User login

Air

Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

Topic Subtitle
Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

BLM begins NEPA review on lifting coal lease moratorium

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review of its decision to end an Obama-era coal leasing moratorium imposed over climate change concerns after a federal district court held the bureau unlawfully skipped such an analysis. BLM concludes in a May 22 draft environmental assessment (EA) -- a NEPA review document -- that lifting the January 2016 coal lease moratorium would have a negligible effect on cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, but that it...

Democrats ramp up attacks on Trump vehicle GHG plan

Capitol Hill Democrats are escalating their attacks on the Trump administration's proposed rollback of Obama-era vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards, including advancing a budget rider that would block EPA and the Transportation Department (DOT) from finalizing or implementing the rulemaking. In addition, top Democrats in both chambers are renewing various legal and technical critiques of the agencies' joint proposal, charging that EPA chief Andrew Wheeler has frequently “contradicted” an array of concerns about the plan raised by the...

Environmentalists sue EPA over two states’ missing air plans

Environmentalists are suing EPA in federal district court over the agency’s alleged failure to ensure adequate Clean Air Act implementation plans are in place for parts of California and Arizona to attain national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone. In their suit filed May 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Environmental Health say EPA has failed to ensure either...

Revised EPA Agenda Sees Deadlines Slip For Major Obama Rule Rollbacks

EPA in its just-updated Unified Agenda of pending regulations is acknowledging that its deadlines have slipped considerably for many high-profile rollbacks of Obama-era rules, including climate standards for power plants and vehicles, as well as the 2015 Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction standard. While the agency earlier hoped to complete many major rules this spring, it is now officially projecting that several of these rulemakings will not be finished until sometime in the summer or even the fall -- an...

SAB Investigates Rule ‘Co-Benefits’ As EPA Eyes Cost Analysis Overhaul

EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) is seeking to investigate the agency’s valuation of “co-benefits” in its Clean Air Act rules and is planning a new report on the topic, just as EPA overhauls its approach to cost-benefit analysis for rules to downplay its prior emphasis on co-benefit pollution reductions to help justify the cost of regulations. In a document recently posted to SAB’s website , board members propose to approve a two-year project to evaluate the “scientific” aspects of EPA’s...

IRS Tees Up Alternative To EPA's CCS Standards For Certifying CO2 Storage

The IRS is soliciting feedback on how it should implement an expanded tax credit for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and formally floating the possibility of allowing companies to use an alternative to EPA rules to certify long-term storage, a move that highlights the crucial issue of how to define permanent sequestration. The outcome of the issue most affects how energy companies can access lucrative federal subsidies for voluntary CCS activities, but it may set a broader precedent for considering...

IRS Request For Comment

Menendez Letter

Bipartisan Senate Letter


Environmentalists challenge EPA approval of California ozone plan

Environmentalists are suing EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit over the agency’s approval of a plan by California’s San Joaquin Valley for reducing emissions to comply with the federal ozone ambient air standard, arguing the state’s plan falls short of Clean Air Act requirements and is therefore unlawful. The Association of Irritated Residents’ (AIR) May 17 petition for review challenges the valley’s state implementation plan (SIP) for achieving the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality...

House Democrats, GOP Clash Over Need To Count EPA Air Rule ‘Co-Benefits’

House Democrats and Republicans are clashing over whether EPA should count the “co-benefits” of its air rules in cost-benefit analyses of the policies, a debate that will be key to the future not only of EPA’s power plant air toxics rules but also likely for the agency’s cost-benefit analysis for all future Clean Air Act rulemakings. At a May 21 hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s oversight panel, Democrats attacked EPA’s proposal to rescind a key finding that...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Sign up for 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting on EPA, the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda, and the pushback from the Democrat-controlled House.