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 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...

Denka Hints At Suit On Chloroprene Rules As Enforcement Case Pauses

Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the sole domestic manufacturer of neoprene, is warning White House officials that EPA’s imminent emissions rule for chloroprene, a key synthetic rubber component, is unlawful, signaling a new suit that could shift the company’s litigation focus as the agency decides whether to continue its landmark enforcement action against the Louisiana facility. In a presentation to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and EPA officials March 7, Bracewell attorneys representing Denka raised a series of...

EPA poised to unveil light-duty vehicle emissions rule March 20

EPA is planning to unveil its final multi-pollutant emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles on March 20, according to several sources familiar with the process, a move that will conclude a high-profile rulemaking expected to encourage broader deployment of electric vehicles. The final standards addressing passenger vehicles and some heavier pickups also will be released before EPA’s forthcoming final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles, these sources add, even though the two proposed rules were initially announced...

EPA Sets Tough Limits For EtO Sterilizers But Eases Compliance Options

EPA has released its long-awaited final rule setting tougher limits on emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) from commercial sterilizers, tightening existing limits, setting new limits, eliminating exemptions for facility startup and shutdown -- but also offering a two-year compliance extension, and finalizing “site-wide” flexible compliance options. The rule will tighten standards for “on the books” sources such as sterilization chamber vents and aeration room vents, and add new limits for unregulated emissions, such as building leaks and chamber...

New Data Adds Pressure On EPA To Strengthen Landfill Methane Rules

Correction Appended Environmentalists are stepping up their calls for EPA to update its new source performance standards (NSPS) to reduce methane and related emissions from landfills, citing a new study showing solid waste landfills have become the largest industrial source of the potent greenhouse gas in 45 states in 2022. According to new analysis by Industrious Labs, a group that advocates for decarbonizing the industrial sector, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills were the largest industrial source of methane in...

Court Blocks Industry Bid To Win EPA Review Of Waste Combustors’ Risks

A federal district court has rejected the waste incineration industry’s push to force EPA to conduct a risk review of its air rules for municipal waste combustors (MWCs), which the industry sought as a precursor to an ongoing technology review that could tighten emissions limits, although the ruling allows for a fresh industry challenge. In a March 13 ruling in Waste To Energy Association (WTEA) v. EPA, et al. , Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the...

High Court Urged To Narrow D.C. Circuit’s Downstream GHG NEPA Holding

Seven Utah counties and a railroad company are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling requiring consideration of the downstream greenhouse gases under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), arguing that the high court has already determined agencies can only consider environmental effects within their jurisdiction. The March 4 petition for a writ of certiorari in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition & Uinta Basin Railway, LLC., v. Eagle County, CO, and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), et...

EPA plans to restore Ohio’s ‘nuisance’ air rule to SIP

EPA is moving to restore an air pollution “nuisance” rule as part of Ohio’s state implementation plan (SIP) for meeting federal air quality standards, reversing a Trump-era decision to scrap the measure, after a federal appeals court found environmentalists had standing to sue, and granted the Biden EPA’s request for remand of the earlier decision. The Air Nuisance Rule (ANR), which generally barred emission “of smoke, ashes, dust, dirt, grime, acids, fumes, gases, vapors” and a range of other substances,...

Biogas Producers Press Case Against EPA Regulatory ‘Overreach’ Under RFS

Biogas producers are making their closing arguments against EPA’s rule setting tougher conditions for tracking generation of renewable fuel standard (RFS) credits, which they say exceeds the agency’s statutory authority by regulating gas “feedstock” suppliers, but which EPA insists is both lawful and necessary to prevent fraud. In a final brief filed ahead of April 25 oral arguments in Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) v. EPA , biogas producers urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...

Amid Circuit Split, Industry Backs Texas’ Stance On ‘Contingency’ Measures

Energy industry groups are backing Texas’ suit challenging EPA’s disapproval of its state air quality plan over “contingency measures” (CMs) for ozone reduction, in a case that may deepen an existing circuit split on the issue and further undermine the agency’s policy that is already under attack elsewhere. In an amicus brief filed Feb. 28 in State of Texas v. EPA , pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the Texas Oil & Gas Association,...

EPA Moves To Tighten Terms Of NSR Permit Program, Redefining ‘Projects’

EPA is floating revisions to its new source review (NSR) permit program to safeguard against air pollution backsliding, redefining the term “project” and introducing other measures to prevent abuses of the Trump-era “project emissions accounting” (PEA) rule that EPA otherwise retains, despite environmentalists’ and some states’ opposition. In a proposed rule quietly posted to the agency’s website last month, but not yet published in the Federal Register , EPA floats changes to allay the concerns of environmentalists and some states...

EPA poised to release tougher steel sector air toxics rule

EPA is poised to soon release its rule tightening air toxics limits for integrated iron and steel plants after the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed review, as the agency runs up against a judicial deadline to sign the regulation and industry and lawmakers of both parties push back against its tougher requirements. OMB completed prepublication review March 8, according to its website, clearing a path for Administrator Michael Regan to sign the rule by a March...

Texas Challenges Methane Emissions Rule, With More Pushback Expected

Texas officials have filed litigation challenging EPA’s oil and gas sector methane emissions rule, in what sources say is likely to be one of several bids from the sector or Republican states to seek either court review or agency reconsideration of the sweeping regulation. The March 8 petition for review from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, does not outline the state’s legal arguments, but it was...

Texas Urges EPA To Codify Guide On Wildfire ‘Exceptional Events’ Claims

Texas is seeking to formalize the process by which EPA prioritizes processing of states’ requests for “exceptional events” waivers from federal air standards, asking the agency to enshrine draft guidance as a rule that would set deadlines for EPA decisions on how much evidence states need supply and would bar EPA from reversing such decisions. In comments submitted to EPA ahead of a March 7 deadline for public input, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) like other state regulators...

EPA seeks new CASAC members ahead of NAAQS reviews

EPA is recruiting members for its Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) ahead of upcoming statutory reviews of health-based air quality limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), lead and ozone, after an intense period of activity for the panel that oversaw reviews of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone, and combined ‘secondary’ air standards. In a Federal Register notice published March 4, EPA seeks nominations for experts to serve on the seven-member chartered CASAC that advises the administrator on setting national...

Democratic Senators, Industry Press EPA To Ease Steel Sector Air Rules

Democratic senators are again pressing the Biden administration to walk back EPA’s plans to tighten air toxics limits for the steel sector, echoing industry and union warnings that a suite of regulations affecting steel plants will harm the industry and hamper the president’s goals to boost infrastructure and manufacturing and to fight climate change. In a March 4 letter , Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), John Fetterman (D-PA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote to President...

Fearing Adverse Precedent, States Warn EPA Over Plan To Reject L.A. SIP

California and other state and local officials are warning EPA not to finalize its proposed disapproval of a state implementation plan (SIP) revision for the Los Angeles area to meet 1997 ozone standards, charging it would set an adverse precedent by requiring permitting offset sanctions and loss of federal highway funds. The “ramifications of the proposed disapproval of the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s [SCAQMD] Contingency Measure Plan are vast, as the proposed disapproval has the potential to result...

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