Chiding Industry, CARB Eases Truck ZEV Rule To Tackle Vehicle Shortages

California air officials are easing compliance with their embattled Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) rule to address a shortage of model year 2024 diesel trucks being offered for sale in the state, even as they are criticizing manufacturers for helping to create the problem via flawed compliance strategies. During an Oct. 24 meeting, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously approved amendments to the ACT that generally aim to ease certain compliance requirements through more flexible options and...

New Hampshire Urges Court To Disregard 3M’s Latest Bid To Move PFAS Case

New Hampshire is urging a federal appeals court to reject 3M’s latest arguments seeking to move the state’s PFAS contamination suit to federal court, saying that the company cannot claim its federal and non-federal actions were intertwined when it made aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) products only for the government. 3M earlier this month cited Puerto Rico v. Express Scripts, Inc. , a recent ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, to back its call for removing...

Landfill Operators Sue EPA Over Revised Air Emission Estimation Factors

Waste and recycling companies are suing EPA over a recent update to its “emission factors” used to estimate emissions from municipal solid waste landfills for regulatory purposes, after warning in earlier comments on a draft version that EPA’s factors are unclear, inaccurate or inflexible in their approach. EPA Aug. 15 updated its “AP-42” list of emission factors with respect to landfills. In a lawsuit filed Oct. 14 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the...

Recent PFAS Ruling Rejecting TOF Analysis Not Decisive, Attorney Warns

A defense attorney is warning companies that they should prepare defenses against using a broad screening test method measuring total organic fluorine (TOF) to demonstrate the presence of PFAS in products despite a recent federal court ruling rejecting plaintiffs’ use of TOF testing to demonstrate the presence of PFAS in tampon products. “Given the fact that targeted [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)] analysis will only detect a small fraction of the thousands of existing PFAS, it is expected that plaintiffs...

EPA Talks SDWA Standards; MDL Judge Weighs PFAS Settlements

Several states will join EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) staff in explaining how to implement PFAS drinking water standards during a webinar focused on small drinking water system issues. The judge overseeing landmark multidistrict litigation (MDL) on PFAS contamination from firefighting foam will hear final arguments for approving two class action settlements between water systems and foam manufacturers. Small Systems ORD’s Oct. 29 session of the small drinking water systems webinar series will focus on implementation of the...

Inside PFAS Policy - 10/25/2024

Fri, 2024-10-25 10:13

States, Dischargers Question Relevance Of EPA PFAS Aquatic Life Criteria

State water regulators and wastewater dischargers are questioning the relevance of EPA’s newly finalized aquatic life criteria and benchmarks for 10 PFAS in light of states’ greater interest in human health criteria, but a former EPA official is championing the agency’s guidance values as a necessary prerequisite for future criteria. Earlier this month, EPA finalized aquatic life water quality criteria for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) -- the two most-studied per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- as well...

Trade Groups Press EPA To Loosen Workplace TCE Limits In Final Rule

Chemical-sector groups are urging EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ease the strict workplace exposure standard that the agency proposed in its TSCA rule for trichloroethylene (TCE), by either easing the final regulation or allowing for greater flexibility on enforcement. A more lenient approach is not only reasonable but better fits EPA’s newly revised “framework” rule governing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Chlorine panel argued in a written presentation...

Industry warns dust-lead standards raise affordable-housing concerns

Housing industry groups are warning that EPA’s final rule setting TSCA dust-lead restrictions for residential buildings and tightening dust lead hazard standards (DLHS) to “any reportable level of lead” could lead to shrinking participation in federal housing assistance programs. For example, the National Association of Realtors told Inside EPA in a statement on the rule that while housing providers have a longstanding commitment to reducing lead exposure in homes, “the recent EPA rule may create confusion in the marketplace...

Three High Court Rejections Unlikely To Slow Petitions To Stay EPA Rules

Supreme Court watchers say they expect EPA critics to continue filing emergency petitions asking the justices to stay agency rules even after the court denied three such petitions in a sign that the observers say is meant to show they do not want to be asked to stay every EPA rule during merits litigation. James Goodwin of the Center for Progressive Reform says he fully expects “industry and red-state [attorneys general (AGs)] to keep up these Hail Mary stay petitions,”...

