D.C. Circuit Poised To Revisit Loper After High Court Overruled Chevron

A three-judge appellate panel will hear a second round of arguments next week in Loper Bright Enterprises Inc. v. Raimondo after the Supreme Court vacated the court’s original judgment and overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine that required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutory language. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear new arguments Nov. 4 in Loper Bright based on a second round of post- Chevron...

Environmentalists Petition EPA For CWA Limits For Refiners’ Petcoke Plants

Environmentalists are petitioning EPA to identify petroleum coke (petcoke) calcining facilities at more than a dozen refineries as a source category for which Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations and new source performance standards (NSPS) are required, and to promulgate such rules within three years of any finding. Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) led 11 environmental groups in submitting an Oct. 31 petition to EPA that calls for the agency, pursuant to CWA section 304(m)(1)(B), to identify petcoke calcining facilities as...

Industry Outlines CERCLA Rule Flaws; Experts Discuss Supply Chains

Industry groups are scheduled to file their opening briefs Nov. 4 in their challenge to EPA’s rule designating the two most-studied PFAS as Superfund hazardous substances. Experts with Geosyntec Consultants will discuss several PFAS-related supply chain considerations during a Nov. 5 webinar. CERCLA Rule Joint opening briefs are due Nov. 4 in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the suit pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District...

Inside PFAS Policy - 11/01/2024

Fri, 2024-11-01 10:35

EPA Advisors Press NTP On Fluoride Toxicity Report Key To TSCA Ruling

Members of the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) used a recent meeting to raise pointed questions on the National Toxicology Program (NTP) review of fluoride toxicity that helped drive a landmark court ruling requiring EPA to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA -- a decision that some of the advisors said could undercut public health. During CHPAC’s Oct. 30-31 meeting in Washington, D.C., the panel heard from NTP officials on the program’s Aug. 21 monograph that found high...

EPA Floats Lengthy Timeline For Stormwater Cuts In Landmark RDA Permits

After years of litigation, EPA is proposing two landmark stormwater general permits for a variety of Massachusetts properties the agency is seeking to regulate under its rarely used residual designation authority (RDA), but environmentalists that sought the permits say the drafts will unduly delay pollution cuts for as long as 11 years. EPA’s Oct. 31 Federal Register notice formally proposes a preliminary designation of certain stormwater discharges from commercial, industrial and institutional (CII) properties with one acre or more...

EPA reaches deal on SO2 attainment decision deadlines

EPA has reached a proposed agreement with environmentalists to take action on a series of overdue decisions relating to states’ plans for attaining federal sulfur dioxide (SO2) standards, under binding deadlines that would run from December 2024 to November 2027. In a notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Nov. 1, EPA commits to the deadlines under a consent decree that would settle Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club v. Regan . The suit , filed earlier this...

EPA Advisors Press NTP On Fluoride Toxicity Report Key To TSCA Ruling

Members of the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) used a recent meeting to raise pointed questions on the National Toxicology Program (NTP) review of fluoride toxicity that helped drive a landmark court ruling requiring EPA to regulate drinking water fluoridation under TSCA -- a decision that some of the advisors said could undercut public health. During CHPAC’s Oct. 30-31 meeting in Washington, D.C., the panel heard from NTP officials on the program’s Aug. 21 monograph that found high...

Environmentalists Launch CDR Enforcement Suits As 2024 Deadline Nears

Environmentalists are suing two companies over alleged violations of TSCA’s Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) mandates for the 2016-19 reporting period, underscoring the upcoming Nov. 22 deadline companies face to comply with the latest four-year compliance cycle. On Oct. 30, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), a group based in Oakland, CA, filed complaints in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Entegris, Inc., and the Lubrizol Corporation, chemical makers and importers headquartered in Ohio and Massachusetts respectively...

Environmentalists Urge FEMA To Favor Renewables In Resilience Funding

Environmental groups are pressuring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use its disaster recovery funds to boost low-carbon energy rather than repairing fossil fuel-related infrastructure -- which they say would increase communities’ resilience -- though the agency is urging a district court to dismiss one lawsuit seeking to spur such an approach. Most recently, FEMA in an Oct. 30 filing urges the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss environmentalists’ case arguing the agency has failed...

