Corn-Ethanol Industry Demands ARB Reopen Low-Carbon Fuel Rulemaking

A national corn-ethanol industry group is calling on the air board to reopen a public comment period for its embattled low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS), arguing previously undisclosed documents indicate that officials ignored some consultants' criticisms of an assumption about the carbon emissions associated with indirect land-use impacts from corn ethanol production. The industry's request that the state reopen the public comment period on the upcoming regulations might signal a future legal challenge against the board over the LCFS. The Air...

Assembly Panel Showcases State Climate Efforts During Copenhagen Launch

The Assembly Natural Resources Committee plans to hold Dec. 8 a special informational hearing updating lawmakers on the state's efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, in part to showcase the state's efforts as international climate change talks begin the same week in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to sources. Air board officials are scheduled to provide an update on the implementation of the state's sweeping climate change regulatory program under AB 32, including a recently unveiled cap-and-trade plan, according to...

Governors, Canadians Seek U.N. Recognition Of 'Subnational' Efforts

The governors of California, Washington and Wisconsin and the premiers of three Canadian provinces are organizing a high-profile "side event" at the upcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen to push for official recognition of "subnational" efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in any international agreement that may be reached, according to sources. The officials are seeking to add specific language in a possible agreement that highlights the importance of state and regional actions carrying out any future national or international...

ARB Chair Denies Lawmaker Requests To Delay Major Diesel Rules

Air board chairwoman Mary Nichols has denied a request from a coalition of Republican and moderate Democrat lawmakers to delay for several years enforcement of the board's controversial "off-road" and "on-road" diesel regulations, stating that the board has taken great care to ensure the rules are cost-effective and fair. The lawmakers pointed to the ongoing recession as sufficient justification to roll back the rules. Despite the rejection, Nichols stressed that the board in December will hold a hearing to discuss...

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

Key industries and consumer advocates are siding off over who should receive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-reduction credits under the 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 stations...

Activists Eye Challenge If EPA Approves San Joaquin Dairy Emission Rules

Environmentalists are likely to challenge San Joaquin Valley air district dairy emissions rules that exempt some facilities from having to purchase emissions offsets if U.S. EPA approves the rules, even after reaching a consent decree with the agency last month to act on the high-profile issue. The San Joaquin Valley air district -- one of the country's largest and most polluted centers of agricultural production -- issued the first-time dairy rules in response to a 2004 state law that removed...

Dispute Over ARB Diesel Research, Truck Rule Sparks Further Board Review

Air board members next month are expected to further discuss a request by board member John Telles to set aside the board's controversial diesel truck rule and further investigate the legitimacy of a 2008 diesel health risk report that justifies the rule, a board spokesman said this week. Telles at a Nov. 19 board meeting ripped board staff for failing last year to alert board members before a vote on the rule that the lead author of the report in...

State Regulators Weigh Ending PG&E Consumer-Funded GHG-Offset Program

State energy regulators are under pressure from ratepayer advocates to terminate a novel but faltering voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG)-offset program being carried out by one of the state's largest investor-owned utilities, in a decision that weighs whether all ratepayers should continue footing the bill for the program's marketing and administrative costs based on the expectation that the program will be more successful in the future. The ratepayer advocates argue the program has fallen woefully short of all expectations while charging...

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

Industry and Republican lawmakers are challenging U.S. 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 one of the upcoming rules -- a proposal "tailoring" air act permitting requirements on first-time...

EPA Agrees To Deadline For Ruling On State, Western Pollution Plans

U.S. EPA is agreeing to a proposed consent decree with environmentalists that would require the agency to no later than mid-2011 approve state implementation plans (SIPs) to reduce interstate ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in California and western states or impose a federal implementation plan (FIP) to cut emissions if EPA deems the plans inadequate. The Nov. 10 proposed settlement between EPA and WildEarth Guardians -- which sued EPA to force action on the plans -- lays out a...

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...

Oil Industry Elevates Concerns Over EPA NAAQS Process To White House

Oil industry officials are elevating to the White House their concerns about EPA's process for reviewing national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in a bid to pressure the agency to immediately address industry's claims that the Obama administration is not providing sufficient opportunity for peer review and public comment. At a Nov. 9 meeting with White House and EPA staff, petrochemical industry officials aired their criticisms that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has failed to follow through on a vow she...

EPA Weighing Options For Increasing Municipal Recycling Rates

EPA could use a variety of financial options to address stagnation of municipal recycling -- a priority for waste chief Mathy Stanislaus -- including incentives in the Senate climate change bill and encouraging municipalities to change unsustainable funding mechanisms for recycling, according to state and activist sources. But industry has concerns that any EPA attempt to "meddle" in financing would merely shift costs and serve as a new tax. Instead, the federal government should expand a Clinton-era executive order that...

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...

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...

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...

EPA Includes Controversial Numeric 'Turbidity' Limit In Construction ELGs

EPA's just-signed final effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for construction industry stormwater includes a controversial numeric limit for turbidity, a measure of water's clarity, prompting industry criticism because it will cost almost $1 billion per year to fully implement, while activists generally praise the rule's strict limit. The final rule signed Nov. 23 also includes EPA's novel approach of setting a numeric limit for runoff's turbidity as an "unconventional pollutant" subject to stringent discharge requirements. The National Association of Home Builders...

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...

Activists Seek New EPA Brownfields Grant Guidance To Boost Renewables

Activists are urging EPA to change its guidance for awarding brownfields grants to emphasize the economic benefits of renewable energy projects and prioritize grants in environmental justice communities, in an effort to both boost and target federal funding for such projects. For example, The Wilderness Society wrote a Nov. 17 letter to Mathy Stanislaus, EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response (OSWER), urging the agency to change its fiscal year 2010 brownfields cleanup guidance to...

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...

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