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President-elect Joe Biden’s pick of former EPA air chief Janet McCabe to serve as deputy administrator is garnering broad praise from former agency staff and other observers, with the one-time Obama official seen as an experienced hand who could aid the new administration’s focus on climate and broader efforts to strengthen the agency.
President-elect Joe Biden is said to be considering potential nominees to head EPA’s air office that offer a mix of state-level and federal experience, sources say, with the incoming administration aiming to balance a need for “insider” knowledge with fresh perspectives on issues such as climate change and environmental justice (EJ).
The Supreme Court is poised to hear Jan. 19 oral arguments on a key jurisdictional question governing whether a raft of climate change nuisance cases against big oil companies can be heard in state or federal courts, though experts say conservative justices could opt to go beyond the question at issue and seek to tank the suits on the merits.
EPA is proposing to take further steps to bolster use of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) by altering or removing gas pump labeling requirements, while also inviting public comment on how it should proceed with several states’ and refiners’ applications for exemptions from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and six other environmental groups are suing EPA and other federal agencies in a bid to stop Florida’s assumption of dredge-and-fill permitting from the Army Corps of Engineers, alleging the federal government violated numerous environmental and administrative laws in approving the assumption.
Prospects for the Biden EPA’s ambitious plans with a closely divided Congress
Incoming Biden officials face a looming test in EPA’s implementation of the revised TSCA -- crafting its first risk management rules for the first 10 chemicals the Trump administration is slated to evaluate before leaving office, with industry and environmentalists already at loggerheads over the stringency over any future regulations.
In contrast to the legal and policy quagmire of trying to define the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Biden administration is likely to face fewer obstacles to reversing other Trump EPA water policy decisions and might move quickly on issues including groundwater regulation and CWA section 401 water quality certifications, sources say.
Covering the next generation of environmental protection and the nexus between government policy and private-sector initiatives
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is praising a $110 million plan by Xcel Energy approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to create a state infrastructure program for electric vehicles (EVs), touting the effort as a model for how to electrify the transportation sector and overcome hurdles facing EVs.
The incoming Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) and EPA face early tests for their environmental agenda with abeyances in several lawsuits over agency rules set to expire early in the next administration, which will force EPA and DOJ to decide on how to proceed with the suits including potentially revising the contested policies.
The incoming Biden EPA faces the pressure of making early decisions on many key environmental actions, including how to reverse Trump EPA rollbacks and other efforts as well as how to craft greenhouse gas rules to achieve President-elect Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
EPA is hosting a public meeting this week on its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) evaluation of perchloroethylene (perc or PCE). Meanwhile, the agency is seeking comment on its guidance on when Clean Water Act (CWA) permits for groundwater are necessary.
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One of the primary architects of the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon (SCC) climate damage metric is floating a two-part strategy for the incoming Biden administration to re-strengthen the tool which would help justify tough greenhouse gas regulations and potentially a suite of other climate policies.
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