Administrative Reporting Exemption for Certain Air Releases of Nitrogen Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide (NOx)

API strongly supports an administrative reporting exemption for combustion releases of NOx. Such an exemption is warranted because these releases have proven to require no government response. Reports of these releases burden the regulated community and receiving officials, for no purpose. Further, an administrative reporting exemption could provide significant burden reduction to industry and the government if properly crafted, without any negative impact on human health and the environment. Our comments are attached and are summarized as follows: ?API urges EPA to promulgate an exemption for all types of NOx releases to air that are the result of combustion activities, including accidents and malfunctions. Releases of NOx from combustion sources, whether from accidents and malfunctions or otherwise, pose little or no threat to human health or the environment. The current proposal to exempt NOx releases from combustion unless such release is the result of an accident or malfunction is flawed and should be adjusted to eliminate the qualifier. There is no reason to carve out accidents and malfunctions from the exemption, and the proposed exemption would create a number of practical and policy problems. ?By extending the proposed administrative reporting exemption to accidents and malfunctions, the Agency can limit the exemption to emissions from combustion devices, as opposed to emissions of all combustion NOx. By adding the qualifier ?devices? to the scope of the exemption, situations that potentially warrant an emergency response, such as explosions and fires and liquid or chemical releases of NOx, would fall outside of the exemption. As part of this approach, EPA should specifically define combustion devices as including, among other devices, flares, incinerators, internal combustion engines, turbines, boilers, thermal oxidizers, and heaters. ?If EPA does not extend the combustion NOx exemption to cover accidents and malfunctions, at a minimum, the Agency should clarify that flares are control devices and that flares and other control devices should be covered by the proposed administrative reporting exemption. The operation of flares accounts for the majority of the oil and gas industry NOx releases, and any administrative exemption that would leave any doubt as to their exempt status would be ineffective. If the Agency were to exclude accidents and malfunctions from the exemption and not articulate in the final rule that emissions from control devices including flares are not considered the result of an accident or malfunction of equipment, then when the current enforcement discretion is rescinded (once the proposal is finalized), the reporting burden will become considerably higher than at present. Thus, it is essential that the exemption clearly and unambiguously covers flares and other control devices. ?API supports a threshold level for the exemption of 5,000 pounds. Extensive existing data show there is no need for response to releases below 1,000 pounds, thereby justifying a threshold of at least 1,000 pounds. But the data also support a threshold of at least 5,000 pounds. ?API opposes the option of ?more efficient use of continuous release reporting.? Such a scheme is generally not appropriate for the types of combustion NOx releases that are not already being addressed under the continuous release reporting mechanism and would not constitute an exemption.