EPA Aims To Cement TSCA Priorities Ahead Of Trump Transition

The Biden EPA is moving quickly to finalize a host of key TSCA actions before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, including a raft of chemical risk evaluations and court-enforced deadlines for completing even more of the reviews -- moves that industry is warning could tie the next administration to its predecessor’s priorities. Since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, EPA has finalized long-awaited revisions to a key Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) evaluation, asked a court to formally accept a settlement setting...

Supreme Court Declines To Overturn Dismissal Of Youth Climate Case

The Supreme Court has rejected a petition to overturn the 9th Circuit’s dismissal of a long-running youth climate case against the federal government, signaling an end is near to the plaintiffs’ high-profile constitutional challenge to the government’s promotion of a fossil fuel-based energy system. The justices in a Nov. 12 notice declined the petition to overturn the lower court’s decision from 21 youth plaintiffs in Juliana, et al. v. United States of America , a case first brought against the...

Air Force Drops Challenge To Alaska Base’s Permit After EPA Revisions

The Air Force is dropping its administrative challenge to an EPA-issued hazardous waste permit for an Alaska base after the agency agreed to modify a key definition the military had argued could result in increased PFAS requirements as well as change other provisions related to federal facility agreements (FFAs) and off-site actions. In its 2023 petition , the Air Force asked the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) to remand a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit EPA had issued for...

EPA Finds Drinking Water Risk From 1,4-Dioxane In Redone TSCA Evaluation

EPA has reworked its Trump-era TSCA evaluation of 1,4-dioxane to find that the solvent poses unreasonable risk not only from industrial uses but also as a byproduct in products like detergent that are disposed “down the drain” into water systems, teeing up potential regulation under both the toxics law and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The agency Nov. 13 released the final revised evaluation , completing what has been a nearly four-year process of supplementing the 2019 Toxic Substances...

EPA Finds Drinking Water Risk From 1,4-Dioxane In Redone TSCA Evaluation

EPA has reworked its Trump-era TSCA evaluation of 1,4-dioxane to find that the solvent poses unreasonable risk not only from industrial uses but also as a byproduct in products like detergent that are disposed “down the drain” into water systems, teeing up potential regulation under both the toxics law and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The agency Nov. 13 released the final revised evaluation , completing what has been a nearly four-year process of supplementing the 2019 Toxic Substances...

Final Revised Evaluation

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Biden officials press EU to deem U.S. gas as sufficient on methane

Top Biden officials at EPA and the Energy Department (DOE) are reportedly pressing European Union officials to conclude that gas exports achieving federal methane standards also comply with Europe’s environmental standards for gas imports. The effort, first reported by Reuters , could serve as one factor that protects the broad contours of EPA’s methane policies despite President-elect Donald Trump’s deregulatory agenda. “We understand that this process will take time. However, we would like to begin discussions as soon as...

Observers See Lower-Level EPA Slots As Crucial Given Zeldin’s Inexperience

President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to nominate former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to lead EPA is highlighting the stakes for lower-level political appointees who may have more experience with environmental policy issues and civil service matters than the nominee, given the incoming administration’s deregulatory agenda and planned staff rollbacks. “Zeldin has two problems,” says one source who served on the EPA transition team for Trump’s first term. “He has no experience or knowledge regarding environmental management; and he has no experience...

Groups urge White House to stand up interagency water committee

Industry, water and other groups are urging the Biden administration to create a congressionally authorized interagency panel that would include EPA and other agencies to coordinate water management and infrastructure issues, arguing the panel is needed to ensure consideration of water concerns in national security, trade and other matters. A coalition of 24 groups representing a variety of stakeholders sent a Nov. 7 letter to U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair...

EPA Touts SNUR To Avoid Regulating PFAS Refrigerant Under Air Law

EPA is arguing that a TSCA significant new use rule (SNUR) for a PFAS used in refrigeration devices provides enough certainty that the chemical will be used safely that there is no need to add it to the Clean Air Act’s list of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) subject to regulation. The agency published a Nov. 12 Federal Register notice laying out a justification for excluding the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) (Z)-1-chloro-2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene, also known as HCFO-1224yd(Z), from the list...

Exxon Reprises Paris Backing But API Downplays Expected Trump Exit

Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil is publicly urging the incoming Trump administration to stay in the Paris climate agreement to avoid disruptions to industry, even as the industry’s main trade group is downplaying the effects of any move to again remove the U.S. from the deal as most observers are expecting. The dynamic underscores the political balancing act that oil and gas and other energy sector interests are facing, as nations continue to press for greenhouse gas cuts at international...

Climate Extra - 11/12/2024

Tue, 2024-11-12 17:23

Trump EPA Expected To Slow PFAS Actions, But Vary On Rule Repeals

Legal and environmental experts expect to see the incoming Trump EPA slow the agency’s actions on PFAS, but they are expressing a range of views on whether it will entirely repeal the Biden administration’s landmark drinking water and Superfund rules, or instead delay implementation of the rules and provide more flexibility on deadlines. “On PFAS policy in general, I see some shifting but not significant shifting,” John Sheehan, a partner at Earth & Water Law and a former Department of...

California Joins Other States In Banning PFAS In Menstrual Products

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has enacted a new state law to ban the sale of menstrual products with regulated PFAS by July 1, 2029, after previously vetoing similar legislation due to concerns over how such a ban would be implemented, making the state one of eight that have enacted similar bans. AB 2515 prohibits any person from manufacturing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state any menstrual products that contain regulated per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The...

Second Trump Term To Spark Major Deregulatory Shakeup At EPA

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is poised to usher in a major shakeup of EPA’s policies, with former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), a key Trump ally who is slated to lead the agency, poised to drive a major deregulatory agenda in a number of areas including air, climate and water standards. In the wake of Trump’s victory, EPA staff said the mood at the agency was “somber,” though Administrator Michael Regan is seeking to boost morale by citing the lasting...

Seeking To Intervene, Plastic Maker Claims ‘Personal’ Tie To TSCA Rule Suit

Inhance Technologies, the maker of fluorinated containers at the center of a years-long TSCA battle, is defending its bid to participate in environmentalists’ suit over deadlines for EPA to regulate PFAS contamination in the products, saying it has a clear right to oppose litigation aimed at “putting Inhance out of business.” The Texas plastics company filed a Nov. 8 brief with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that it has a “personal and individual” stake in...

CARB Postpones Consideration Of New Zero-Emission Motorcycle Rules

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is postponing consideration of stringent new motorcycle emission standards that include a requirement that half of all new on-road models offered for sale beginning in 2035 have zero emissions, amid strong opposition by the industry. “CARB will continue to gather information relevant to the on-road motorcycle proposal, including how incentives for zero-emission motorcycles [ZEMs] would impact future recommendations, and will bring back a future proposal,” a board spokeswoman said, shortly after the board announced...

D.C. Circuit Finds CEQ Lacks Regulatory Power To Issue Binding NEPA Rules

A split appellate panel has held that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has no statutory authority to craft rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), upending decades of policy and opening the door for the incoming administration and a likely GOP Congress to overhaul the law if they so choose. “The provisions of NEPA provide no support for CEQ’s authority to issue binding regulations,” Senior Judge A. Raymond Randolph writes for himself and Judge Karen LeCraft...

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