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...

Industry Groups Urge EPA Against TSCA Evaluation Of Hydrogen Fluoride

Three chemical industry groups are pressing EPA not to prioritize hydrogen fluoride (HF) -- used as a catalyst in oil refineries and other industrial contexts -- for risk evaluation under TSCA despite renewed calls from the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), saying the substance is already subject to “comprehensive” safety rules. “Existing regulations impacting HF producers and users provide a comprehensive foundation for protecting workers and the public,” the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC’s) Hydrogen Fluoride Panel wrote in...

Backers Fear Lame Duck Could Be Bipartisan Permit Bill’s Best Chance

Some supporters of a pending Senate energy permit streamlining bill are expressing worries that a failure to enact the measure during the current lame-duck session of Congress will jeopardize the chances of passing any permitting package next year, when Republicans are poised to control the White House and both chambers of Congress. “If we don’t get [a permit bill] done in a lame duck, I’m very concerned we can’t get it done next year,” former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)...

Water Utilities Say EPA’s PFAS Disposal Guide Lacks Practical Methods

Drinking water and wastewater utilities, who say they are on the frontlines of having to treat or dispose of PFAS-contaminated water, are blasting EPA’s latest update of its PFAS disposal and destruction guidance, charging it falls short of what they need and leaves them without practical methods for managing such waste. “The updated 2024 Interim Disposal and Destruction Guidance builds on the prior 2021 Guidance, but it does not offer practical or realistic solutions for public wastewater utilities dealing with...

EPA Seeks Data On Tire Chemical 6PPD In Early Step Toward TSCA Rule

EPA is asking stakeholders to provide a wide range of information on the tire component 6PPD and related substances that could inform a future TSCA rule to limit their danger to protected salmon species and other aquatic life -- though it still gives no detail on what restrictions the agency is considering. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) , which EPA posted online Nov. 14, outlines a long list of data gaps on 6PPD’s uses, properties, toxic effects and...

Inside Cal/EPA - 11/15/2024

Thu, 2024-11-14 13:56

Trump Team Faces Complex Effort To Undo EPA Vehicle Emissions Rules

Observers say the incoming Trump administration will face a complicated, multi-year effort to undo EPA’s car and truck emissions regulations as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed, amid questions about whether the auto sector’s electrification investments might temper enthusiasm for a full-scale rollback. The appraisals come amid uncertainty for both foes and backers the regulations, including unresolved litigation over Biden-era EPA and Department of Transportation (DOT) vehicle standards, and a conservative Supreme Court that could prove skeptical of current agency rules...

California EJ groups sue EPA to compel San Joaquin Valley SIP actions

Several California environmental and environmental justice (EJ) groups are suing EPA over its alleged failure to formally determine if the San Joaquin Valley attained the 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard, and to decide whether to approve the valley’s plan to attain a 2015 ozone standard. “Plaintiffs Little Manila Rising, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, and the Sierra Club (collectively ‘Valley Air Advocates’) file this Clean Air Act citizen suit to compel [EPA] to protect public health in the...

Environmentalists Call For Plastics ELGs Amid 'Uncontrolled' Pollution

Environmentalists are urging EPA to review and strengthen its “grossly outdated” Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for plastics manufacturing plants, citing data from a new report that finds that, as a result of EPA’s failure to update its 30-year-old rules, the sector is contributing to “uncontrolled” water pollution. The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) issued a Nov. 14 report highlighting that the lack of modern wastewater regulations on plastics and petrochemical plants is contributing to significant pollution of...

EPA Seeks Court Approval For Final TSCA Evaluation Deadline Settlements

EPA is formally asking a federal district court to enter its separate consent decrees with the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and environmental groups setting first-of-their-kind enforceable timetables for the agency to propose and finalize TSCA risk evaluations for a total of 22 chemicals that are now more than a year past their statutory deadlines. All sides in consolidated litigation over the missed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) evaluation deadlines, known as Community In-Power And Development Association Inc. et al., v....

