GE Seeks High Court Review Of Cleanup Orders Despite Hudson Agreement

The General Electric Company (GE) is asking the Supreme Court to hear its long running constitutional challenge to EPA's ability to issue unilateral cleanup orders under the Superfund law, despite having already agreed to comply with the agency's cleanup plan for a major site that environmentalists feared the suit could impact. GE petitioned the high court Dec. 29 to hear the case General Electric Co. v. Lisa Jackson , in which the company has so-far unsuccessfully argued that EPA's ability...

GOP Sharpens Three-Pronged Legislative Strategy To Overturn EPA Rules

The new House Republican majority in the 112th Congress is crafting a three-pronged strategy to challenge what it sees as costly EPA regulations, planning a series of Congressional Review Act (CRA) votes to undo rules, proposed spending cuts to prevent the implementation of regulations, and aggressive oversight to highlight rules' costs, sources say. Rep. John Carter (R-TX), secretary of the House GOP Conference, will lead efforts to move CRA resolutions that require a majority vote in both chambers to disapprove...

Groups Ready Defense Of State Environmental Laws As EPA Rollbacks Loom

Some state lawmakers and environmentalists are preparing to defend and promote state environmental laws that are stricter than federal requirements on curbing greenhouse gases (GHGs), exposures to toxics, and other issues, fearing an attack on state laws echoing Republican attempts in the 112th Congress to rollback EPA regulations. State-level attempts to undo or pare back environmental regulations could occur in states where the governor's office or state legislature switched from Democratic to Republican following the November elections, sources say. In...

Hill Pushback May Spur Obama Focus On Executive Orders For EPA Goals

Opposition to new EPA rules from Republicans in the divided 112th Congress is likely to make it difficult to advance new environmental legislation, so the Obama administration may increasingly use executive orders (E.O.) and other presidential authority to advance key EPA goals, sources say. Other key activist sources have indicated that executive-level action to advance clean energy issues is expected in the face of opposition and increased scrutiny from the Republican-led House. Activists and other groups that favor stronger environmental...

EPA Wins Delay In West Virginia Challenge To Mountaintop Mining Guide

A federal judge in West Virginia has given EPA until February to respond to a lawsuit filed by the state challenging its mountaintop mining guidance, putting the case on a similar schedule as two Kentucky challenges that have been stayed pending a ruling in the District of Columbia on EPA's motion to dismiss a similar challenge in that court. U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. Dec. 22 granted a joint motion from parties in the case, Huffman v. EPA,...

Alabama Steps Up Mine Monitoring After EPA Threatens Permit Objections

Alabama environmental officials are stepping up monitoring of pollutant discharges from coal mines in response to negotiations between the state and federal officials, after EPA threatened to object to Clean Water Act permits for coal mines in the state that the agency said could have violated water quality standards. EPA has apparently backed off what state and industry sources say were earlier demands that Alabama fully apply the agency's landmark guidance on mining permits, which outlines strict requirements for approving...

Lawsuit Could Be Test For Enforcing EPA Permit Guide At Existing Mines

Parties have agreed to a briefing schedule in a first-of-its-kind citizen lawsuit over alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations by a mountaintop mining site in West Virginia, setting the stage for legal arguments in the suit that could test whether EPA's strict water quality guidance for mining permits can be applied to existing permits. Environmentalists filed the suit, Sierra Club, et al. v. Fola Coal Company LLC , in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia...

Final Defense Bill Keeps Pressure On Navy Over Camp Lejeune Pollution

The fiscal year 2011 defense authorization legislation passed by both chambers late last month continues the pressure on the Department of the Navy to support a federal health agency's study of polluted water impacts at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC, as well as requiring a comptroller general assessment of the military's response to environmental exposures experienced by personnel at bases across the country. The House approved a revised version - stripped of its controversial measures - Dec. 17, and...

Activists Renew Push Against Repeal Of State Landfill Bans For Yard Waste

Environmentalists are stepping up efforts to lobby against the repeal of state laws prohibiting the disposal of yard trimmings in landfills, noting that EPA and state environmental agencies favor the laws because they are believed to have increased recycling, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and conserved landfill space. In a Jan. 4 open letter meant to coincide with the reconvening of state legislatures in the new year, environmental groups -- including the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and several local...

EPA Drops Disposal Advice From Fluorescent Light Bulb Cleanup Guide

EPA has revised its consumer guide for how to clean up a broken compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), removing a provision that advised consumers to dispose of bedding and clothing that came into contact with broken CFLs due to concerns about potential mercury contamination from the widely promoted bulbs. CFLs have long presented a conflict for EPA because they are more efficient than incandescent bulbs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but present a risk of exposure to mercury if broken...

