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Clear Skies -- Back From The Grave

Three years after the Senate environment committee killed Clear Skies -- the Bush administration's controversial legislative plan for regulating multiple air pollutants -- the committee is again debating legislation for . . . regulating multiple air pollutants. Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), ranking member of the committee's clean air panel, announced Sept. 11 that he is introducing legislation to “fully” codify EPA's clean air interstate rule (CAIR) , which mandates cuts in sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx). Voinovich's bill...

Volt(ed) Fuel Economy?

Chevrolet officials are touting the fuel efficiency benefits of its soon-to-be released Volt, but EPA is struggling with how to determine the vehicle's fuel economy, according to motortrend.com, a popular blog. The agency's struggle to certify the car's fuel economy -- which is needed for manufacturer issued window stickers -- comes from the novelty of the vehicle itself. The Volt, which Chevrolet intends to put on sale in 2010, is an electric car or a gas-electric hybrid ...or both depending...

Environmentalists Press EPA To Strengthen Pathogen Controls In CAFO Rule

Activists are filing last-minute documents in an effort to persuade EPA to include pathogen control technology requirements in its controversial water discharge rule for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), despite indications that EPA plans to finalize the rule in the coming weeks without such requirements. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in late August filed comments to the docket for EPA's rulemaking for CAFO discharges, asking officials to consider medical and other scientific testimony that Oklahoma Attorney General (AG) Drew...

Facing Controversy, EPA Asks Panel To Help Implement CAFO Rules

KANSAS CITY, MO -- EPA officials are asking the agency's agriculture advisory panel for advice in implementing what is expected to be a controversial rule requiring some concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to seek water discharge permits for their operations as well as a rule to address possible oil spills. Even before EPA finalizes the permit rule, poultry farmers are clashing with EPA over agency efforts to boost the number of facilities subject to permit requirements. The Delaware Farm Bureau...

EPA May Reverse SIP Approval To Minimize Impact On CO2 Permit Decisions

EPA headquarters is considering overturning a Region III approval earlier this year of a Delaware air quality plan that includes limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a reversal that appears aimed at limiting the ability of environmentalists to argue that CO2 is a "regulated pollutant" subject to Clean Air Act permit limits nationwide. An EPA agency lawyer is already urging the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) to ignore its approval of Delaware's state implementation plan (SIP) in a pending case, In...

EPA Advances Waste Rule For University Waste Amidst Dispute Over Its Scope

EPA appears to be making a push to finalize its controversial rule relaxing storage and record-keeping requirements for university research laboratories that generate hazardous waste before the Bush administration leaves office amidst an ongoing dispute over whether the agency should expand the burden-reduction effort to also cover some industrial facilities. The agency Aug. 21 sent its Rulemaking To Streamline Laboratory Waste Management in Academic and Research Laboratories to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for interagency review,...

EPA Advisors Suggest Risk-Based Metrics For Pollution Prevention Programs

EPA's science advisors are urging the agency to move toward more risk-based metrics for measuring the success of its pollution prevention (P2) programs as the agency seeks to improve the methodology it uses to measure performance for evaluation by the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Science Advisory Board's Environmental Engineering Committee offered advice to EPA's P2 Program on how to better measure and report its effectiveness to OMB at a Sept. 3 meeting in Washington, D.C...

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