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.

CARB’s Nichols Would Accept EPA Administrator Nomination Under Biden

California air board chief Mary Nichols says she would accept the job of EPA administrator if offered the post under a Biden administration, and believes her experience with pioneering climate change and air programs in the Golden State could shape future national policies, especially if Democrats take control of Congress after the Nov. 3 elections. Nichols in an exclusive Oct. 26 interview with Inside EPA says she has been “approached by people who say ‘Look, you’re the right person...

Bob Murray, coal baron and persistent EPA foe, dies

Bob Murray, a high-profile foe of EPA greenhouse gas and other rules affecting the coal sector during his tenure as head of the former coal giant Murray Energy Corp., has died, according to multiple press reports. The news comes just one week after Murray announced his retirement from the board of American Consolidated Natural Resources, the entity formed after Murray Energy’s bankruptcy, according to an Oct. 25 report by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Murray Energy filed for bankruptcy in October...

Sen. Lee floats sweeping NEPA overhaul bill

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is floating sweeping legislation intended to make it harder to bring lawsuits challenging environmental reviews and subsequent approvals of major federal actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). His Oct. 21 bill , S. 4829, the “NEPA Legal Reform Act,” would raise the bar for plaintiffs to show they have standing to bring a legal challenge, requiring a plaintiff to demonstrate he or she has “personally suffered (or will likely personally suffer) a ‘direct, tangible...

EPA, wood stove makers make closing arguments in suit over air rule

EPA, wood stove manufacturers and public health groups have completed briefing in a case brought by stove makers against the agency’s standards for the sector in which manufacturers claim EPA arbitrarily altered audit requirements for stoves, while environmentalists warn stove makers are trying to circumvent important emissions checks. In an Oct. 22 final brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA), et al., v. EPA , HBPA...

Federal Register Notice

Denial Letter From Administrator Andrew Wheeler


Trump Re-Election Would Enable Defense, Expansion Of EPA Rollbacks

A re-election victory for President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election would allow EPA to bolster its defense of sundry climate and other environmental rollbacks in court while embarking on new deregulatory efforts, observers say, including broader changes to cost-benefit rules and limiting the scope of future carbon controls. A Trump victory would also likely heighten the political importance of state and regional climate change initiatives, while simultaneously exacerbating tensions between states and a White House that is already...

Environmentalists Might Sue EPA Over Refusal To Revise Refinery MACT

Environmentalists are signaling that they might sue EPA over its refusal to reconsider its air toxics standards for oil refineries that critics say are unlawfully weak, after the agency formally announced its rejection of a petition filed by Earthjustice on behalf of 11 environmental organizations that urged EPA to tighten the emissions limits. EPA in a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication Oct. 26 announces its denial of the April 6 petition Earthjustice filed asking the agency to reconsider...

GOP senators from oil refining states ask EPA for broad RFS waiver

A group of 15 GOP senators from oil refining states is urging EPA to use its general waiver authority to reduce renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates in response to economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting slump in fuel demand, but ethanol advocates counter that the request is unwarranted. In an Oct. 21 letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (WV) and 14 other Senate Republicans call on Wheeler to reduce biofuel blending...

Oil Sector, GOP Allies Seek To Capitalize On Biden’s ‘Transition’ Remark

The oil sector and Trump campaign are seizing on comments by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden urging a “transition” from the industry, in an effort to make Biden’s climate change stance a liability for Democrats up and down the ballot with less than two weeks before voting ends in the Nov. 3 election. Yet, there are questions about whether the politics of climate and energy issues have shifted -- including in key swing states such as Pennsylvania -- and thus...

Despite Political Lift, Backers See Hill, Legal Advantages To Carbon Tax

Supporters of a carbon tax and others are citing key advantages of the policy in the courts and Capitol Hill even as they acknowledge challenges for such a measure under a potential Biden administration -- including Democrats’ current focus on other climate policies and Republicans’ longtime allergy to carbon limits. Specifically, carbon tax supporters say it might be easier compared to other options to pass the plan in the Senate using budget “reconciliation” procedures not requiring 60 votes, and also...

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