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 opens comment period on hazardous combustors plan

EPA has published its proposal setting limits for previously unregulated pollutants emitted by hazardous waste combustors (HWCs) that also uses a broader and less-stringent approach than in previous air toxics rule reviews, starting a public comment period that will conclude Dec. 26, only days ahead of a Dec. 31 judicial deadline to issue the final rule. The proposal , published in the Federal Register Nov. 10, withdraws an earlier Biden-era proposal issued in July 2024 that would have simply...

New Hampshire Preparing To Leave OTC, Sparking Ozone Concerns

New Hampshire is poised to ask EPA to allow it to leave the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), a Mid-Atlantic and New England group authorized under the Clean Air Act to cut ozone emissions, a move that is sparking concern that the region could lose some of its recent gains in curbing dangerous air pollution. The Granite State’s impending OTC departure is linked with a new state law that ends the state’s vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) program, because having an...

EPA approves more small refinery RFS exemptions

EPA is taking action on another 16 small refinery compliance waiver requests under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) from eight refineries, with the agency highlighting its efforts to address long-pending waiver requests even as biofuel groups are increasing pressure on EPA to reallocate any waived requirements to larger refiners. In a Nov. 7 release, EPA says it approved partial exemptions from biofuel blending requirements for 12 of the requests, allowed full exemptions for two and denied two additional petitions. The...

Rejecting Industry, 4th Circuit Backs Novel Standing Test In Monitoring Suit

The 4th Circuit is rejecting industry defendant and business groups’ petition to rehear a landmark panel ruling that plaintiffs in a class action suit seeking medical monitoring for ethylene oxide (EtO) exposures satisfied Article III injury and standing when citing past exposures. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued a Nov. 4 order denying industry defendants’ petition for rehearing en banc in the suit Lee Ann Sommerville v. Union Carbide Corp,; Covestro LLC , simply saying...

Environmentalists, States Attack Legal Basis For GHG Reporting Rollback

Environmental groups and Democratic-led states are detailing legal arguments against EPA’s proposal to roll back its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), arguing the plan relies on a “novel” and incorrect interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s information-gathering authority and ignores congressional directives to conduct such reporting. The pushback, detailed in formal comments on EPA’s proposal, disputes the agency’s primary claim that it lacks ongoing legal authority for the GHGRP, as well as officials’ alternative claim that EPA has discretion to...

More evidence EPA will keep Energy Star

EPA has quietly renewed four contracts with a consulting firm that helps administer its Energy Star program including one through September of 2030, more evidence that the agency, under pressure, is retreating from boldly announced May plans to shutter the popular energy efficiency program. The New York Times reported Nov. 1 on EPA’s contract renewals with consulting firm ICF. Brigit Hirsh, an EPA spokeswoman, told the Times that “no final decision has been made at this time” on...

EPA’s Repeal Proposal Sparks Fears Of Costly GHG Reporting ‘Patchwork’

Technology and other groups are warning that EPA’s proposal to gut its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) could raise costs to businesses due to the likely need to implement ramped up voluntary or state-based reporting programs, while also jeopardizing the competitiveness of U.S. exports. The concerns surface in formal comments to the agency filed by a Nov. 3 deadline, including warnings that scuttling GHG reporting mandates could spur a proliferation of state reporting programs and hamper data availability critical to...

Biofuels Groups Seek Full ‘Reallocation’ Of Waived RFS Refiner Volumes

Biofuels groups are pressing EPA for a full “reallocation” of waived renewable fuel standard (RFS) blending volumes when it finalizes its RFS requirements for 2026 and 2027, rebuffing the agency’s proposal to reallocate only half of the volumes waived for small refiners and asserting that anything less than full reallocation is unlawful. In comments on EPA’s supplemental RFS proposal for 2026 and 2027 submitted ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline, biofuels groups were adamant that EPA must reassign all waived...

Environmentalists Claim EPA ‘Guidance’ On NSR ‘Construction’ Is Unlawful

Environmental groups are asserting that EPA’s recent “guidance” enabling some construction to begin before an industrial air pollution source obtains a new source review (NSR) permit is neither real guidance nor lawful, and that it would expose companies relying on such a policy to legal challenges. In an Oct. 30 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, first reported by E&E News , Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club say: “EPA does not have authority to allow any...

