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.

EPA Inspector General to probe air monitoring

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) will investigate “EPA’s oversight of state and local ambient air monitoring operating schedules,” in order to ensure that its scrutiny is sufficient to avoid underreporting of air pollution, according to a recent notice. Patrick Gilbride, director of the implementation, execution, and enforcement directorate at OIG’s Office of Special Review and Evaluation, outlined the forthcoming investigation in a brief March 19 memo to EPA air chief Joe Goffman. “Our objective is to determine whether the...

EPA Drops ‘Force Majeure’ Waiver From Refinery, Chemical Sector Air Rules

EPA is removing regulatory waivers for “force majeure” events, such as natural disasters, from air rules in the refining and chemical manufacturing sectors, satisfying a longstanding request by environmentalists to remove the waivers that EPA claims are rarely used anyway, but industry groups would prefer to retain. In a rule signed by EPA Administrator Michael Regan March 15 ahead of its upcoming publication in the Federal Register , EPA removes the waivers from provisions governing pressure relief devices (PRDs) and...

EPA Rebuts Industry’s Non-Delegation Claim Against HFC Phasedown Law

EPA is rejecting claims that Congress unlawfully delegated the agency legislative authority in the 2020 bipartisan law to sharply phase down climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), offering what appears to be the agency’s first detailed rebuttal to an argument being advanced by an HFC manufacturer and some free-market groups. “By setting forth Congress’s policy and by providing guardrails for EPA’s discretion in the statutory structure and context, the [American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act] provides a sufficient ‘intelligible principle’ and thus is...

D.C. Circuit Appears Ready To Scrap EPA Air Rule Governing ‘New’ Boilers

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appears to be leaning toward scrapping an EPA definition of “new” industrial boilers that would keep certain boilers built after 2010 always subject to tough “new source” air toxics standards, a move that would grant industry’s petition to ease the limits for some boilers. At oral argument March 21 in U.S. Sugar Corp. v. EPA , Judges Gregory Katsas, Robert Wilkins and Justin Walker all...

EPA, Supporters Reject Claims Vehicle Standards Violate ‘Major Questions’

EPA and its defenders are rejecting claims that its final light- and medium-duty vehicle emissions standards are vulnerable under the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine that triggers strict scrutiny of “transformative” policies, arguing the rule is an outgrowth of clear Clean Air Act authority and multiple prior regulatory precedents. The stance underscores their efforts to gird for a looming legal fight against fuels sector and other critics who claim the rule represents a de facto and improper electric vehicle...

Final EPA Auto Rule Nods To Industry But Still Wins Environmentalists’ Praise

EPA’s just-issued final multi-pollutant rule for passenger vehicles includes several concessions to automakers, including eased near-term greenhouse gas limits and more time to meet fine particle standards, but it is nevertheless garnering strong praise from environmentalists who deem it a historic rulemaking that helps address climate and air pollution. In addition, the agency’s March 20 final rule includes new analysis highlighting automakers’ ability to comply with the new requirements via multiple fuel-saving technologies, in a bid to fend off legal...

Final Rule

EPA Fact Sheet

Response To Comments

Regulatory Impact Analysis

Air Quality Analysis


Rail Sector Fights EPA Plan To Grant California Waiver On Locomotive Rule

The rail industry is resisting EPA’s proposal to grant a Clean Air Act waiver to allow a California rule limiting air pollution from in-use locomotives, arguing the measure is unachievable on the current timeline, is too costly and would threaten the national rail system, contradicting supporters of the rule who say it is vital for public health. During a virtual public hearing March 20, rail sector representatives and municipal officials from areas hosting major rail facilities urged EPA to reject...

EPA details questions for primary NOx NAAQS review

EPA is outlining questions it wants answered in its forthcoming review of “primary” health-based national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for nitrogen oxides (NOx), as the agency updates its scientific assessment and policy recommendations for curbing the pollutant. In its Integrated Review Plan (IRP) “volume 2” document released March 18, EPA poses a series of questions that it will seek to answer in its forthcoming integrated science assessment (ISA) for NOx, which will then inform a policy assessment (PA) document...

