EPA Backs Decision To Keep Dec. 9 Deadline For PFAS TRI Rule Comments

EPA is defending its decision to reject industry requests to extend the Dec. 9 comment deadline for a proposed rule to add numerous PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), underscoring agency efforts to quickly finalize the already-overdue measure so reporters can provide data on their releases. The agency outlines its position in letters recently posted to the regulatory docket for the proposed rule, pointing out the actions it is proposing are in line with positions the agency has historically...

EPA Policy Chief Touts Biden Record As Trump Readies Rule Rollbacks

EPA policy chief Vicki Arroyo is touting the Biden administration’s record of issuing an “unprecedented number of consequential final rules” over the last four years and a “historic run fulfilling” promises on climate change, environmental justice and public health policies, though much of that is expected to be rolled back by the incoming Trump administration. Arroyo, who led EPA’s Office of Policy (OP) since 2021, announced last month that she will leave EPA at the end of November and return...

Rhodium Floats U.S. Target Aiming For Nearly Two-Thirds GHG Cut By 2035

An analysis from the energy consulting firm Rhodium Group is suggesting that the U.S. would have to set a new Paris Agreement goal of curbing GHGs by nearly two thirds by 2035, to keep the country on track for deep decarbonization by 2050. The assessment could help set expectations for a new Paris goal that the Biden administration has pledged to issue in the coming weeks, even as the incoming Trump administration is expected to quickly jettison such a target...

DOE Flags Key Role For State Incentives To Spur ‘Sustainable’ Jet Fuel

An Energy Department (DOE) report is highlighting the important role that state-level incentives can play -- as a complement to a long-standing federal biofuels program and tax credits from the 2022 climate law -- in helping to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) considered crucial for curbing airlines’ greenhouse gases. The states’ role might also be magnified under the incoming Trump administration, which is expected to scale back a variety of Biden-era efforts to advance low-carbon technology including potentially SAF. “Federal...

New Mexico Commission Weighs Joining Colorado In PFAS Drilling Ban

New Mexico’s Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) is weighing whether to join Colorado in banning the use of PFAS in oil and gas operations, as environmentalists are pushing for and state officials generally support, although industry argues the commission lacks the authority to prohibit the chemicals’ use through regulation. At issue is an amended petition from WildEarth Guardians for OCC to adopt rules that would prohibit the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in oil and gas drilling, development and...

Trump Selects North Dakota Gov. Burgum To Head Interior Department

President-elect Donald Trump has selected North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to head the Department of Interior (DOI) next year, with the pick winning quick praise from Capitol Hill Republicans as he is expected to ramp up fossil fuel production and related policies. “Governor Burgum knows what it takes to unleash American energy. He recognizes how important our federal lands are for energy and mineral production, grazing, and recreation,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who is poised to take over...

Plastics industry asks D.C. Circuit to block California subpoenas

The plastics industry is appealing to the D.C. Circuit a federal district court’s rejection of its requests to block California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta (D) from enforcing subpoenas for his probe into plastics pollution. The Plastics Industry Association (PIA) filed a Nov. 12 petition asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a pair of lower court rulings rejecting its requests to block Bonta from enforcing subpoenas for his probe into plastics pollution and industry...

Water Policy Report - 11/18/2024

Fri, 2024-11-15 16:03

Industry Sees ‘Some Relief’ In TSCA PBT Rule Despite Tightened Limits

An industry law firm is offering mixed praise for EPA’s newly final TSCA rule reworking Trump-era limits on two “persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic” (PBT) chemicals, welcoming the extension of phaseout deadlines that several sectors have attacked as unworkable but questioning provisions that strengthen workplace and environmental safeguards. “EPA provided some relief (notably to the nuclear power industry and electronics industry), while also narrowing the exclusions for vehicles” by changing what would have been permanent carve-outs from the ban into time-limited...

EPA Talks PFAS Cleanups; NCDEQ Takes Comment On Groundwater Rule

EPA staff will discuss the impacts of new PFAS requirements on Superfund cleanups and provide updates on pending PFAS regulation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act during an Air & Waste Management Association conference. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is scheduled to hold the first of three public hearings on proposed groundwater standards for three PFAS. PFAS Waste Jocelyn Hospital, manager of the Waste Characterization Branch within EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, and Gilberto Irizarry,...

Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Stricter Air Source Reclassification Rule

Environmentalists are suing EPA over its recent rule that narrowed a Trump-era regulation allowing major sources of air toxics pollution to reclassify as less-regulated “area” sources, though the rule faces an uncertain fate as the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to defend the measure. In their suit filed Nov. 11 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund seek review of the Sept. 10 “Review...

EPA’s Power Plant ELG Draws Competing Challenges From Petitioners

EPA’s final rule strengthening power plants’ Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limits is facing competing challenges from Republican states and industry groups, as well as environmentalists, though the litigation’s fate is uncertain as the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to defend the measure. In separate opening briefs made public earlier this week, the petitioners detailed legal arguments over EPA’s final power plant effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs), with GOP states and energy industry groups charging the rule is not technologically or...

Inside PFAS Policy - 11/15/2024

Fri, 2024-11-15 11:23

Industry Moves To Expand Landmark Ruling Barring CEQ’s NEPA Rules

Industry and conservative groups are moving quickly to expand the landmark ruling by a split panel of the D.C. Circuit that found the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) lacks statutory authority to issue binding National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules, though the decision faces almost certain appeal. Industry intervenors in litigation challenging a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project are already citing the Nov. 12 ruling in Marin Audubon Society v....

Biden EPA Touts PFAS Actions But Questions Remain Over Trump Plans

The Biden EPA is touting its progress in fulfilling action items in its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, including adoption of drinking water and Superfund rules, but it remains uncertain whether the incoming Trump administration will advance a host of Clean Water Act (CWA) policies slated for release over the coming months. “Before President Biden took office, the federal government wasn’t doing enough to address PFAS pollution across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration has since taken unprecedented steps to develop the science,...

Biden EPA Touts PFAS Actions But Questions Remain Over Trump Plans

The Biden EPA is touting its progress in fulfilling action items in its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, including adoption of drinking water and Superfund rules, but it remains uncertain whether the incoming Trump administration will advance a host of Clean Water Act (CWA) policies slated for release over the coming months. “Before President Biden took office, the federal government wasn’t doing enough to address PFAS pollution across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration has since taken unprecedented steps to develop the science,...

EPA Issues Tougher Rubber Tires Air Rule, But Faces Likely Trump Reversal

EPA has released its final rule toughening air toxics standards for rubber tire manufacturing, adding emissions limits for a previously underregulated subcategory of plants, but the regulation faces a high likelihood of being reversed by Republicans under the Congressional Review Act or blocked and then scrapped by the Trump administration. Administrator Michael Regan signed the rule Nov. 13, meeting a consent decree deadline agreed with environmentalists to reconsider a 2020 Trump EPA rule that retained prior limits. The Trump review...

Trump Plan To ‘Kill’ EV Credit Could Enable Industry Push To Curb EPA Rule

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla is reportedly supporting the Trump transition team’s plan to “kill” the Inflation Reduction Act’s consumer EV tax credit, a scenario that some suggest could enable broader automaker calls to scale back EPA’s multipollutant standards for passenger vehicles. A source close to the EV sector says that “there will be pushback” to the Trump team’s attacks on the EV credit from traditional automakers that might be put at a competitive disadvantage to Tesla in the market...

Passive Receivers, Industry Seek To Bolster Challenge To CERCLA Rule

Manufacturing groups and so-called passive receivers are seeking to bolster legal arguments by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups that the cost estimates for EPA’s landmark Superfund PFAS rule were flawed and that the rule lacks a clearly articulated standard. The parties seeking amici curiae status in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. EPA though are split over whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

Trump Team Floats 10-For-1 Rule Repeal In Stepped-Up Deregulatory Push

The Trump transition team is floating a plan to require EPA and other agencies to cut 10 rules for each new regulation issued, says a former Trump appointee, a significant step up from the two-for-one approach taken by the first Trump administration and a sign of incoming officials’ more-aggressive deregulatory push. The plan is part of a stepped-up deregulatory campaign the transition team is said to be considering, along with plans to move EPA headquarters out of Washington, D.C. and...

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