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.

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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.

EPA’s SOCMI Rule Faces Industry Suits Over Chloroprene, Other Mandates

EPA’s new air rule governing organic chemical and polymer manufacturing plants appears likely to face a series of industry challenges, with Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the nation’s only synthetic rubber manufacturer, vowing to challenge its chloroprene provisions while also joining with ethylene oxide (EtO) and other manufacturers in challenging its substantive requirements. A DPE spokesman tells Inside EPA the company “vehemently opposes” provisions that impose a 90-day deadline to comply with the rule’s control and monitoring requirements for chloroprene,...

EPA Retains Strict Air Limits For Chemical Plants But Delays Monitoring

EPA has unveiled its sweeping rule limiting emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) and the synthetic rubber component chloroprene, along with other air toxics, from hundreds of organic chemical and polymer manufacturing plants, largely finalizing the rule as proposed, but adding additional time for industry to install fenceline air monitors. The final rule also dropped a proposed cap on flaring of ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions, after agency officials found it was no longer needed. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and...

Additional Fights Loom After D.C. Circuit Rejects EPA Vehicle Waiver Suits

An appellate court’s rejection of litigation from Republican states and liquid fuels groups challenging EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s prior round of vehicle emissions standards represents a major initial victory for backers of strong state requirements, though it could be followed by several additional cases seeking to limit such rules. In addition, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s April 9 ruling in State of Ohio, et al. v. EPA, et al . comes amid...

D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenges To EPA Waiver For California Auto Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is rejecting Republican states’ constitutional challenge to EPA’s Clean Air Act federal preemption waiver for California’s passenger vehicle emissions standards, a decision that could bolster a suite of other final and pending waivers the state is seeking. In addition, the court in an April 9 opinion dismissed statutory challenges brought by both the states and liquid fuels groups, concluding that both sets of petitioners lack standing to bring the...

EPA Issues PFAS Disposal Guidance Ahead Of Water, Cleanup Rules

EPA has released a long-awaited update to its interim disposal guide for PFAS that continues to highlight methods from its 2020 guidance -- interim storage, landfilling, underground injection control (UIC) and thermal treatment including incinerations under certain conditions -- as less likely to pose environmental impacts than other methods. EPA April 9 issued its updated “Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Materials Containing Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances [(PFAS)],” a day after the White...

Interim Guidance

Fact Sheet




GOP offers CRA resolution to repeal RMP rule

House Republicans have introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that seeks to roll back EPA’s controversial rule tightening many aspects of its risk management program (RMP) for chemical facilities, teeing up a statutorily mandated vote on the repeal in the coming weeks. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on March 29 filed H.J. Res. 123 , which if passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President would scrap EPA’s recent RMP rule. “Yet again, EPA is creating a...

Manufacturers Expected To Pass On EPA Auto Rule Suit Due To Flexibilities

EPA’s decision to ease the near-term stringency of its final passenger vehicle emissions standards -- via softer top-line requirements and additional credit flexibilities -- makes it unlikely that auto manufacturers will challenge the rule, industry and other observers say, though lawsuits are expected from GOP states and liquid fuels groups. However, the picture is not yet certain as industry has months to make such decisions, with a 60-day period to file suit over EPA’s model year 2027-2032 light- and medium-duty...

Industry, States Target Fundamental NAAQS Process Issues In PM Lawsuit

Industry groups and states suing over EPA’s tougher fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard are raising a series of concerns with the broader standard-setting process, charging that Congress unlawfully delegated authority to the agency to set such standards as well as citing officials’ failure to consider costs and feasibility when crafting the reconsidered rule. In a statement of issues filed April 5 in the consolidated case Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al v. EPA, et al , a coalition of major industry...

Clock starts for suits against EPA’s sterilizers air rule

EPA has published its rule limiting emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) from commercial sterilizers in the Federal Register , starting a 60-day clock for litigants to file suit against the regulation that is broadly supported by environmental and community groups, but opposed by chemical sector groups, medical equipment suppliers and others. The rule , released in March and published in the Register April 5, tightens standards for sources such as sterilization chamber vents and aeration room vents, and adds...

EPA Urged To Ease ‘Contingency Measure’ Policy Amid Fears Of SIP Effects

Wisconsin officials are joining southern California regulators and municipalities in pressing EPA to withdraw its controversial plan to reject a Los Angeles-area state implementation plan (SIP) to attain air standards, while also urging the agency to relax its disputed “contingency measures” (CM) policy by recognizing state limits in reducing emissions. Gail Good, director of air management for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, warned EPA Region 9 in an April 3 comment letter that unless the agency eases its CM...

States Stress Need For EPA Mobile Source Rules To Meet SIP Requirements

California and other air regulators are stepping up calls for EPA to pursue stringent rules on federally regulated mobile sources so they can advance acceptable “contingency measure plans” (CMPs) in state implementation plans (SIPs) -- part of a push to convince the agency to withdraw its proposed disapproval of a Los Angeles-area SIP. In recent comments, top officials from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and Wisconsin’s environmental agency pressed EPA to step-up...

Petro-Chemical Sector Urges Officials To Ease EPA’s Imminent SOCMI Rule

Refining and chemical industry groups are urging the Biden administration to ease EPA’s imminent rule limiting emissions from a wide array of organic chemical and polymer manufacturing, in a last-ditch bid to head off tougher controls on the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) and other pollutants, though EPA is not expected to make their requested changes. According to a recently posted presentation , the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), during a March 21 meeting,...

Touting Flexibility, CSB Opens Incident Reviews On High-Profile Chemicals

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is launching investigations of two 2023 facility accidents, a move the agency says shows its greater capacity for discretionary reviews after clearing a years-long backlog -- and which could put a fresh spotlight on high-profile chemicals regulators have struggled to address for years: ethylene oxide (EtO) and hydrogen fluoride (HF). CSB announced on April 4 that it will investigate a Jan. 23, 2023 release of HF and chlorine at a Honeywell facility...

EPA Cuts Deadline Deal For Incinerator Rules, Renewing Pyrolysis Debate

EPA has reached a deal with environmentalists setting deadlines for new air plans governing solid waste incinerators, likely reviving tough questions about how to regulate pyrolysis units used in “chemical recycling,” after EPA delayed issuance of a related underlying rule on “other” incinerators that could settle the issue. In a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication April 5, EPA announces a proposed consent decree reached in Sierra Club v. Michael S. Regan , a suit filed by environmentalists in...

Court Finds Internet Law Shields Vehicle Device Firm From Air Law Liability

In a blow to EPA’s high-priority enforcement actions over vehicle emissions’ “defeat devices,” a federal court has issued a precedential ruling finding that a device manufacturer has immunity from Clean Air Act claims due to protections in the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the law that immunizes social media companies and other providers and users of interactive computer services due to third-party content. In a March 28 ruling in United States v. EZ Lynk, et al., Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil...

EPA Steel Sector Rules Face Possible Suit As OMB Reviews Coke Oven Plan

EPA is facing pushback over its suite of recent rules governing the steel sector’s air emissions, including a rule on integrated steel manufacturing that may soon face litigation, even as the agency has sent its draft final rule tightening air toxics limits for coke ovens used in steelmaking for White House pre-publication review. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the draft final rule governing coke ovens April 2, according to OMB’s website. Review typically takes up...

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