Stellantis Inks Deal With CARB On ZEV, GHG Rules After Failed Challenge

Automaker Stellantis -- which manufactures Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles -- is committing to support and comply with California’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales requirements through the end of the decade, even if the state’s authority to enforce such rules is set aside in court or by a future administration. The company’s March 19 agreement with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which also addresses the company’s compliance with the state’s greenhouse gas emissions standards through 2026, comes after it failed...

EPA Rejects Oil Industry Bid For Waiver Of RFS Cellulosic Fuel Mandate

EPA has rejected the refining sector’s petition for a partial waiver from implementation of renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates for cellulosic biofuels, finding that the oil industry has failed to make a convincing case that a lack of RFS credits will result in “severe economic harm” that would justify a waiver. In a March 15 letter , EPA Administrator Michael Regan denies the petition for a partial waiver that would effectively reduce the 2023 cellulosic biofuel blending requirements,...

California Cuts $46 Million Deal With Cummins Over Emission Violations

California regulators have won a $46 million settlement with engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. over claims that the company violated engine emissions control and certification requirements, adding to the $2 billion settlement the company reached recently with EPA and California over separate emission-cheating claims. The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “rigorous, state-of-the-art enforcement efforts ensure that air quality laws are followed. And if issues are uncovered, collaboration and action from manufacturers such as Cummins make it possible to quickly implement needed...

EPA Finalizes Tougher Air Emissions Rule For Iron And Steel Plants

Despite resistance from industry groups and bipartisan lawmakers, EPA has finalized its rule toughening air toxics requirements for 10 integrated iron and steel plants, adding new air toxics limits for previously unregulated equipment and pollutants and mandating fenceline monitoring while providing some concessions to ease compliance burdens. In the final rule signed by Administrator Michael Regan March 11 but released by the agency March 18, EPA seeks to add limits for previously unregulated emissions points and to set new limits...

Final Rule

Fact Sheet


EPA poised to propose tougher ‘secondary’ NAAQS

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed review of EPA’s draft plan that could propose a tightening of “secondary” welfare-based air limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), clearing the way for EPA to release the plan by its April target date. OMB completed its interagency review March 15, according to its website. EPA is facing an April 9 consent decree deadline agreed in litigation brought by environmentalists to propose...

EPA’s Sterilizer EtO Rule Bucks Environmentalists’ Calls For Stiffer Mandates

EPA’s final air rule limiting ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers sets stringent emissions limits, but also rejects calls from environmentalists and Democratic states for regulation of off-site warehouses and for fenceline air monitoring, and extends the compliance timeline far beyond what was proposed. In the final rule unveiled March 14, EPA said it would not regulate EtO releases at warehouses because they are not part of the source category. In addition, it said it would not require fenceline...

White House Completes Review Of EPA’s Phase 3 Truck GHG Standards

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has finished inter-agency review of EPA’s draft final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks, paving the way for officials to publicly release the final rule potentially in the coming days. OMB completed review of the measure March 15, just one day after the office finished reviewing EPA’s separate multi-pollutant emissions regulation for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which is expected to be released at an event in Washington, D.C., on...

GOP senators join House push to scrap PM NAAQS

At least 46 Republican senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are seeking to scrap EPA’s recently-tightened national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), signing on to a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that mirrors a recently introduced House measure. The Senate CRA resolution , sponsored by McConnell and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), would nullify the rule that reduced the annual health-based NAAQS from 12 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) down to 9 mg/m3,...

EPA Adopts Tougher Air Rules For Gasoline Storage, Distribution Facilities

EPA has finalized tougher air standards for thousands of bulk gasoline storage and distribution facilities largely as proposed, tightening emissions limits for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tanks, but also easing the rule somewhat in response to industry criticism over small facilities’ ability to comply. In a final rule announced March 14, following its signature by EPA Administrator Michael Regan Feb. 29, EPA imposes tougher national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for both...

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