Biofuels Sector Faces Mixed Outlook On EVs, RFS In Second Trump Term

The biofuels sector is facing an uncertain policy outlook under the fast-developing second Trump administration, which is expected to remove incentives for electric vehicles (EVs), boosting all types of liquid fuel, even as Trump officials might favor refiner interests in long-standing battles over EPA’s biofuel blending mandates. Biofuels producers are so far cautiously welcoming President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, and they are seeking ways to nudge the incoming administration to further their agenda by, for example, backing year-round sales of...

Ohio Plant Rebuts EPA Bid To Dismiss CCR Suit, Citing Noncomplier Status

Gavin Power is fighting EPA’s calls for a federal district court to dismiss its challenge to the agency’s decision denying its request to extend its deadline to cease receipt of coal ash waste and initiate closure, arguing that the agency’s finding of Gavin Power as a “significant noncomplier” marks a reviewable final action with direct legal consequences. Gavin Power filed a Nov. 6 response brief to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in the suit Gavin...

EPA Includes PFAS Monitoring Requirements In Draft NPDES Permit

The draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit for New Hampshire’s medium wastewater treatment plants, which Region 1 released Nov. 13, requires covered facilities to conduct quarterly influent, effluent and sludge sampling for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and annual sampling of certain industrial users. “In EPA’s judgment, PFAS monitoring of influent, effluent and sludge is necessary to better understand the fate and transport of PFAS throughout the treatment process,” a fact sheet accompanying the permit says. “Additionally,...

Newsom Urges EPA To Approve CARB Vehicle Waivers Amid GOP Pushback

Amid pushback from Republicans, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is pressing Biden EPA officials to approve long-pending Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waivers to allow the state to implement eight mobile source emissions regulations, including high-profile measures requiring sales of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). “Building on the long-standing partnership between the Newsom and Biden-Harris administrations, today Governor Gavin Newsom met with senior White House and federal officials where he discussed key priorities for the state,” Newsom’s office said in a Nov...

EPA Defends Tougher MATS As ‘Necessary’ Ahead Of Second Trump Term

EPA is continuing to defend its tougher power plant Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) from industry legal attacks, claiming the rule is “necessary” and that the agency is not required to find remaining health risks or conduct a full cost-benefit analysis to justify the regulation, even as the incoming Trump EPA will likely drop its defense. In a Nov. 12 opening brief in North Dakota, et al. v. EPA , et al. , pending before the U.S. Court of...

Michigan High Court Weighs Arguments Over State’s PFAS Water Standards

Michigan’s highest court heard oral argument Nov. 13 in a PFAS drinking water rule case that could have broad implications for how the state considers compliance costs in its rulemaking process, although questions from one justice raised the possibility the court could find this specific dispute moot. The Michigan Supreme Court’s panel of seven justices listened to oral argument in 3M Company v. Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) , where lower state courts invalidated EGLE’s drinking...

Quote-Unquote: Incoming (Zeldin) and outgoing (Regan)

What they're saying. First takes on Trump’s EPA choice, Lee Zeldin : “It is an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA administrator. We will restore U.S. energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” -- A post from Lee Zeldin, the former New York congressman and Trump’s designated nominee to be the next EPA...

Trump’s Expected Bid To Repeal Power Plant Rule Faces ‘Tough Sledding’

The incoming Trump administration is expected to quickly ask courts to pause litigation over top Biden EPA climate rules, including power plant emissions limits, to allow the agency time to roll them back, though observers say such efforts would take months or even years as officials seek to develop a robust justification for such policy reversals. Bracewell lawyer Jeff Holmstead, former EPA air chief under President George W. Bush, told Inside EPA’s Climate Extra that he anticipates that “within...

Newsom Urges EPA To Approve CARB Vehicle Waivers Amid GOP Pushback

Amid pushback from Republicans, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is pressing Biden EPA officials to approve long-pending Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waivers to allow the state to implement eight mobile source emissions regulations, including high-profile measures requiring sales of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). “Building on the long-standing partnership between the Newsom and Biden-Harris administrations, today Governor Gavin Newsom met with senior White House and federal officials where he discussed key priorities for the state,” Newsom’s office said in a Nov...

Inside EPA - 11/15/2024

Wed, 2024-11-13 16:25

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