Activists Fight Power Plant Permits To Bolster Bid For Strict Effluent Rules

Environmentalists are challenging a slew of renewed Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits for power plants as a stop-gap measure in advance of EPA revising its effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) for the sector, hoping the challenges will lead to revised, stricter permit limits that pressure the agency to issue a stringent ELG. Industry officials however insist that the agency should not consider outside pressure from environmentalists' challenges during its review of its ELG for wastewater streams from power plants. Industry...

EPA Enforcement Heightens Utility Fears Over Wastewater 'Blending' Ban

Some EPA Regions and states are said to be blocking issuance of permits that allow utilities to blend treated and partially treated wastewater during heavy precipitation events, heightening the concerns of utilities that the agency may adopt such a policy nationwide despite a long-stalled agency policy to allow blending in some cases. Senior EPA water and enforcement officials are not aware of the issue, though some industry officials are vowing to challenge the agency actions in court and lobby state...

Cardin, Alexander Move To Limit Scope Of Mountaintop Mining Waste Bill

Two key Senate environment committee lawmakers are quietly working to limit the reach of a mining bill they introduced so that it only applies to mountaintop mining waste and not other coal mining waste, but the draft revision is still drawing the ire of mining industry officials. The shift comes after both the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and EPA found S. 696, introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), who chairs the environment panel's water subcommittee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN),...

Industry Urges California To Delay Landmark Chromium Water Standard

The chemical industry is urging California to further delay development of a first-in-the-nation drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium (Cr6) in order to consider data from an ongoing industry study on how the chemical causes cancer, even though environmentalists say the state has missed by five years a legislative deadline to develop the standard. The push comes as New Jersey is backing California's efforts, noting in recent comments that the Cr6 draft public health goal (PHG) California's Office of Environmental...

Utilities Fear Increased Citizen Suits From EPA Due To Electronic Reporting

EPA's plan to require electronic reporting of discharge monitoring reports (DMRs) will likely please larger water utilities that would find the method easier, EPA officials say, but one industry attorney says the upcoming rule could open up utilities to additional citizen enforcement suits since the data will be more readily available to the public. EPA enforcement chief Cynthia Giles told industry officials Nov. 13 that the agency may soon begin a rulemaking to require all wastewater facilities to electronically submit...

OMB, NASA Push Academy Review Of EPA Trichloroethylene Assessment

The White House and other federal agencies are urging EPA to submit its new draft risk assessment of the ubiquitous solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) for review by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a move that could further slow the assessment already long-delayed by interagency disagreement about the chemical's risks. EPA's draft TCE risk assessment is more than 10 years in the making. The Defense Department (DOD) and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), which feared a 2001 draft assessment...

Industry Attacks EPA Chemical 'Action Plans' In Advance Of TSCA Reform

Industry officials are attacking a lack of transparency in EPA's plan to immediately address key chemicals of concern through "action plans" for review, and other steps, while the agency waits for Congress to act on reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to give EPA broader authority to collect data on industrial chemicals. EPA toxics chief Steve Owens recently told lawmakers that parallel to Congress' consideration of TSCA reform, the agency will use what authority it has under existing law...

Downstream Users Push Toxics Prioritization Focusing On Existing Data

Downstream chemicals users are pushing a new risk-based plan for EPA to prioritize chemicals of high concern for further assessment that relies heavily on existing data, while activists say the process is too lengthy and are pushing for broad new EPA power to collect chemical data from industry and use it for swift regulatory action. EPA's top toxics official meanwhile says that the agency supports broad new powers to require industry submission of chemical data, citing problems with industry providing...

EPA Advisors To Review White Paper On Climate's Pesticide Use Impacts

EPA's Science Advisory Panel (SAP) for pesticides will next year review an under-development agency white paper on examining and addressing the impact climate change has on pesticide use, a key agency pesticides official says, which appears to meet environmentalists' push for the agency to seek SAP's expert input on the document. Debbie Edwards, head of EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, told a Nov. 12 Bird Conservation Alliance meeting in Washington, DC, that the agency will in 2010 seek review of...

OMB Vow Not To Influence EPA Endocrine Screening Plan Draws Praise

Democrats and activists are welcoming the White House Office of Management & Budget's (OMB) vow not to influence EPA's decisions on the types of scientific data and other information it will accept as part of its long-delayed endocrine screening program. OMB Director Peter Orszag sent a Nov. 16 letter to Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) saying that the office "does not question the scientific responsibilities and rigors put forward by the EPA. . . . I share your belief that EPA...

