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Industry's 11th-Hour OMB Meetings Seen Delaying EPA Vehicle GHG Rule

Industry groups' 11th-hour meetings with White House and EPA officials over the agency's pending greenhouse gas (GHG) and fuel economy rule for model year 2017-2025 vehicles are seen as delaying release of the rule, with industry making a last-minute push for the regulation to include provisions such as incentives for natural gas vehicles. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is developing the rule jointly with EPA, has acknowledged a delay in releasing the rule, which many observers...

EPA Floats Long-Awaited Plan For Assessing Pesticide Risks To Pollinators

EPA has released a document describing its long-awaited tiered approach for quantitatively estimating the risks that pesticides pose to pollinators, an approach that appears to embrace advice from expert panels on how to improve the agency's methods and could reduce environmentalists' concerns that the agency has failed to address pollinator risks. “While EPA has evaluated the potential risks of pesticides to other taxa using a point estimate based approach, it has historically only qualitatively described the potential hazard to bees,”...

25x'25 Coalition's Briefing Paper

American Clean Skies Foundation Presentation To OMB

ANGA, AGA Feb. 13 Comments On Vehicle Rule

American Clean Skies Foundation Feb. 13 Comments On Vehicle Rule

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EPA White Paper On Proposed Risk Assessment Process

Federal Register Notice On FIFRA SAP Meeting

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Appeals Court's Split Ruling Rejecting E15 Suits May Spur Rehearing Bid

A federal appeals court in a 2-1 ruling has rejected food, oil and engine industry groups' suits over EPA's partial waivers allowing sale of ethanol blends up to 15 percent (E15) after finding the groups lack standing to sue, but the dissenting opinion could spur an industry bid for rehearing as it details reasons why the waivers are illegal. The American Petroleum Institute (API) was quick to criticize the ruling, attacking the court's “astounding” claim that it lacks standing to...

EPA Email Update On LUST Backlog

EPA's Backlog Reduction Strategies

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EPA Struggles To Calm Fears Utility NSPS May Lower GHG Permit Trigger

EPA is struggling to calm fears from Colorado and others that the agency's proposed utility greenhouse gas (GHG) new source performance standard (NSPS) could inadvertently trigger a Clean Air Act provision requiring the agency to dramatically lower its GHG permit threshold and subject millions of facilities to permit mandates. The agency has issued a memorandum to “make clear” that nothing in the NSPS, if finalized, will force the agency to circumvent the GHG permitting thresholds in its “tailoring” rule creating...

Texas GOP Lawmakers Query EPA Plan To Include Petcoke In Climate NSPS

Four House Republicans from Texas are querying EPA's plan to include petroleum coke-fired (petcoke) utilities in its proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for power plants by saying petcoke's GHGs are “minimal” when used for power generation, with one industry source hoping the questions prompt EPA to exempt petcoke from the final rule. But one environmentalist says there is “no legitimate basis” to exclude petcoke from the pending climate rule, adding that petcoke is a significant GHG emissions source with a...

Industry Urges California To Scale Back Draft Green Chemistry Regulations

Chemical industry officials are urging California Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) to intervene in the state toxics department's development of first-time green chemistry regulations, asking the governor to force changes to the rules that would scale them back due to their concerns that the policies are infeasible and could harm the sector. Environmentalists are criticizing the industry push for Brown to force a softening of the rules, saying it is a ploy to circumvent the toxics department's work in an effort...

Activists Tout Aircraft GHG Plan

Activists are urging President Obama not to take any legal or administrative steps to block a European Union (EU) greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program for aircraft, saying such a move would be "inconsistent" with an administration bid to craft an international pact on aircraft GHG controls in lieu of EPA issuing rules for U.S. aircraft. Lawmakers critical of the EU program, however, are pushing ahead with legislation that would prohibit U.S. airlines from participating in the program. The Senate Commerce,...

Industry Seeks Immediate Changes To New EPA Drilling Emissions Rules

The oil and gas industry is asking EPA to make “immediate” revisions to its just-published emissions rules for the drilling sector, saying in an Aug. 16 petition that concerns over the agency's oil storage tank measures and “inadvertent” restrictions on venting of gas from hydraulic fracturing wells could curtail drillers' ability to comply. The American Petroleum Institute (API) Aug. 16 petitioned the agency for a reconsideration of the final rules, along with an administrative stay on the rules, which are...