Industry, GOP Challenge EPA Over Costs Data For Air Act Climate Agenda

Industry and Republican lawmakers are challenging EPA over the potential economic costs of its pending Clean Air Act rules to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with industry arguing that EPA has failed to adequately analyze such costs and the GOP arguing that the agency has an air act duty to calculate the rules' impact on jobs. Petrochemical industry officials are also questioning the legality of one of the upcoming rules -- a proposal "tailoring" air act permitting requirements on first-time...

EPA May Delay Trigger For GHG Limits In Air Permits Past Mid-2010 Goal

EPA may consider options for delaying beyond its slated mid-2010 deadline the trigger for applying first-time greenhouse gas (GHG) limits in stationary source air permits, in order to give the agency more time to resolve the difficult issue of what qualifies as best available control technology (BACT) for reducing GHGs. However, activists say they are likely to quickly file lawsuits if EPA formally moves to delay the application of GHG rules to large stationary sources such as power plants after...

Environmentalists Push Switch To Natural Gas As BACT In GHG Permits

Environmentalists are urging EPA to recognize fuel switching to natural gas in lieu of burning coal as a best available control technology (BACT) to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in future stationary source permits, but the novel bid is meeting with strong resistance by industry and some regulators for misusing the BACT process. EPA recently convened a work group to provide recommendations on BACT to EPA in advance of the agency requiring first-time GHG limits in air permits next year...

States Press EPA To Harmonize Federal-Regional GHG Reporting Rules

Officials in Western states and Canadian provinces designing a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program are urging EPA to clarify how it intends to ensure an upcoming federal GHG-reporting rule will not interfere with ongoing regional efforts. State officials say EPA is taking too long to make critical decisions on how to harmonize federal-state reporting rules, which may force industrial facilities to meet costly duplicative requirements. Specifically, state officials are pressing EPA to decide whether it will allow a voluntary,...

Midwest Climate Program Advances 'Model Rule' For Cap-And-Trade

A panel of Midwest state officials and other key stakeholders are advancing a draft "model rule" for a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program, an effort that sources say is driven in part by a desire among Midwest officials to influence federal climate change proposals moving through Congress. The model rule is the work of the Midwest Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, a proposed GHG trading program for the region. Supporters praise the proposal as stronger on many fronts than pending...

Draft California GHG Cap-And-Trade Rules Sidestep Allocation Controversy

California's air board has released its proposed draft regulation for a greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program, but some controversial issues -- such as how many emission allowances will be auctioned or freely allocated to regulated entities, and how to spend revenues collected through auctions -- remain undecided. The draft rules do preserve a previous proposal that would establish an estimated 4 percent limit on the total use of offsets to comply through 2020, which industry organizations oppose as too restrictive...

Draft Baucus Amendments Show Finance Chairman's Climate Bill Priorities

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the powerful Finance Committee and a key player in the climate debate, drafted 19 amendments to cap-and-trade legislation outlining his priorities for the bill, including lowering mitigation targets, curtailing EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act and other changes. The amendments were never considered by the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, of which Baucus also is a member, because Republicans boycotted the panel's markup of the climate bill...

Policy Experts Say Climate Bill Would Nullify State, Local GHG Reductions

Climate change policy experts and top environmental officials in California and other states are claiming federal climate change legislation would nullify millions of tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions projected to be achieved by local and state climate change programs. To fix this shortcoming, these critics say Congress should create a "set-aside pool" of emission allowances that states can retire to avoid "surplus" allowances created by the federal program. The new concerns raised by the policy experts could be...

SAB Says EPA Nutrient Criteria Guidance Is Inadequate, Not Defensible

A subcommittee of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) says that currently used EPA guidance on how to develop nutrient criteria for water pollution limits is neither defensible nor adequate in a just-released draft report reviewing the agency method. The criticisms come as EPA is moving forward in Florida to develop numeric nutrient criteria in response to an activist lawsuit and as environmentalists are pushing the agency to craft numeric criteria elsewhere, arguing that risk-based, quantitative numeric criteria are more easily...

Activists' New Legal Action Continues Push For Numeric Nutrient Criteria

Environmentalists are continuing their push for numeric water quality criteria for nutrients by filing a notice of intent to sue EPA over the agency's failure to promulgate such criteria in Wisconsin and charging that EPA has failed to protect the state and downstream waters from harmful algal blooms. The likely lawsuit follows activist litigation in Florida that led to EPA earlier this year agreeing to create numeric criteria -- rather than narrative criteria -- in that state, and follows a...

