Utilities Urge Appeals Court To Exempt Coal Plants From Climate NSPS

Utilities are urging a federal appeals court to declare that EPA's proposed new source performance standard (NSPS) to limit greenhouse gases (GHGs) from fossil fuel-fired plants does not apply to coal power and only regulates natural gas-fired plants, saying EPA erred by setting limits based solely on the GHG cuts gas plants could achieve. The power companies' push comes as EPA and environmentalists are separately asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to dismiss the...

EPA Conformity Guide Spurs Query Over Lack Of Ozone Reduction Advice

Correction Appended EPA's recently released guidance for how states can meet a Clean Air Act mandate to ensure transportation projects do not cause violations of the agency's 2008 ozone standard is prompting questions from a key Northeast air regulator over the lack of advice in the guidance on how states could cut pollution from projects to meet the standard. Northeast states -- led by the Ozone Transport Commission representing state air regulators -- have long called on EPA for...

EPA Scientific Justification For 2008 Ozone Limit Faces Broad Legal Attacks

EPA's scientific justification for its 2008 ozone standard faces broad attacks in ongoing litigation, with industry and some states claiming the agency erred by concluding the data warranted tightening the existing ozone limit, while activists and other states say data on ozone's health impacts show the need for an even stricter limit. In State of Mississippi, et al. v. EPA , pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, industry and the state of Mississippi...

Democrats Push State Department For New Keystone Climate Review

House Democrats are urging the State Department to undertake a new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis of the climate change impacts from the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project, the latest bid by the pipeline's opponents to stall the project over environmental concerns. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member on the Energy & Commerce Committee, sent an Aug. 8 letter to the State Department citing insufficient treatment of climate change in a prior NEPA study. He also says...

Critics View Carbon Tax Bill As Non-Starter For Failing To Revoke EPA Rules

A just-unveiled House bill that would impose a first-time tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is unlikely to win support from conservatives that may have been inclined to consider such a measure in part because it fails to revoke greenhouse gas (GHG) and other clean energy rules adopted by EPA, other agencies and states. The bill would be a "double whammy" by imposing a tax on emissions after facilities comply with the rules, says one free-market advocate who is willing...

Chamber Cites EPA 'Shell Game' In Bid For Court To Rehear GHG Rules Suit

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging a federal appeals court to rehear its ruling broadly upholding a suite of EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, arguing that the court allowed the agency to play an unlawful "shell game" in how it promulgated its rules by ignoring industry's claim that the rules are all interconnected and stem from EPA's GHG endangerment finding. The Chamber's petition is backed by Texas, Alabama, Nebraska and other states, as well as Peabody Energy Company. The...

Appeals Court Urged To Rehear Ruling Broadly Upholding EPA GHG Rules

Opponents of EPA's greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting, vehicle and other climate rules are urging a federal appeals court to rehear its ruling broadly upholding the regulations, saying the court erred by departing from past legal precedent and that it should take up the request for rehearing as the issue is one of "exceptional importance." The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Coalition for Responsible Regulation -- a group of several major trade organizations such as the American Chemistry Council...

Court Scraps Key Part Of EPA 'Aggregation' Test For Clean Air Permits

A federal appeals court has rejected EPA's definition of "adjacency" in determining when to aggregate emissions from dispersed gas drilling operations in evaluating whether to subject sources to strict "major" source air permits, a move that could ease industry's ability to avoid the strict Clean Air Act permit mandates. EPA is expected to appeal the Aug. 7 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Summit Petroleum Corporation v. EPA, possibly to the Supreme Court, given...

Texas, Industry Seek Rehearing Of 'Qualified' Air Permit Program Ruling

Texas is urging a federal appeals court to rehear its ruling that upheld EPA's decision to overturn the state's "qualified facilities" program (QFP) that allowed industrial plants to increase emissions as part of some air permits, saying the court's split opinion warrants rehearing. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a split June 15 ruling rejected a suit filed by Texas and industry over EPA's April 14, 2010, rule disapproving the permit program...