Ethylene Oxide Carcinogen Finding May Boost Strict EPA Risk Assessment

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in a recently updated study classifies the widely used chemical ethylene oxide (EtO) as carcinogenic to humans, a finding that may boost EPA in its effort to finalize next year a strict draft risk assessment of the substance that also identifies it as carcinogenic. "There is strong evidence that the carcinogenicity of ethylene oxide, a direct alkylating agent, operates by a genotoxic mechanism," IARC writes in its recently released...

Industry Split Over EPA Delay On Decision To Allow Higher Ethanol Blends

Biofuels groups are split over EPA's delay until mid-2010 of a decision on whether to grant an industry request to lift the cap on ethanol allowed in gasoline above 10 percent (E10), with some seeing signs that EPA's final decision will likely grant blends up to 15 percent next year and others criticizing the agency for not immediately approving E12. EPA Dec. 1 said it would postpone until mid-2010 a final decision on Growth Energy's request for a Clean Air...

EPA Struggles With Key RFS Issues Making 2010 Implementation Unlikely

EPA's struggles with resolving a host of factors affecting its new renewable fuels standard (RFS) make it unlikely that the agency will meet an early 2010 goal for the RFS to take effect, sources say, though the agency is under pressure to at least establish by early next year new requirements for the volumes of each type of renewable fuel under the RFS. Paul Argyropoulos of EPA's Office of Transportation & Air Quality told a Nov. 18 cellulosic biofuels conference...

Midwest Design For Low-Carbon Fuel Conflicts With Other Regions

Midwest state officials crafting a regional low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) are likely to propose a less stringent indirect land-use greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions penalty for corn-based ethanol than California has adopted and Northeast officials are pursuing, setting up a potential clash among the regions and possibly complicating any efforts to develop a national policy. The Midwest approach to an LCFS would benefit corn growers and demonstrates the influence of the powerful agriculture lobby, which could help shape how federal regulators...

Battle Erupts Over GHG Credits From California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard

Key industries and consumer advocates are siding off over who should receive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-reduction credits under the California air board's low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS), with at least one major auto company arguing it deserves the credits while utilities are demanding to be recognized as the rightful owners and can appropriately return the benefits to ratepayers. At the same time, stakeholder organizations are at odds over to what degree electricity ratepayers should have to fund the construction of recharging...

Rulings May Set Higher Causation Standard For Environmental Tort Suits

Recent court rulings on antitrust, terrorism and other issues may have set a strict precedent raising plaintiffs' burden to prove causation in lawsuits, observers say, which may make it harder for activists to file environmental tort suits, for example litigation against power plants for harm caused by their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Democratic lawmakers concerned about the more stringent causation test are already pushing legislation to reverse the standard to the precedent that was in place before the recent cases...

Appeals Court Says Dredging Contractors Not Liable For Katrina Damage

A federal appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling that found the private contractors who dredged and maintained a New Orleans shipping channel are not liable for damages that occurred to the city as a result of Hurricane Katrina, invoking a Supreme Court case that gives contractors acting on behalf of Congress immunity from liability. The Nov. 25 ruling in Ackerson, et al. v. Bean Dredging LLC, et al. comes only a week after a federal district court held...

Appellate Preemption Ruling May Help Speed Offshore Energy Facilities

A recent appellate ruling that federal energy law preempts at least some state processes for regulating coastal activities could make it easier to construct offshore energy facilities, including liquefied natural gas facilities and wind farms, even though the ruling was on narrow, case-specific grounds, some legal experts say. In Weaver's Cove Energy v. Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), et al. , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruled Oct. 26 that the state failed to...

Jackson Moves To Integrate Key Priorities Into EPA Policy Development

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is moving to ensure strong consideration of her top priorities -- environmental justice, children's health and climate change -- across the agency's policymaking apparatus, including in risk assessments, rulemakings and budget decisions. While the agency was already required to consider environmental justice and children's health issues due to two Clinton-era executive orders, sources say that the administrator's reiteration of those issues, along with climate change, in the policy development process will bolster their consideration since they...

ECOS Warns New EPA Approach Bars Groups From Agency Meetings

The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the group that represents state environmental commissioners, is warning that EPA is using a new interpretation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to justify excluding the group's staff and those of other national organizations from meetings with the agency to discuss water, climate change, energy and other issues. In a Nov. 17 letter to Scott Fulton, EPA's acting deputy administrator, ECOS claims that the agency is implementing a "new practice" of excluding...

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