| Page 4871 | InsideEPA.com

Experts Brace For Environmental Law Attacks Due To Healthcare Ruling

Legal experts are expecting a host of new constitutional challenges to environmental laws in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision holding that the individual mandate in President Obama's healthcare law violates the Constitution's Commerce Clause, though most experts doubt whether those suits will ultimately succeed. The high court ruling "reshapes jurisprudence" under the Commerce Clause, the basis for most environmental laws, as well as the Necessary and Proper clauses, "in fresh and uncertain ways," and has the potential...

Power Plant ELG Suit Tests Industry Bid To Intervene In Sue-And-Settle Pacts

Industry litigation challenging EPA's deadlines for its upcoming power plant effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) is emerging as a test of private parties' ability to intervene in so-called "sue-and-settle" cases, an issue that industry and some lawmakers are seeking to address in pending legislation easing private parties' ability to intervene in such cases. The case could go all the way to the Supreme Court as industry groups are arguing that appellate courts are split. But the industry effort appears to face...

New Biofuels Group Scrambles To Defend RFS As Corn Yields Boost Critics

The biofuels industry is launching a new trade group aimed solely at defending EPA's renewable fuel standard (RFS) from critics who are citing a dramatic fall in corn yields in a push to dismantle the program, with the group countering that the agency is opening the RFS to new fuel pathways that will reduce demand for corn as a fuel source. Oil industry groups and others have long claimed that the RFS' cellulosic ethanol goals are impossible to meet, and...

/index.php?option=com_iwpfile&file=aug2012/epa2012_1522.pdf

/index.php?option=com_iwpfile&file=aug2012/epa2012_1521.pdf

Pacific Legal Foundation Motion On Endangerment Finding

Industry Petitioners' Motion On Tailoring Rule

Background Reading: EPA Wins Sweeping Victory In Appeals Court Ruling Upholding GHG Rules

Investors Seek Strict PVC MACT

A coalition of “socially responsible” investors is urging EPA to issue a stringent maximum achievable control technology (MACT) air toxics rule for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plants when the agency completes its ongoing administrative review of the PVC MACT. In an Aug. 8 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the investors say they have more than $9.8 billion in assets under management. “As long term investors of diversified portfolios we believe strong and consistent protections of public health and welfare are...

/index.php?option=com_iwpfile&file=aug2012/epa2012_1519.pdf

Final NPDES Permit For Texas Coastal Waters

TCEQ Comments On Draft Permit

RRC Comments On Draft Permit

EPA Summary Response To Comments

epa2012_1518

/index.php?option=com_iwpfile&file=aug2012/epa2012_1517.pdf

Corps' Species Protections Win CWA 'Fill' Permit Review, But Industry Sues

Strict conditions the Army Corps of Engineers has attached to some of its Clean Water Act (CWA) general permits have prompted federal fisheries regulators to agree to reconsider their finding that the program does not adequately protect endangered species but some industry groups are now suing over the conditions, saying they are unlawful. In a recent letter, a top official with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) agreed to review its earlier “jeopardy” finding that the Corps' Nationwide Permit (NWP)...

States Urge EPA To Use Range Of 'Attenuation Factors' For Vapor Intrusion

Several state regulators are criticizing EPA's vapor intrusion database as unsuitable for estimating "meaningful attenuation factors" -- mathematical tools used to estimate the risk that toxic vapors will rise into a building -- and are asking the agency to provide a range of acceptable attenuation factors rather than one "generic" one. Providing a range of attenuation factors would give states more flexibility to make their own estimates based on site-specific factors, state officials say. Criticism of "EPA's Vapor Intrusion Database:...

Activists Seek To Counter Industry Attacks On EPA Vapor Intrusion Guide

Several dozen community activists are backing EPA's proposed use of a mathematical tool to predict vapor intrusion risk, seeking to counter industry criticism of the tool, and are also repeating activist calls for the agency to require near continuous or continuous monitoring to protect against short-term exposure to toxic vapors in indoor air. The activists say in a July 26 email to EPA that they "are concerned that pressure from polluters, chemical producers, and property owners may weaken elements of...

California Draft Green Chemistry Rules Fail To Satisfy Activists, Industry

California's Department of Toxic Substances Control's recently released final draft "green chemistry" regulations are drawing mixed reviews from environmentalists and have failed to quell industry concerns over the costs of the program and how it will be enforced. While environmentalists say they are pleased the department has still maintained a large list of "chemicals of concern" that could potentially be regulated, one source says activists are concerned that the rules' high burden of proof may undermine statutory goals requiring DTSC...