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.

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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 Finalizes Tougher Air Emissions Rule For Iron And Steel Plants

Despite resistance from industry groups and bipartisan lawmakers, EPA has finalized its rule toughening air toxics requirements for 10 integrated iron and steel plants, adding new air toxics limits for previously unregulated equipment and pollutants and mandating fenceline monitoring while providing some concessions to ease compliance burdens. In the final rule signed by Administrator Michael Regan March 11 but released by the agency March 18, EPA seeks to add limits for previously unregulated emissions points and to set new limits...


EPA poised to propose tougher ‘secondary’ NAAQS

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed review of EPA’s draft plan that could propose a tightening of “secondary” welfare-based air limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), clearing the way for EPA to release the plan by its April target date. OMB completed its interagency review March 15, according to its website. EPA is facing an April 9 consent decree deadline agreed in litigation brought by environmentalists to propose...

EPA’s Sterilizer EtO Rule Bucks Environmentalists’ Calls For Stiffer Mandates

EPA’s final air rule limiting ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers sets stringent emissions limits, but also rejects calls from environmentalists and Democratic states for regulation of off-site warehouses and for fenceline air monitoring, and extends the compliance timeline far beyond what was proposed. In the final rule unveiled March 14, EPA said it would not regulate EtO releases at warehouses because they are not part of the source category. In addition, it said it would not require fenceline...

White House Completes Review Of EPA’s Phase 3 Truck GHG Standards

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has finished inter-agency review of EPA’s draft final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks, paving the way for officials to publicly release the final rule potentially in the coming days. OMB completed review of the measure March 15, just one day after the office finished reviewing EPA’s separate multi-pollutant emissions regulation for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which is expected to be released at an event in Washington, D.C., on...

GOP senators join House push to scrap PM NAAQS

At least 46 Republican senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are seeking to scrap EPA’s recently-tightened national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), signing on to a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that mirrors a recently introduced House measure. The Senate CRA resolution , sponsored by McConnell and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), would nullify the rule that reduced the annual health-based NAAQS from 12 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) down to 9 mg/m3,...

EPA Adopts Tougher Air Rules For Gasoline Storage, Distribution Facilities

EPA has finalized tougher air standards for thousands of bulk gasoline storage and distribution facilities largely as proposed, tightening emissions limits for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tanks, but also easing the rule somewhat in response to industry criticism over small facilities’ ability to comply. In a final rule announced March 14, following its signature by EPA Administrator Michael Regan Feb. 29, EPA imposes tougher national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for both...


Denka Hints At Suit On Chloroprene Rules As Enforcement Case Pauses

Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the sole domestic manufacturer of neoprene, is warning White House officials that EPA’s imminent emissions rule for chloroprene, a key synthetic rubber component, is unlawful, signaling a new suit that could shift the company’s litigation focus as the agency decides whether to continue its landmark enforcement action against the Louisiana facility. In a presentation to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and EPA officials March 7, Bracewell attorneys representing Denka raised a series of...

EPA poised to unveil light-duty vehicle emissions rule March 20

EPA is planning to unveil its final multi-pollutant emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles on March 20, according to several sources familiar with the process, a move that will conclude a high-profile rulemaking expected to encourage broader deployment of electric vehicles. The final standards addressing passenger vehicles and some heavier pickups also will be released before EPA’s forthcoming final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles, these sources add, even though the two proposed rules were initially announced...

EPA Sets Tough Limits For EtO Sterilizers But Eases Compliance Options

EPA has released its long-awaited final rule setting tougher limits on emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) from commercial sterilizers, tightening existing limits, setting new limits, eliminating exemptions for facility startup and shutdown -- but also offering a two-year compliance extension, and finalizing “site-wide” flexible compliance options. The rule will tighten standards for “on the books” sources such as sterilization chamber vents and aeration room vents, and add new limits for unregulated emissions, such as building leaks and chamber...


New Data Adds Pressure On EPA To Strengthen Landfill Methane Rules

Correction Appended Environmentalists are stepping up their calls for EPA to update its new source performance standards (NSPS) to reduce methane and related emissions from landfills, citing a new study showing solid waste landfills have become the largest industrial source of the potent greenhouse gas in 45 states in 2022. According to new analysis by Industrious Labs, a group that advocates for decarbonizing the industrial sector, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills were the largest industrial source of methane in...

Court Blocks Industry Bid To Win EPA Review Of Waste Combustors’ Risks

A federal district court has rejected the waste incineration industry’s push to force EPA to conduct a risk review of its air rules for municipal waste combustors (MWCs), which the industry sought as a precursor to an ongoing technology review that could tighten emissions limits, although the ruling allows for a fresh industry challenge. In a March 13 ruling in Waste To Energy Association (WTEA) v. EPA, et al. , Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the...

High Court Urged To Narrow D.C. Circuit’s Downstream GHG NEPA Holding

Seven Utah counties and a railroad company are asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling requiring consideration of the downstream greenhouse gases under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), arguing that the high court has already determined agencies can only consider environmental effects within their jurisdiction. The March 4 petition for a writ of certiorari in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition & Uinta Basin Railway, LLC., v. Eagle County, CO, and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), et...

EPA plans to restore Ohio’s ‘nuisance’ air rule to SIP

EPA is moving to restore an air pollution “nuisance” rule as part of Ohio’s state implementation plan (SIP) for meeting federal air quality standards, reversing a Trump-era decision to scrap the measure, after a federal appeals court found environmentalists had standing to sue, and granted the Biden EPA’s request for remand of the earlier decision. The Air Nuisance Rule (ANR), which generally barred emission “of smoke, ashes, dust, dirt, grime, acids, fumes, gases, vapors” and a range of other substances,...

Biogas Producers Press Case Against EPA Regulatory ‘Overreach’ Under RFS

Biogas producers are making their closing arguments against EPA’s rule setting tougher conditions for tracking generation of renewable fuel standard (RFS) credits, which they say exceeds the agency’s statutory authority by regulating gas “feedstock” suppliers, but which EPA insists is both lawful and necessary to prevent fraud. In a final brief filed ahead of April 25 oral arguments in Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) v. EPA , biogas producers urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...

Amid Circuit Split, Industry Backs Texas’ Stance On ‘Contingency’ Measures

Energy industry groups are backing Texas’ suit challenging EPA’s disapproval of its state air quality plan over “contingency measures” (CMs) for ozone reduction, in a case that may deepen an existing circuit split on the issue and further undermine the agency’s policy that is already under attack elsewhere. In an amicus brief filed Feb. 28 in State of Texas v. EPA , pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the Texas Oil & Gas Association,...

EPA Moves To Tighten Terms Of NSR Permit Program, Redefining ‘Projects’

EPA is floating revisions to its new source review (NSR) permit program to safeguard against air pollution backsliding, redefining the term “project” and introducing other measures to prevent abuses of the Trump-era “project emissions accounting” (PEA) rule that EPA otherwise retains, despite environmentalists’ and some states’ opposition. In a proposed rule quietly posted to the agency’s website last month, but not yet published in the Federal Register , EPA floats changes to allay the concerns of environmentalists and some states...


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