Air

Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

Topic Subtitle
Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

Continuing Retreat, EPA Rejects Calls To Address Civil Rights Concerns

EPA is continuing to backtrack on civil rights probes, most recently closing two discrimination investigations it opened to look into the Jackson, MS, water crisis while also rejecting a Texas Clean Air Act Title V petition it had cited as justification for closing a related civil rights probe over a facility in that state early this year. Adam Wilson, acting director of EPA’s Office of External Civil Rights Compliance (OECRC), sent a May 6 letter to Chris Wells, director of...

OMB reviewing final lime kilns air rule

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun review of EPA’s draft final rule that would tighten air toxics limits for the lime manufacturing industry though the agency has already signaled the final version will not be as tough as the agency’s original proposal. EPA sent the final rule for pre-publication review May 7, according to OMB’s website. OMB review can take up to 90 days, but can be faster or slower, depending on the circumstances. EPA...

GOP States Sue EPA To Block Tougher Power Plant Mercury Air Rule

A coalition of 23 mainly GOP-led states is suing EPA to block its just-revised mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) rule that tightens emissions limits for coal and oil-fired power plants, as litigation ramps up against the agency’s broader power sector regulations, and GOP lawmakers pledge legislation to stop MATS and other rules. In their suit filed May 8 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, states led by North Dakota and West Virginia asked...

Judge Grants EPA Motion To Dismiss New Youth Climate Change Case

A federal district judge has quickly accepted EPA’s motion to dismiss a new climate change case brought by 18 California youth asserting the agency has unlawfully permitted projects with dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions, citing a recent appeals court ruling in a related youth climate case as justification. Judge Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a May 8 order in Genesis B. v. EPA , holding that the youth lack standing...

Republican States, Co-Ops File Suit Over EPA’s Power Plant GHG Rule

More than two dozen Republican-led states and electric cooperatives are suing EPA over its power plant greenhouse gas standards, pledging to quickly pursue a stay of the rule and arguing the measure effectively ignores the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision vacating Obama-era GHG limits for the sector. “The EPA continues to not fully understand the direction from the Supreme Court -- unelected bureaucrats continue their pursuit to legislate rather than rely on elected members of Congress for guidance,” West Virginia Attorney...

6th Circuit Leans To Kentucky In Suit On EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor’ SIP Denial

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit seem to be leaning toward Kentucky’s argument that EPA unlawfully disapproved its interstate ozone plan, in the first of many cases to reach merits argument addressing the agency’s mass disapproval of state plans, even as the Supreme Court weighs key venue and merits questions on the rule. At oral argument May 8, a three-judge panel seemed inclined to agree with Kentucky that it has jurisdiction to hear the case,...

Industry Challenge To EPA Taconite Air Rule Escalates Steel Sector Fight

Lawsuits by steel makers Cleveland Cliffs LLC and U.S. Steel Corp. against EPA’s toughened air rule limiting emissions from taconite iron ore processing escalate a brewing fight between the industry and its political backers, and the Biden EPA, with further suits likely over iron and steel production and related coke ovens regulations. Both companies filed suits May 3 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, seeking review of the taconite rule that EPA published in the Federal...

Opposing States’ Stay Bid, DOJ Defends EPA Methane Rule’s Flexibilities

The Justice Department (DOJ) is urging a federal court to deny Republican states’ push for a stay of EPA’s oil and gas methane rules, arguing the states’ federalism claims are flawed because the rule gives states significant latitude to set requirements for existing facilities and its two-year deadline to write implementation plans is reasonable. DOJ also claims states have failed to show imminent harm from the regulations -- a key element for securing a stay -- and that imposing a...

Steel sector, environmentalists file dueling suits over taconite rule

U.S. Steel Corp. and environmental and tribal groups have filed dueling lawsuits in separate courts over EPA’s recently tightened rule limiting mercury and other air toxics from taconite iron ore production, creating a conflict over the legal venue that will have to be decided by the courts. The steel company filed a May 3 suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. All taconite facilities affected are located in Minnesota and Michigan, within the 8th Circuit’s jurisdiction...

