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.

Key Democrats Float 2050 Net Zero GHG Target, Promising Legislation

Key House Energy & Commerce Committee Democrats are endorsing an ambitious goal achieving a 100 percent clean economy -- defined as “net zero” greenhouse gas pollution -- by 2050, pledging to launch a process to develop a comprehensive climate legislative package by the end of the year to achieve that goal. Those same lawmakers are also acknowledging their plan is less ambitious than what some backers of the Green New Deal (GND) are advocating, while also citing major political roadblocks...

NSR ‘project emissions accounting’ proposal nears release

EPA is poised to publish its proposed rule revising its Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permit “project emissions accounting,” sometimes known as “netting,” to ease the permitting process for industry applicants, one of several such steps the Trump administration has taken to ease conditions for industry. The proposal cleared pre-publication review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) July 17, according to a recent notification on OMB’s website. The agency took its initial steps to...

CEQ extends comment period on NEPA GHG guide

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is agreeing to extend the comment period on its draft guidance for how agencies should consider greenhouse gas emissions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by 30 days, from July 26 to Aug. 26. A notice announcing the decision was submitted to the Federal Register July 19. “CEQ is making this change in response to public requests for an extension of the comment period,” a spokesman says. A coalition of environmental...

SAFE Rule Delay May Boost Profile Of Suit Over EPA Auto GHG ‘Finding’

The Trump administration’s timetable for completing its rollback of vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards has slipped such that a final rule is not expected before an appellate court holds oral argument in litigation over EPA’s decision to reopen the Obama-era standards. The timing developments raise the question of whether the pending litigation -- over EPA’s April 2018 determination that its prior vehicle GHG rules were not “appropriate” and must be scaled back -- could ultimately have a greater...

Biofuels Maker Sues EPA For Rejecting RFS Fuel Target Test Methodology

Cellulosic biofuel manufacturer POET Biorefining is suing EPA over the agency’s disapproval of a proprietary fuel testing method that EPA says cannot guarantee compliance with renewable fuel standard (RFS) requirements for the qualities of cellulosic fuel, a decision that could further hinder growth in the cellulosic fuel sector. POET’s Senior Vice President of External Affairs & Communications Kyle Gilley in a statement to Inside EPA says the suit will claim EPA’s rejection of the “Soliton” testing method used by...

Energy & Commerce leaders to unveil climate plan details

Top Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce Committee are poised to unveil further details on how they plan to develop potentially major climate change legislation over the coming months, with the lawmakers later this week also holding a hearing on achieving “deep” carbon reductions across the economy. “With communities around the country suffering from historic flooding, raging wildfires, severe storms, extreme heat and persistent droughts, it has never been more evident that serious federal leadership is needed,” the committee...

Court won’t rehear FERC GHG case, but new request filed

An appellate court is refusing to reconsider its decision to dismiss a challenge to a gas pipeline approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over its failure to fully consider the project’s climate effects, though the court is facing a similar request in a related case over a different FERC pipeline approval. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied rehearing en banc in a July 22 order in Otsego 2000 v. FERC ,...

ACE Backers Reach ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ Not To Raise Key CPP Claim

Industry and state supporters of EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) power plant greenhouse gas rule are expected to ignore a key argument they made against the Obama-era climate rule it is replacing, reaching a “gentlemen’s agreement” among themselves not to raise the issue in forthcoming litigation over the rule. However, at least one free-market group opposed to EPA regulating GHGs at all is likely to raise the issue in litigation. At issue is the argument that EPA is precluded from...

Group projects massive GHGs from federal oil, gas drilling

The Wilderness Society is releasing first-time projections showing vast greenhouse gas emissions -- including the potent GHG methane -- that could be released when leases sold by the Trump administration for oil and gas drilling are operational. The group finds that leases sold between January 2017 and April 2019 could produce 5.2 billion metric tons of GHGs, which is more than the total annual emissions from the European Union. The July 16 report , “Measuring the Climate Impact of Trump’s...

Fearing Broad Precedent, Industry, States Fight New York’s Ozone Petition

Midwestern industry groups and states are pushing back hard against New York’s petition for EPA to regulate ozone pollution from hundreds of power plants and other facilities in upwind states, fearing it would set a precedent that could allow regulation of sources on a scale previously unseen and in sectors previously unaffected by such petitions. In comments submitted to EPA ahead of a July 15 deadline, states and industry groups in the Midwest and South reject New York’s assertions 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.