Biofuels Groups Sue To Force Release Of Final RFS As Waiver Battles Grow

Biofuels groups are suing to force EPA to quickly finalize its overdue renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending volumes for 2026 and 2027, as the agency’s target of issuing a final rule by Dec. 31 fast approaches and legal battles intensify over EPA’s related denial of dozens of small refinery waivers from RFS mandates. In their lawsuit filed Oct. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, biodiesel group Clean Fuels Alliance America and pro-ethanol group Growth...

EPA prepares second interim steel air rule

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review a second interim final rule (IFR) addressing air toxics standards for the integrated iron and steel sector, only days after a federal court rejected environmentalists’ bid to scrap a similar IFR that extended compliance deadlines for steel plants. OMB received the new rule for pre-publication review Oct. 28, according to its website. Review typically takes up to 90 days, although the Trump administration is moving to review...

Environmentalists Sue Over EPA Rule Allowing ‘Emergency’ Incineration

Environmentalists are suing over EPA’s interim final rule (IFR) granting emergency permission for solid waste incinerators to burn debris from disasters such as wildfires and storms, claiming the rule unlawfully allows for incineration that will release harmful pollutants for indefinite periods, and that EPA flouted public notice requirements. In their Oct. 24 suit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sierra Club, Air Alliance Houston, Healthy Gulf, and Concerned Citizens Around Murphy challenge the...

L.A. District Rebuts Gas Firms’ 9th Circuit Claims To Block Boiler Rule

The Los Angeles regional air district is urging the 9th Circuit to reject natural gas firms’ request for an injunction blocking the district’s zero-emission boiler rule, rebutting claims that the rule violates a 2024 precedent that a city’s ban on gas hookups to new buildings was preempted by the Energy Policy & Conservation Act (EPCA), among other claims. “Plaintiffs seek extraordinary relief. Having lost on the merits . . . they ask this Court to enjoin pending appeal Rule 1146.2...

EPA Combustor Plan Floats Eased Method For Unregulated Air Toxics

EPA is proposing new limits for previously unregulated pollutants emitted by hazardous waste combustors (HWC), but it is using a broader and less-stringent approach than in previous air toxics rule reviews, making extensive use of alternatives to traditional numeric limits such as work practice requirements and “health-based” standards. In a notice signed by Administrator Lee Zeldin on Oct. 28 ahead of its upcoming publication in the Federal Register , EPA proposes to modify the national emission standards for hazardous air...

Environmentalists Find LNG Terminals Repeatedly Violated Air, Water Limits

Update appended The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) is outlining claims that all seven liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals operating in the country last year violated their Clean Air Act (CAA) permits, and that five of the facilities violated their Clean Water Act (CWA) permits. The findings , released Oct. 29, are prompting environmentalists to urge EPA and state agencies to step up enforcement and to more closely scrutinize planned expansions of the facilities or new terminals in the...

EPW Backs OECA, OCSPP Picks On Party Lines; Bills Win Broader Support

The Senate environment committee is advancing on party lines President Trump’s nominees to lead EPA’s enforcement and chemicals offices while approving on a bipartisan basis a suite of bills, including measures that would authorize a new Western mine-cleanup office, reauthorize diesel emissions reduction grants and address plastic pollution. During an Oct. 29 business meeting, Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) lawmakers voted 10-9 along party lines to confirm both Jeffrey Hall and Douglas Troutman to lead EPA’s Office of Enforcement...

EPA Reopens Comment On Turbines Data As Group Seeks To Cut Burdens

EPA is reopening a window for public comment on its proposed extension of a data collection request to support air rules for stationary combustion turbines, as the agency approaches a legal deadline to issue a final air rule for the sector, amid calls for EPA to ease cumulative paperwork burdens imposed by such data requests. In a notice published in the Federal Register Oct. 28, EPA announces it will reopen public comment for another 30 days on its proposed...

EPA’s Climate Endangerment Repeal Stokes Key Questions For Industry

EPA’s controversial proposal to repeal the Obama-era climate change endangerment finding, underlying most of the federal government’s greenhouse gas controls, has presented key questions for industry groups who are generally expected to benefit from the Trump administration’s overall deregulatory push. For instance, electric utilities and automakers argue the repeal could create legal and regulatory uncertainties that would thwart future industry investments, even while not directly opposing Trump’s rollbacks. At the same time, environmentalists argue EPA failed to fully account for...

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