Inside Cal/EPA - 10/25/2024

Thu, 2024-10-24 16:20

Final Treasury Rule Expands Eligibility For Critical Minerals In IRA Credit

The Treasury Department’s final implementing rules for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) “45X” manufacturing tax credit expands eligibility for materials and extraction costs related to critical minerals and certain battery materials, after the mining and electric vehicle (EV) sectors criticized the proposed policy as too inflexible. In addition, the final rule affirms proposed language that would allow thermal batteries -- which can store energy derived from renewables as heat energy -- to also qualify for the incentive, bolstering the supply...

Local Ruling Seen Aiding Parties’ Ability To File Climate Suits In State Courts

A recent ruling by a San Francisco County Superior Court judge to reject oil companies’ request to dismiss a set of “coordinated” climate nuisance challenges for a lack of jurisdiction is being seen by legal experts as bolstering the ability of states and local jurisdictions around the country to seek climate judgments in state courts. “Although this holding is relatively limited in scope, and does not touch upon the merits of the cases -- it only determined that the California...

Environmentalists Push EPA To Assess Releases In Vinyl Chloride Evaluation

Environmentalists are pressing EPA to formally deem vinyl chloride a “high priority” for TSCA risk evaluation and regulation, while renewing calls for the review to consider accidental releases -- such as the 2023 East Palestine, OH, chemical spill -- after the agency said it would decide whether to include such incidents in its analyses on a case-by-case basis. “We strongly support this designation and urge you to move forward as expeditiously as possible with evaluating the full array of risks...

High Court Decision Looms On Whether To Hear Suit Over California Waiver

Supreme Court justices have delayed a decision until at least early November about whether to consider reversing an appellate ruling that upheld EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s vehicle greenhouse gas standards out to model year 2025, amid calls to intervene in the case from Republican-led states, industry groups and free-market advocates. The justices have already flagged the appeals for discussion at two prior closed-door conferences, most recently on Oct. 18, and observers are expecting that they will relist the...

Environmentalists Push EPA To Assess Releases In Vinyl Chloride Evaluation

Environmentalists are pressing EPA to formally deem vinyl chloride a “high priority” for TSCA risk evaluation and regulation, while renewing calls for the review to consider accidental releases -- such as the 2023 East Palestine, OH, chemical spill -- after the agency said it would decide whether to include such incidents in its analyses on a case-by-case basis. “We strongly support this designation and urge you to move forward as expeditiously as possible with evaluating the full array of risks...

Split D.C. Circuit Panel Denies Stay Of Second EPA Steel Sector Air Rule

A divided appellate panel has denied industry efforts to stay EPA’s air toxics rules for integrated iron and steel plants, a decision coming just weeks after the court recently denied a similar request from the sector to stay the agency’s taconite facility air rule and suggesting a likely similar outcome in a related suit over a rule for coke plants. But even if the industry appeals the latest stay denial to the Supreme Court, as many expect, prospects for a...

Industry Cites ‘Bright Line’ Sackett-Test Ruling In WOTUS Challenges

Industry groups challenging the Biden administration’s final “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule are pointing to a magistrate judge’s recent recommendation finding that the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision requires an adjacent wetland to have both a continuous surface connection and be indistinguishable to adjacent WOTUS. The recommendation from Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida is significant because it affirms critics’ arguments that EPA and the Army Corps of...

High Court Decision Looms On Whether To Hear Suit Over California Waiver

Supreme Court justices have delayed a decision until at least early November about whether to consider reversing an appellate ruling that upheld EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s vehicle greenhouse gas standards out to model year 2025, amid calls to intervene in the case from Republican-led states, industry groups and free-market advocates. The justices have already flagged the appeals for discussion at two prior closed-door conferences, most recently on Oct. 18, and observers are expecting that they will relist the...

EPA Seeks To Dismiss Ohio Plant’s Coal Ash Suit, Citing D.C. Circuit Ruling

EPA is urging a federal court to dismiss Gavin Power’s challenge to the agency’s decision denying its request to extend its deadline to cease receipt of coal ash waste and initiate closure, charging the plaintiff lacks standing as the denial does not impose legal consequences other than the new closure deadline it sets, as affirmed by an appellate ruling. EPA filed an Oct. 15 motion to dismiss the power utility’s challenge in Gavin Power, LLC v. EPA, et al. ,...

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