CARB, Airlines Agree On Plan To Accelerate Use Of Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Airlines for America (A4A) are announcing an agreement to accelerate the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for flights within the state, several months after CARB dropped an earlier plan to regulate aviation fuel under its low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS). “California is once again demonstrating that smart climate action is good for the environment and good for business,” said CARB Chairwoman Liane Randolph in an Oct. 30 press release announcing the “ Sustainable...

Looming Argument Will Test EPA’s Landmark RFS ‘Set’ Biofuels Rule

EPA is preparing to defend its biofuel blending targets for refiners under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2023, 2024 and 2025 at Nov. 1 oral argument before the D.C. Circuit, in a first-time judicial test of the agency’s discretion in setting such volumes under its own authority that could establish new precedent for the future of the program. At argument in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) et al. v. EPA, et al. , refiners and environmentalists alike will seek...

In Test, Air Force Asks 10th Circuit To Send PFAS Permit Suit To U.S. Court

The Air Force is urging a federal appeals court to overturn a 2022 district court decision that sent its challenge of PFAS measures in a New Mexico waste permit to state court, in a case that tests whether states can regulate the chemicals in waste permits absent EPA action and where any challenges to the permits are heard. In an Oct. 28 brief in U.S. v. New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), et al. , the military service argues the lower...

Maine Urges 1st Circuit To Reject 3M’s View Of Case Backing Federal Removal

Maine is joining several other states in urging federal appellate judges to reject 3M’s latest rationale for moving state PFAS liability litigation to federal court, with Maine arguing that its “express disclaimers” for recovery related to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) renders invalid 3M’s federal defense. The state’s arguments respond to a letter 3M wrote earlier this month to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit that pointed to its decision in Puerto Rico v. Express Scripts, Inc....

Inside Cal/EPA - 11/01/2024

Thu, 2024-10-31 12:57

Analysis Of Unspent IRA Grant Funds Highlights Election’s Climate Stakes

A new analysis from a group that supports low-carbon technology deployment is seeking to quantify still-pending climate-related grants from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that could be at risk across EPA and other agencies if Republicans win control of the White House next year, suggesting such grants could total nearly $30 billion. The appraisal underscores uncertainty facing those programs ahead of the Nov. 5 election -- even as the Biden administration is seeking to minimize that uncertainty at EPA and...

MDL Plaintiffs Reach $190 Million Deal With Bankrupt AFFF Company

Drinking water providers and airports are poised to receive a total of $190 million to resolve PFAS-contamination claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) against a firefighting foam company that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, if the MDL judge approves the recently announced settlements. The planned settlement is outlined in documents Kidde-Fenwal Inc. (KFI) filed with a federal bankruptcy court in Delaware and filings Carrier Global Corp. made to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), noting that drinking water providers...

Texas, Power Industry Defend ‘Force Majeure’ Provision In SO2 Plan

Texas and electric generator Luminant are defending the state’s inclusion of regulatory exemptions during “force majeure” events such as natural disasters in its plan for attaining sulfur dioxide (SO2) air standards, after EPA proposed to reject the provisions, the latest dispute over whether air rules can include such waivers. In Sept. 6 comments filed ahead of an extended Oct. 18 deadline, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) says EPA’s proposed partial disapproval of its state implementation plan (SIP) is...

In Test, Air Force Asks 10th Circuit To Send PFAS Permit Suit To U.S. Court

The Air Force is urging a federal appeals court to overturn a 2022 district court decision that sent its challenge of PFAS measures in a New Mexico waste permit to state court, in a case that tests whether states can regulate the chemicals in waste permits absent EPA action and where any challenges to the permits are heard. In an Oct. 28 brief in U.S. v. New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), et al. , the military service argues the lower...

In Precedent, Federal Judge Affirms EPA’s Views Of CWA 404 Guidelines

In a precedent-setting ruling, a federal judge is affirming EPA’s interpretation of its Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404(b) guidelines, which detail criteria for evaluating dredge-and-fill activities, while rejecting the Army Corps of Engineers’ view, an approach that raises the bar on when the Corps can permit discharges of dredge-and-fill material. The ruling came in an Oct. 16 order in Save the Colorado, et al., v. Semonite, et al. , where Judge Christina Arguello of the U.S. District Court for...

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