Superfund Report - 10/14/2024

Fri, 2024-10-11 15:08

DOE Strategy Says Lack Of Policy Support Hampering Carbon Management

The Energy Department (DOE) in a new near-term strategy document is blaming the limited deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and other carbon management projects on insufficient policy support, even as officials are projecting “dozens” of operating projects in the coming decades to meet climate goals. “[T]he pace of development and deployment for carbon management technologies as a climate solution has lagged significantly behind other emission reduction technologies like renewable energy and electric vehicles, primarily due to a lack...

Michigan Lawmakers Urge Pentagon OIG To Analyze DOD’s PFAS Cleanups

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chair of the governmental affairs committee, and several members of Michigan’s House delegation are calling on the Pentagon’s inspector general to step up oversight of military PFAS cleanup efforts and undertake a comprehensive report analyzing these measures, including probing remediation methods in light of new EPA drinking water limits. The lawmakers in companion House and Senate Oct. 9 letters particularly request a focus on former and current bases in Michigan but ask for a wide-ranging analysis...

Risk Policy Report - 10/15/2024

Fri, 2024-10-11 13:09

EPA Readies Action Justifying Limited Good Neighbor Program After Remand

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review an action further explaining how the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule can function with fewer states than the 23 originally intended, after the Supreme Court stayed its implementation over doubts about the program’s viability and fairness. According to its website, OMB on Oct. 10 received a document that EPA describes as a “notice” containing its response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Early Comments Reveal Familiar Split Over EPA Draft CO2 Storage Permits

Early comments over EPA’s proposal to issue three carbon storage permits in the Permian Basin in Texas are highlighting a now-familiar debate about carbon capture and storage (CCS) development, as the permits are also demonstrating the Biden administration’s continued push to deploy CCS to help meet climate goals. “ClearPath is encouraged by [EPA’s] decision to advance three Class VI permits for the geologic sequestration of carbon under the Agency’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program,” the conservative clean energy group writes...

Inside PFAS Policy - 10/11/2024

Fri, 2024-10-11 11:27

EPA Discusses Air Emissions Methods; SERDP Highlights Fluorine-Free Foam

EPA scientist Stephen Jackson will discuss EPA’s methods to measure PFAS in air emissions during an Office of Research and Development (ORD) webinar. Recipients of grants from the military’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) will present research on the development of fluorine-free firefighting foams. Air Emissions Stephen Jackson will be the presenter for an Oct. 16 webinar featuring discussion of EPA’s air emissions measure methods for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as part of an ORD “tools and...

Sierra Club Says EPA Ignored Ozone Depletion In Methylene Chloride Rule

Sierra Club is outlining its arguments for why EPA’s TSCA risk management rule for methylene chloride is unlawful, arguing that toxics officials failed to consider the solvent’s ozone-depleting effects, as well as dangers to fenceline communities, while defending the rule’s safeguards for workers and consumers. The environmental group filed its opening brief on Oct. 9 in consolidated litigation over the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) methylene chloride rule, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit for a...

Court agrees to restart EPA’s Denka suit but on slow timeline

A federal district judge is granting EPA’s request to restart its novel “imminent and substantial endangerment” enforcement suit against Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) over chloroprene emissions from its LaPlace, LA, synthetic rubber plant but is not moving at a fast pace. Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in an Oct. 8 order in EPA v. Denka granted EPA’s motion to reopen the case and set a status hearing for Nov. 21...

Courts Grapple With Loper Fallout Amid Doubts On New Deference Standard

Federal courts are grappling with implementing the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Loper Bright that ended deference for EPA and other agencies as legal experts warn of significant uncertainty given the high court did not endorse a specific standard with which to replace so-called Chevron deference. “It’s TBD” what deference standard comes to replace Chevron , Sharon Jacobs, professor of law at the University of California Berkeley Law School, told the Environmental Law Institute’s (ELI) Annual 2024 Supreme...

FERC’s Rosner Warns Of Long Process To Implement Transmission Rule

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member David Rosner (D) is warning clean energy advocates to expect a years-long process for states and utilities to implement the agency’s new transmission planning rule, even as he and other power sector experts are urging states to participate in proceedings that could speed future projects. The appraisal comes as observers are also arguing that states should start engaging now about potential agreements for allocating costs of the power line projects, even though litigation over...

CARB Floats Longer Time For Fossil Hydrogen To Generate LCFS Credit

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are proposing to extend by five years -- from 2030 to 2035 -- the time hydrogen produced with fossil gas can generate carbon-reduction credits under the state’s low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) -- a move expected to trigger strong opposition from environmentalists. CARB “staff proposes to require that hydrogen produced using fossil gas as a feedstock will become ineligible for LCFS credit generation beginning January 1, 2035, instead of January 1, 2030,” states an Oct...

Former Official Touts ‘Green Bank’ As Transformative For Energy Justice

Shalanda Baker, a former top environmental justice official at the Department of Energy (DOE), is touting EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF) that seeks to leverage private funds for local clean energy projects as a transformative step toward addressing environmental challenges in disadvantaged areas. Baker, speaking at an Oct. 8 Resources for the Future (RFF) event, praised EPA and the “brilliant” Jahi Wise, who joined the agency in late 2022 to launch the program and departed a few weeks ago...

DOD Eyeing Discussions After Groups Press For Town-Hall On PFAS Policy

The Defense Department (DOD) is exploring options for holding a dialogue with community groups across the country after they called on the Pentagon’s top environment official to hold a virtual town-hall meeting on what they see as a flawed DOD policy for prioritizing responses to certain PFAS-contaminated drinking water wells. “The Department is looking forward to engaging further with community advocates regarding our policy memorandum,” a DOD spokesperson told Inside PFAS Policy in an Oct. 7 statement responding to...

EPA Weighs Appeal Options Following Loss In TSCA Fluoridation Suit

EPA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are considering options for appealing a federal district judge’s landmark ruling that drinking water fluoridation poses “unreasonable risk” under TSCA -- deliberations that they say in a new filing are the focus of “extensive” resources at both agencies due to the complex nature of the suit. “The government is reviewing the record of these proceedings and determining whether to seek appellate review. These efforts require an extensive commitment of resources by the United...

Inside Cal/EPA - 10/11/2024

Thu, 2024-10-10 13:04

8th Circuit Denies GOP States, Industry Requests To Stay Power Plant ELG

A federal appeals court is denying Republican states and power sector groups’ request to stay EPA’s final rule setting effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for coal-fired power plants, the latest in a series of rulings from the Supreme Court and other courts denying critics’ requests to stay recent agency rules for the sector. In an Oct. 10 order , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit without comment denied petitioners’ motion in Southwestern Electric Power (SWEP) Co., et al....

Michigan Opposes Airport’s Attempt To Consolidate PFAS Cleanup Appeals

The state of Michigan is pushing back against an attempt by a commercial airport to consolidate appeals of two rulings that backed keeping in state court, rather than federal court, the state’s landmark suit that seeks to force the airport to pay for cleanup of PFAS contamination related to the airport’s use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam. The first appeal -- set for oral argument on Oct. 29 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit -- is fully...

CARB Floats Tier 5 Off-Road Engine Rule Options To Ease EPA Alignment

California air officials are floating new compliance options for their evolving first-time “Tier 5” emission standards for new off-road diesel engines, including one pathway with a delayed effective date to enable or smooth potential alignment with similar national rules that EPA is expected to pursue. “We’re very cognizant of the fact that it’s sort of simpler and less expensive for everyone, including engine manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and people who buy equipment with diesel engines if the standards are harmonized nationally,”...

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