Maine Eyes Adding Household Hazardous Waste To Stewardship Programs

Maine's environment department is proposing to add household hazardous waste (HHW) including architectural paint, unused pharmaceuticals and medical sharps to its product stewardship programs, marking Maine's first stewardship recommendations since the state enacted a landmark law last year outlining a process for adding new sectors. Regulators with Maine's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are also recommending minor changes to existing state product stewardship laws to provide relief to small business from waste handling costs for electronic waste (e-waste) and mercury-added...

Industry Seeks Consistent Standards for UST Compatibility With E15

Tank owner and petroleum industry groups are joining states in asking EPA to remove language in a draft guidance on the compatibility of underground storage tanks (USTs) with ethanol fuel blends greater than 10 percent (E10) that would provide states wide flexibility in the methods used to determine if a tank system can safely hold the fuel. Industry says that allowing certification options other than a manufacturer's guarantee or a nationally recognized third party would create a "patchwork" of standards...

DOD, States Recommend EPA UST System Fuel Guidance Include B20

The Department of Defense (DOD) and several states are asking EPA, in an upcoming guidance, to give its stamp of approval on labeling biodiesel blends of up to 20 percent (B20) as compatible with existing underground storage tanks (USTs), arguing such a threshold does not pose leaking or related problems for storage tanks. Their position, however, contrasts with industry groups, which have varying views on the issue. One biofuels industry group contends EPA should wait on a forthcoming study that...

NRC Staff, Entergy Reject Activist Suit Despite Cleanup Policy Dispute

The Entergy Corporation and staff for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are at odds over what money and legal authority would be available for cleanup after a major nuclear power plant accident but are nonetheless both objecting to an activist attempt to use the dispute -- which also involves EPA and other federal agencies -- as the basis for blocking the renewal of a Massachusetts plant's license. At issue is a legal challenge the activist group Pilgrim Watch filed Nov...

Libby Documents Could Impact Other Asbestos Cleanups, Activists Say

Environmentalists in Pennsylvania are demanding that EPA release documents explaining why it ruled out the use of certain cleanup technologies at the Libby, MT, asbestos site, saying they are concerned the agency is not adequately considering alternatives to leaving asbestos contamination in place at sites around the country. The Pennsylvania groups -- Citizens for a Better Ambler and the BoRit Community Advisory Group -- are primarily concerned with how EPA is handling asbestos contamination at the BoRit Asbestos Superfund Site...

Key Players Question EPA's Ability To Lead New Sustainability Approach

As EPA takes steps toward building an operational framework for incorporating sustainability measures across the agency, a landmark effort that Administrator Lisa Jackson calls the "new approach" to environmental issues, key former agency officials and other observers are questioning the agency's ability to lead sustainability efforts. While Jackson recently announced the creation of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel to advise the agency on how it can replace its current risk-based approach with a more holistic, sustainability approach, some...

Pressure Mounts For EPA To Weigh Regulatory Impacts Of Risk Estimates

EPA is facing increasing pressure to consider the regulatory impacts of its risk estimates given stakeholder concern that several prominent draft estimates that the agency is striving to advance in 2011 will drive expensive regulations that are impractical to implement as the safety estimates sometimes fall below naturally occurring levels. Several sources argue that the problem could be solved if the agency's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, its premiere hazard assessment program, were required to consider the risk management...

States Face Budget, New Fuels Challenges To Cleaning Up Leaking Tanks

States are facing a host of challenges in reducing a backlog of more than 96,000 leaking underground storage tanks (LUSTs), including staff and budget cuts, a growing number of entities responsible for leaks and the possibility that newly approved ethanol fuel blends could increase the number of leaks, state and industry sources say. EPA is poised to release this spring the results of a years-long review of LUST cleanups, "The National LUST Cleanup Backlog: A Study Of Opportunities," which, according...

Alternative Measures Expected To Bolster Scaled-Back EPA Coal Ash Rule

Even while EPA continues to review thousands of comments on its first-time plan to regulate coal ash as a waste, many expect the agency to retreat from strictly regulating the power-generation byproduct as "hazardous" and fall back on a less-stringent non-hazardous approach bolstered with additional environmental controls and reporting measures. While several sources say they expect the agency to eventually opt for a less-strict approach regulating the waste under subtitle D of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), EPA...

California Proposes Stricter Drinking Water Goal For Perchlorate

California's health hazard office is proposing a tighter new drinking water public health goal (PHG) for the controversial rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, of 1 part per billion (ppb), stricter than the state's existing standard of 6 ppb, which could lead to stricter cleanup standards at contaminated sites. The Golden State's Jan. 7 announcement comes a day after Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced that she intends to keep pushing for a federal drinking water standard...

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