Appeals Court Vacates EPA Rejection Of Texas 'Flexible' Air Permit Program

A federal appeals court has vacated EPA's rejection of Texas' "flexible" air permitting program in a ruling that sets strict limits on the agency's authority to disapprove state air rules, saying EPA erred by rejecting the permit program based on ambiguous language that the agency feared could let industry dodge Clean Air Act requirements. The 2-1 decision issued Aug. 13 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit also bolsters states' ability to pursue flexible programs for meeting...

EPA Likely To Require GHG Permits For Underground Coal Mines' Methane

EPA is likely to soon issue a determination that underground coal mines with major methane emissions must obtain greenhouse gas (GHG) permits over the objections of states and industry, though sources say the agency could defer the deadline for permit applications until it can collect more information on the mines and their emissions. Coal states first raised the issue with the agency's air office in a June 5 letter urging EPA to continue its policy detailed in the agency's GHG...

Looking Beyond Drilling NSPS, Activists Eye Options For Limiting Methane

Environmental groups are weighing legal options for pushing EPA to target methane and other emissions from natural gas production, transmission and distribution sources, such as existing gas wells and oil drilling sites that they say are not adequately addressed in the agency's pending air rules for the oil and gas industry. "We're still exploring other options" for recommending additional controls for reducing methane, air toxics and other emissions from onshore oil and gas sources, one environmentalist says. Those options include...

Activists Say EPA Ignored Key Health Data In Rule Retaining CO NAAQS

Environmentalists suing EPA over its decision not to tighten its carbon monoxide (CO) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) are attacking the agency over claims it ignored new epidemiological studies on the adverse effects CO pollution can have on public health, saying the data warrants a tightening of the air standard. In an Aug. 10 reply brief, WildEarth Guardians and other activist groups say the decision is at odds with a Clean Air Act requirement that the agency consider the...

EPA-State Group Sees Guidance Delays As Key Hurdle In NAAQS Process

An EPA-state workgroup has identified agency delays in issuing implementation guidance as one of the major hurdles preventing a more streamlined process for meeting EPA national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), floating a call for "early" EPA-state talks in the NAAQS process in order to address guidance problems. Other issues complicating NAAQS implementation are limits on early state input in the agency's process for reviewing and setting the standards, and inconsistency among EPA's regions in what they expect in state...

SAB Panel Rejects CAFO Emissions Methods, Despite Justification From EPA

EPA science advisors are standing behind their original recommendations that the agency should not move forward with its proposal for estimating emissions from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) despite efforts by the agency to better justify the methods' scientific basis. The additional data the agency provided the advisory panel “didn't add or change recommendations” laid out by the panel in March, David Allen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and chair of the the Science Advisory Board's...

EPA Scientific Justification For 2008 Ozone Limit Faces Broad Legal Attacks

EPA's scientific justification for its 2008 ozone standard faces broad attacks in ongoing litigation, with industry and some states claiming the agency erred by concluding the data warranted tightening the existing ozone limit, while activists and other states say data on ozone's health impacts show the need for an even stricter limit. In State of Mississippi, et al. v. EPA , pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, industry and the state of Mississippi...

EPA Conformity Guide Spurs Query Over Lack Of Ozone Reduction Advice

Correction Appended EPA's recently released guidance for how states can meet a Clean Air Act mandate to ensure transportation projects do not cause violations of the agency's 2008 ozone standard is prompting questions from a key Northeast air regulator over the lack of advice in the guidance on how states could cut pollution from projects to meet the standard. Northeast states -- led by the Ozone Transport Commission representing state air regulators -- have long called on EPA for...

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U.S. Chamber Fights GHG Ruling

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging a federal appeals court to rehear its ruling broadly upholding a suite of EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations, arguing that the court allowed the agency to play an unlawful “shell game” in how it promulgated its rules by ignoring industry's claim that the rules are all interconnected and stem from EPA's GHG endangerment finding. The Chamber's petition is backed by Texas, Alabama, Nebraska and other states, as well as Peabody Energy Company. The...

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