United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-02-046
Environmental Protection September 2002
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
&EPA Regulatory
Announcement
Plain-Language Format of Emission
Regulations for Nonroad Engines
In the Clean Air Act, Congress has given the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) responsibility to set emission standards for all types of
highway and nonroad engines. In our latest rulemaking, we tried to write
in a way that is easy to understand, even for someone with little legal or
engineering experience in reading regulations. This fact sheet describes
this new approach, which we plan to extend to other programs in the
future.
What plain-language
Regulations related to engine emissions often involves complex language
to implement the standards and procedures. However, we are making an
extra effort to write the standards, instructions, and prohibitions in ways
that are easy to understand and less likely to raise questions that require
later interpretation. This effort is consistent with an October 1998
Executive Order instructing federal agencies to use plain language in
official documents.
How is plain-language different?
Writing plain-language regulations involves four main strategies. We:
Identify the group of people who are most affected and write it
directly to them. This way, requirements and prohibitions sound
more like instructions that are short and to the point. We do make
clear, however, that failing to follow these instructions carries the
same penalties as if they were written more formally.
> Printed on Recycled Paper
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Generally use active verbs so it is clear who is responsible to do
certain things.
Avoid using technical or legal terms when common words
communicate the same meaning.
Organize requirements to put related ones together. This helps you
find things faster and reduces the risk of overlapping or inconsistent
requirements. Leaving some section and part numbers unused
allows us to add related requirements in the future without causing
confusion.
How are the new plain-language regulations
organized?
These regulations have three portions:
The main element of the regulations sets standards for nonroad
engines.
This includes everything an engine manufacturer needs to know to
design engines to meet standards, certify them, and show that they
meet all the requirements.
Another part of the regulations has general procedures and
specifications that describe how to test engines to show that they
meet emission standards. This includes analyzer and test-fuel
specifications and instructions for testing engines, calibrating
equipment, and calculating emission levels. We describe any testing
provisions that are specific to a particular type of engine in the
standard-setting part.
A third part of the regulations describes how we administer and
enforce our emission-control programs. Many of these provisions
come directly from the Clean Air Act. As with the test procedures
and specifications, we address compliance provisions that are
specific to a particular type of engines in the standard-setting part.
The general compliance provisions include:
general prohibitions
requirements for people installing, using, or servicing certified
engines
general exemptions for a variety of situations
procedures for auditing production-line engines
defect-reporting and recall
hearing procedures
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In effect, the standard-setting part serves as a handbook for
manufacturers to meet all the requirements that apply to them, while the
general parts serve as reference materials for manufacturers and anyone
involved in activities related to certified engines.
Chapters, sections, how it
all fit together?
The Office of the Federal Register publishes the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) with a uniform format and nomenclature that all
federal agencies use when writing regulations. The CFR is divided into
50 "titles," of which Title 40 is reserved for all requirements related to
environmental protection. As with all the titles in the CFR, Title 40 is
divided into parts to address specific programs. Regulations initiated by
the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) have historically all been located
together in Parts 49 through 99. Within the Office of Air and Radiation,
the Office of Transportation and Air Quality has adopted emission
standards for various types of nonroad engines, which are generally in
Parts 89 through 94.
To address the need for more parts for new programs and write them in
plain language, we have reserved a new set of parts1000 through
1299. The first 100 of these parts are reserved for emission-control
programs from the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, with the
intended distribution shown in Table 1 below. So far, we have written
regulations that use four of these new parts:
Part 1048 is the standard-setting part for nonroad spark-ignition
engines over 25 horsepower that are not used in recreational
vehicles.
Part 1051 is the standard-setting part for recreational vehicles,
including snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and off-highway
motorcycles.
Part 1065 describes general provisions related to procedures for
testing engines.
Part 1068 includes general compliance provisions.
Each of these parts has various subparts, sections, and paragraphs. The
following illustration shows how these fit together and what format we
use to identify them.
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Part 1048
Subpart A
Section 1048.1
(a)
(b)
(1)
(2)
(i)
(ii)
Note that a cross-reference to §1048. l(b) in this illustration would refer
to the parent paragraph (b) and all the paragraphs under it. For example,
this would include paragraphs (b), (b)(l), (b)(2), (b)(2)(i), and (b)(2)(ii).
A reference to "§1048. l(b) introductory text" would refer only to the
single, parent paragraph (b).
What are the of taking this approach?
The first step for anyone to comply with regulations is to understand
them. We believe that plain-language regulations will be a great help to
all those trying to meet the requirements that apply to them.
In addition, setting general testing provisions in Part 1065 and general
compliance provisions in Part 1068 should greatly simplify and
coordinate regulations across different programs.
If we add a new standard-setting part to Subchapter U for a
different category of engines, we would apply the existing
provisions of Parts 1065 and 1068 as a supplement to the new
standard-setting part.
If we need to change Parts 1065 or 1068 for any reason, those
changes would automatically apply to the other nonroad engines
that are already regulated under those parts.
Where the specific provisions of the general parts do not apply, or
apply uniquely, for a particular type of engine, the standard-setting
part can include provisions to make these distinctions.
This approach has three important implications:
First, companies already subject to Parts 1065 and 1068 need to
stay abreast of what we are doing in other programs. We generally
plan to apply the same provisions to everyone, but we will go
through a public process to do this for each new category of
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engines. As a result, there may be some changes resulting from
discussions on an otherwise unrelated subject.
Second, by relying on single "reference" sections to cover multiple
programs, we will necessarily take a consistent approach to these
general regulatory provisions. Relying on centralized reference
sections prevents the risk of making corrections or improvements in
one program that don't apply to other programs where that would
be the right thing to do, which will be especially helpful for EPA
management of multiple emission-control programs and for
manufacturers involved in making engines for more than one kind
of nonroad application.
Third, the standard-setting part will be smaller. Most parts with
nonroad emission standards are 80 - 150 pages in the CFR. Moving
the general provisions into stand-alone parts will allow us to
condense the program-specific information in the standard-setting
part down to about 30 - 35 pages.
How would other programs fit into the new scheme?
The following table shows how we plan to use Subchapter U for
regulations related to issues that fall under the responsibility of the
Office of Transportation and Air Quality. We generally refer to these as
"mobile sources" of emissions.
Table 1
Regulatory Blueprint for Parts 1000 through 1099
Part*
Subject
1000 through
1029
Highway engine and vehicle programs
1030 through
1064
1030
1033
1036
1039
1042
1045
1048
1051
1054
Nonroad engine programs
Aircraft
Locomotives
Heavy-duty highway engines (spark-ignition and diesel)
Nonroad diesel engines
Marine diesel engines
Marine spark-ignition engines
Large nonroad spark-ignition engines
Land-based recreational vehicles
Small nonroad SI engines
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Part*
1065 through
1080
1065
1068
1081 through
1099
Subject
General provisions
General test procedures and equipment (SI and CI)
General enforcement provisions for engine programs
In-use fuel requirements
*Part numbers are not sequential to allow for flexibility with future rulemakings.
Where Can I Get information?
You can access documents related to nonroad engine emission standards
on the Office of Transportation and Air Quality Web site at:
www. epa.gov/otaq
You can also contact us at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
Assessment and Standards Division
2000 Traverwood Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Voice-mail: (734) 214-4636
E-mail: asdinfo@epa.gov
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