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.

EPA's Truck Plan May Limit California But Officials Promise Collaboration

EPA's plan to develop new rules to limit nitrogen oxide (NOx) from heavy-duty trucks could provide the sector leverage to negotiate flexibilities with California, which is planning its own rules, but the plan is also prompting cautious praise from environmentalists and others who suggest the effort may avoid the kind of clash occurring in the light-duty sector. The agency's “Cleaner Trucks Initiative” (CTI) is also sure to garner scrutiny for how it strikes a balance between Trump administration deregulatory efforts...

EPA Poised To Announce Plans For New Heavy-Duty Truck Rulemaking

EPA on Nov. 13 is poised to announce a Cleaner Trucks Initiative that is expected to include plans for a future rulemaking to update nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions standard for heavy duty trucks, a measure long sought by state and local officials though the measure could also include some important flexibility for manufacturers. While the details of the plan remain unclear, it is already garnering some early praise from industry, as well as from environmental groups unaccustomed to embracing moves...

EPA sends PM2.5 'precursor' air quality planning guide for OMB review

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review its final guidance on how states can account for precursor substances that form fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in the atmosphere when undertaking state air quality planning or reviewing companies' Clean Air Act permitting requests. According to OMB's website, the agency sent its guidance to OMB Nov. 9 for review, the last step before publication in the Federal Register , though the website has no further details...

ACE Comments Spark Contentious Debate Over Legality Of NSR Changes

EPA is facing starkly different interpretations of the legality of its plan to ease the threshold for triggering strict new source review (NSR) air permits for coal plants complying with its proposed utility climate rule, reviving a decades-old debate with pro-coal industry groups backing the changes and environmentalists strongly opposed. The proposed NSR reforms are included in the Trump EPA's broader Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule that would replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan with a narrower policy to address...

ERCC Comments

UARG Comments


Judge rejects part of suit seeking U.S. climate reports to United Nations

A federal district court has dismissed part of a suit brought by environmentalists seeking to force the Trump administration to submit required reports to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), after finding that the group, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), lacked standing to sue. However, Judge James Boasberg, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a Nov. 8 memorandum opinion says that CBD will have 30 days to file an amended complaint to...

Environmentalists, Power Sector Wage 11th-Hour Effort To Preserve MATS

Environmentalists and the power sector are waging an 11th-hour effort calling on the White House and EPA to preserve the Obama-era mercury emissions rule for utilities, with environmentalists aiming to keep the rule intact while utilities that have invested millions of dollars to comply want it retained with changes to ease some requirements. In a slew of recent meetings with agency and White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) officials, groups including the American Lung Association, Clean Air Task...

Draft EPA Guide Redefining 'Ambient Air' Would Ease Air Law Compliance

EPA in new draft guidance is floating a new definition of “ambient air” that would make it easier for industries and regulators to exclude facilities from Clean Air Act requirements if the general public has no access to them, because the revised definition expands the scope of when areas deter or preclude access by the general public. The unsigned draft guidance released Nov. 9 would allow regulators to consider a wider range of physical restrictions on the public from accessing...

Sens. Carper & Alexander Letter On MATS

Letter From ADA Carbon Solutions On MATS


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