States, Activists Urge EPA To Target Voluntary Efforts In FY11 Budget Cuts

State officials and environmentalists say EPA should target voluntary programs for potential major budget cuts in fiscal year 2011 to protect funding for core mandatory programs, after President Obama asked agencies to prepare for a FY11 budget that either freezes funding at FY10 levels or cuts funding by 5 percent. States say that no funding increase would be a disappointment as they face ongoing budget shortfalls and say they will continue to seek boosts to EPA's accounts that fund state...

EPA Plans Fiscal Sustainability Rules For Water Utilities In FY11 Budget

EPA's draft fiscal year 2011 budget request includes first-time requirements for drinking water and wastewater utilities to prove they meet several standards of sustainability before receiving state revolving fund (SRF) loans for infrastructure maintenance, repair and upgrades. The requirements would mark a shift for EPA, which until now has not taken an official position on whether utilities should be required to demonstrate they are effectively managing their water infrastructure assets before getting financial assistance. President Obama's FY10 budget request included...

Labor Vows To Push Senate For 'Buy American' Rules In New Legislation

As unemployment numbers continue to rise, a key labor official is vowing to push the Senate to adopt controversial "Buy American" domestic content requirements included in House-passed climate and clean water legislation as a way to create new domestic jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, setting the stage for a contentious debate on the issue when the bills are considered in the upper chamber. Robert Baugh, executive director of the Industrial Union Council of the AFL-CIO, said in a Nov...

Imminent Senate Security Bill?

Blog Updated Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is slated to make a statement tomorrow on his pending chemical security legislation, with activists hoping the senator will introduce the bill and include strict provisions requiring companies to switch to using inherently safer technologies (IST) to reduce risks. A Lautenberg staffer says the senator will Dec. 3 make an announcement on the bill but would provide no further details. Lautenberg is expected to soon introduce a companion bill to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism...

First GHG Permit Limits

Environmentalists and an Idaho fertilizer plant have agreed to a legal settlement that includes the first enforceable greenhouse gas (GHG) limits as part of an air permit for a coal plant, a move that activists are hailing but which they say stops short of forcing similar limits in other permits. The GHG limits are included in a settlement agreement reached between Sierra Club, the Idaho Conservation League and Southeast Idaho Energy Inc. over the activists' challenge to the air permit...

Activists' Suit Seeks Coal Ash Data

Environmentalists have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in federal district court to force EPA to release key data on coal ash “wet” disposal ponds, including information on storage capacity, inspection results and records of violations at more than 70 sites. Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) filed the suit Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California after EPA failed to respond to the group's FOIA request within the statutory...

High Court Justices Appear Skeptical Of 'Takings' In Florida Beach Case

Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical at Dec. 2 oral arguments that a state supreme court decision upholding Florida's beach renourishment efforts resulted in a so-called "taking" of private property, although the justices left the door open to using their decision to establish a first-time "judicial takings" doctrine. In Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, et al ., the petitioners argue that Florida's beach renourishment efforts erase common law rights of waterfront property owners because the...

State Coalition Urges Against Federal Preemption In Toxics Law Reform

A coalition of more than a dozen states is urging lawmakers to ensure that pending legislation to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) does not preempt states from pursuing stricter rules for chemicals than EPA, a push likely to prompt backlash from industry groups that favor preemption to avoid a "patchwork" of varying state rules. At a Dec. 2 joint hearing of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee and the panel's toxics subcommittee, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) noted...

Activists Petition EPA For CO2 NAAQS Citing Insufficient Climate Action

Environmentalists are petitioning EPA to declare carbon dioxide (CO2) a criteria pollutant and set a strict national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) to reduce emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm), citing concerns that President Obama and Congress are taking insufficient steps to cut CO2 emissions. However the idea is extremely unpopular with EPA, states, industry and other environmentalists because establishing a CO2 NAAQS at 350 ppm would mean the entire country would be in violation of the standard, requiring...

SAB Draft Urges EPA To Make Broad Changes In Residual Risk Reviews

EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) will urge broad changes to EPA's methods for assessing residual risks from air toxics -- reviews designed to address remaining air toxics risks eight years after EPA sets strict rules to limit the emissions -- to improve their accuracy, even though EPA says it is unlikely to revise its recently finalized residual risk rules. According to a draft SAB report slated for discussion at a Dec. 3 teleconference, the board wants the agency to reconsider...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.