits. (b) Where the emission limits under the Puerto Rico state implementation plan allow greater emissions than the potential to emit of the source, emission offset credit will be allowed only for control below this potential. (2) The demonstration of reasonable further progress and attainment of ambient air quality standards is based upon the actual emissions of sources located within a designated nonattainment area for which the preconstruction review program was adopted. (C) Old growth cushion. Only those emissions that have been set aside for new source growth in the most recent Puerto Rico state implementation plan can be used by a major stationary source or major modification to offset emissions. Emissions reserved for new source growth in past Puerto Rico state implementation plans cannot be used by a major stationary source or major modification to offset emissions (D) Combustion of fuels. Generally, the emissions for determining emission offset credit involving an existing fuel combustion stationary source will be the allowable emissions under the Puerto Rico state implementation plan for the type of fuel being burned at the time the major stationary source application is filed (i.e., if the existing owner or operator of the stationary source has switched to a different type of fuel at some earlier date, any resulting emission reduction [either actual or allowable] shall not be used for emission offset credit). If the owner or operator of the existing stationary source commits to switch to a cleaner fuel at some future date, emission offset credit based on the allowable emissions for the fuel involved is not acceptable unless the permit is conditioned to require the use of specific alternative control measures that would achieve the same degree of emission reductions should the stationary source be switched back to a dirtier fuel at some later date. The use of a specific alternative control measure will not apply when the need to switch to a dirtier fuel is caused by a natural disaster, emergency, force majeure, supply disruption, or other extraordinary event outside of the facility's control. Page 55 The applicant must provide information to the DNER that documents that long-term supplies, at least one year, of the new fuel are available. Documentation may consist of fuel supply contracts or documents showing on-site inventories. (E) Operating hours and stationary source shutdown. (1) The owner or operator of a stationary source may be credited with emission reductions achieved by shutting down an existing stationary source or permanently curtailing production or operating hours below baseline levels if the following requirements are met: (a) Such reductions are surplus, permanent, quantifiable, and federally enforceable or legally and practicably enforceable by the state. (b) The shutdown or curtailment occurred after the last day of the base year used for the Puerto Rico state implementation planning process. For purposes of this paragraph, the DNER may choose to consider a prior shutdown or curtailment to have occurred after the last day of the base year if the projected emissions inventory used to develop the most recent attainment demonstration explicitly includes the emissions from such previously shutdown or curtailed emission units. (2) Emission reductions that do not meet the requirements of paragraph (E)(1) of this Rule may be credited if the shutdown or curtailment occurred on or after the date the major stationary source application is filed, or, if the applicant can establish that the proposed major stationary source is a replacement for the shutdown or curtailed stationary source and the cutoff date provisions of paragraph (E)(1)(b) of this Rule are observed. (F) Credit for volatile organic compound (VOC) substitution. No emission offset credit may be allowed for replacing one VOC with another of lesser reactivity, except for those compounds listed in Table 1 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's "Recommended Policy on Control of Volatile Organic Compounds". (G) Banking of emission offset credit. The DNER may allow the owner of an existing stationary source that reduces its own emissions to bank any resulting reductions beyond those required by the Puerto Rico state implementation plan for use under this ruling, even if none of the offsets are applied immediately to a new major stationary source permit. The DNER may allow these banked offsets to be used, as long as these banked emissions are consistent with the Puerto Rico state implementation plan control strategy. The DNER may not approve the construction of a major stationary source using banked offsets if the new major stationary source would interfere with the Puerto Rico state implementation plan control strategy or if such use would violate any other condition set forth for use of offsets. (H) Offset credit for meeting new source performance standards or national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants. Page 56 Where a stationary source is subject to an emission limitation established in a New Source Performance Standard or a National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants, (i.e., requirements under Sections 111 and 112, respectively, of the Clean Air Act), and a different Puerto Rico State implementation plan limitation, the more stringent limitation shall be used as a baseline for determining credit for emission offsets. The difference in emissions between the Puerto Rico state implementation plan and the New Source Performance Standard or a National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants, for such stationary source may not be used as offset credit. (I) All emission reductions claimed as offset credit shall be federally enforceable.