EPA Poised To Publish Tighter MATS Rule, Starting Likely Litigation Wave

EPA is poised to formally publish its tightened mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for coal and oil-fired power plants, the first of its four recently announced power sector rules that will appear in the Federal Register , starting the clock on what is likely to be wide-ranging wave of litigation that will almost certainly go all the way to the Supreme Court. The agency is scheduled to publish the MATS rule in the Federal Register May 7, starting...

EPA Seeks Deference On Air Plan ‘Contingency’ Policy Amid Circuit Split

Seeking to reverse a circuit precedent, EPA is urging an appellate court to defer to its view that “contingency measures” (CMs) required in Texas air quality plans must be “prospective” and “conditional,” in a battle that may deepen a circuit split and create additional uncertainty about the agency’s policy on the issue. “EPA reasonably required Texas’s contingency measures to be both prospective and conditional, and further reasonably required Texas to meet its still outstanding obligations as soon as possible,” EPA...

Final Rule

EPA Fact Sheet


Final EPA Methane Reporting Rule Narrows Definition Of ‘Large’ Releases

EPA’s just-released final update to oil and gas sector greenhouse gas reporting requirements scraps a proposed tonnage threshold for defining “large events” subject to new reporting, responding to concerns from industry and the agency’s science advisers that such a threshold could have captured even small leaks. This decision is one of several concessions to industry in the May 6 final updates to “subpart W” reporting requirements, with EPA in its final rule also touting flexibilities such as new options for...

Appellate Court Backs Use Of SILs In Air Permits As EPA Readies Guide

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is backing Louisiana air regulators’ use of “significant impact levels” (SILs) to approve a gas export terminal’s air permit, reinforcing the legality of the screening tools ahead of EPA guidance that will address environmentalists’ concerns that SILs enable industry to emit excess pollution. Environmentalists have long contested the legality of SILs, which are EPA-set values that are used to determine whether emissions increases from an industrial source “contribute” to air quality...

In Precedent, 3rd Circuit Rejects Pennsylvania Challenge To EPA’s FIP Power

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has rejected challenges by Pennsylvania and operators of coal-fired power plants to EPA’s federal ozone plan imposing emissions controls on plants in the state, in a precedential decision that upholds EPA’s right to impose a federal plan even where a state has modified its own plan to address shortcomings. In its unanimous ruling May 2 in Keystone-Conemaugh Projects LLC v. EPA , a three-judge panel upholds EPA’s federal implementation plan (FIP)...

ATSDR Publishes Draft Profiles For Two Chemicals Seen As EPA Targets

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is seeking comment on draft updates to its toxicological profiles for two chemicals EPA has marked as priorities in recent years: naphthalene, which the agency has named as a candidate for TSCA evaluation, and acrolein, which it has sought to limit in several air and water actions. ATSDR posted both draft documents, along with one for the chemical n-hexane, for public comment on May 3. While ATSDR’s profiles are non-binding, they...

In Key Test Case, Industry Backs EPA’s Use Of ‘Exceptional Events’ Policy

Major industry groups are joining local business and municipal organizations to defend a first-time legal challenge of EPA’s use of its exceptional events policy to exclude the air quality effects of Canadian wildfire smoke when it determined in 2022 that Detroit was attaining federal ozone standards. In amicus briefs filed earlier this week in Sierra Club v. EPA , the groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to reject environmentalists’ lawsuit seeking to reverse...

GOP Formally Begins CRA Attacks Over EPA’s Car, Truck Emissions Rules

Capitol Hill Republicans have formally introduced two Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions targeting EPA’s car and truck emissions regulations, a move that tees up a political battle over the rules even as the measures are unlikely to be enacted given near-certain Biden administration vetoes. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Rep. John James (R-MI) on May 1 introduced companion CRA resolutions targeting EPA’s multi-pollutant standards for model year 2027 and later passenger vehicles. Also, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Rep. Russ...

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