Environmentalists Say EPA Palm Oil Denial Bolsters Suit Challenging RFS
Environmentalists say EPA's recent rejection of palm oil qualifying as a biofuel feedstock reinforces their arguments in litigation challenging the agency's ability to accurately qualify the lifecycle emissions for other biofuels that qualified under the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS).
Budget Pressures May Spur States To Eye Returning Air Programs To EPA
Dwindling budgets are pushing some states to consider returning their delegated Clean Air Act permitting programs to EPA unless they can raise fees charged to industry for Title V air permits in order to boost revenue, sources say, though fee increases may prove difficult if state lawmakers or industry oppose a hike in permit fees.
EPA Faces Funding Cut
EPA's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal is due for release later this month, and sources say the agency faces a roughly $100 million cut from its FY12 enacted funding level. . .
Read the full InsiderAn issue-by-issue rundown of environmental policy developments to watch in 2012.
EPA Faces Potential Data Quality Hurdles In Bid To Calculate 'Value Of Water'
EPA advisers, as well as agency staff economists, are signaling that officials face data quality hurdles in their effort to craft a study that quantifies the value of water to the U.S. economy -- a concern that may limit EPA's ability to cite the study's estimated benefits in any future bid to justify strict water quality controls.
States, Activists Criticize EPA Justification For Stalling Revised PM NAAQS
States and environmentalists are criticizing EPA's recent justification for why it has delayed a proposed rule to revise its particulate matter national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), saying the agency fails to explain why the delay is reasonable as they push for a court to impose a hard legal deadline on EPA for issuing the rule.
GOP Lawmakers Call For EPA To Subject More Raw Data To Peer Reviews
Republican lawmakers are calling on EPA's research office to begin releasing larger amounts of raw data underlying its scientific assessments ahead of peer reviews of the documents, an issue the lawmakers could opt to address in a planned reauthorization of the bill that created the agency's Office of Research & Development (ORD).
Senate Panel Drops Lifecycle GHGs As EPA 'Clean' Vehicle Eligibility Factor
EPA Ozone Designations Prompt Fight Over Defining Nonattainment Areas
New Documents
- BLM Releases Draft NEPA Review Of Oil Shale, Tar Sands Projects On Public Lands
- House GOP Lawmakers Urge OMB To Block EPA Climate NSPS
- Blue Ribbon Commission Urges EPA To Develop 'Generic' Nuclear Waste Repository Standard
- CRS Report Points To Uncertainty In EPA Draft Wyoming Fracking Study
- President Obama Touts Clean Energy In 2011 State Of The Union Speech
- Appellate Court Vacates EPA's SIP Approval Due To Outdated Data
- Court Upholds EPA's Modeling, Flaring Mandates For Montana's SO2 SIP
Other News
- Activists Back EPA Powers But Signal Challenges To CAFO Reporting Rule
- Jackson Downplays Concerns Over Broad EPA Oversight Of Fracking Wells
- EPA Urged To Develop 'Generic' Standard For Nuclear Waste Repository
- Activists' Appeal Seeks To Retain ESA Oversight Of Species-Pesticide Suits
- Industry Cites Economic Fears In 11th-Hour Bid To Soften EPA PVC MACT
- EPA Aims To Cut Air Quality Impacts From Army's Use Of Smoke Grenades
- EPA Advisers Struggle To Agree On CO2 Accounting Method For Biomass
Budget
- Obama To Seek Modest EPA Funding Cut In FY13 With $8.3 Billion Budget
- EPA To 'Minimize' New Employee Hiring In Response To FY12 Budget Cuts
- States Urge EPA To Fight Future Grant Cuts By Defending Unspent Funds
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IG Faults EPA Mine Permit Records
EPA's Inspector General (IG) in a new report finds major deficiencies in the agency's record keeping for Clean Water Act (CWA) mountaintop mining permit reviews, warning that inadequate records could hinder EPA's ability to track . . .
Scalia's Sackett 'Softball' For EPA
A former top Justice Department (DOJ) official says Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave EPA a “softball” in a suit asking whether courts can review pre-enforcement challenges to Clean Water Act (CWA) compliance orders, saying . . .
NRDC Touts Infrastructure Model
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is touting Philadelphia's recent push toward “green infrastructure” for stormwater management as a model for municipalities, urging state and local governments to adopt a new system of billing property . . .
EPA Schedules Vanadium Review
EPA plans to hold a March 7 peer review for its draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), a study that industry is sharply criticizing on that grounds that its underlying . . .