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.

Divided CASAC Clashes With EPA Over Appropriate Use Of Ozone Science

EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) is wrestling with how far to push back against EPA’s conflicting view of ozone science, as a majority of the panel presses for tougher federal air quality limits that EPA staff have so far resisted, though one committee member accuses the panel of giving short shrift to dissenting views. On the first day of a two-day virtual meeting May 23, committee members sought to address serious differences with EPA -- and among themselves...

EPA’s Reactivation Policy Faces Test In PSD Case Over St. Croix Refinery

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit will hear May 24 oral arguments in a high-profile Clean Air Act (CAA) case where EPA is seeking to force the new owners of a controversial St. Croix, VI, refinery to go through major source prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permitting before they can restart the facility. The case, Port Hamilton v. EPA , also marks a test for EPA’s policy on whether industrial facilities are “reactivated” and therefore require new...

House Backs Repeal Of EPA Truck NOx Rule, Setting Stage For Biden Veto

The House of Representatives has backed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to rescind EPA’s final nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions limits for heavy-duty trucks, paving the way for an expected veto by President Biden after the Senate narrowly approved the measure last month. The chamber’s 221-203 vote May 23 was largely along party lines with four Democrats -- Reps. Henry Cuellar (TX), Jared Golden (ME), Vicente Gonzalez (TX) and Mary Peltola (AK) -- joining with 217 Republicans in support of...

EPA drops EV credits provision under RFS

EPA has reportedly dropped provisions that would provide first-time Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance credits to automakers producing electric vehicles (EVs), a move that is drawing praise from environmentalists who warned the provision would further incentivize blending fuel from environmentally harmful sources. In a May 23 article , Reuters cites two sources with knowledge of EPA’s thinking who confirm agency plans to pull its controversial electric renewable identification numbers (eRINs) as part of a rule setting RFS biofuel blending...

Steel Sector Asks EPA Not To Widen Air Toxics Plan Beyond Court Mandate

Steel industry representatives are urging EPA not to stray beyond changes required by a federal appeals court when the agency issues a proposal to fill in air toxics limits “missing” from the sector’s original regulations, while also raising concerns about possible fenceline monitoring requirements. Meeting with White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials May 18, representatives from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) outlined their concerns over EPA’s upcoming proposal to revise the national emissions standards for...

McCarthy Tempers Outlook On Permit Language’s Scope In Debt Deal

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is stating that efforts to streamline the federal permitting process continue to be under discussion as part of talks to lift the debt limit, though he is also tempering expectations about the scope of provisions that might be included in any deal. During a May 22 Capitol Hill press conference, McCarthy cited “productive conversations” and ongoing work by Rep. Garrett Graves (R-LA) on the issue. Regarding whether permitting-related provisions would make it into a debt...

Pending Suit On EPA Aircraft Rule Highlights Lack Of Enforceable EJ Orders

EPA’s rule governing aircraft greenhouse gas emissions illustrates a wider problem with the lack of legally enforceable environmental justice (EJ) mandates in agency regulations, says one legal analyst, though a federal appellate court that is preparing to rule on the measure did not pay much attention to the issue during oral argument. Norman Dupont, a California-based partner with the law firm Ring Bender LLP, says that EPA’s robust rejection of states and environmentalists’ claims that executive order EJ mandates are...

EPA, Denka Spar Over Chloroprene IRIS Value In Air Enforcement Suit

EPA and Denka Performance Elastomer are sparring over whether a federal court can consider the agency’s years-old adoption of an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) inhalation exposure limit for chloroprene as part of the agency’s air act emergency enforcement action that seeks to force immediate reductions at the company’s LaPlace, LA, neoprene plant. The litigation, United States v. Denka Performance Elastomer LLC and Dupont Specialty Products USA, LLC ., pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of...

White House Begins Reviewing EPA Rule Implementing IRA Methane Fee

The White House regulatory office is reviewing EPA’s draft proposal for implementing the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) oil and gas methane fee, a package also expected to start discussion of proposed updates to related reporting rules to enable more accurate calculation of the sector’s methane emissions. The move signals continuing EPA efforts to advance methane controls, with officials separately preparing to finalize tougher methane emissions standards for both new and existing oil and gas facilities. Stakeholders have been grappling with...

Environmentalists Eye Suit Against EPA Over Detroit Ozone Redesignation

Environmentalists say EPA’s May 16 decision to accept a “clean data determination” from Michigan officials that excluded emissions from last summer that regulators say was driven by Canadian wildfires, allowing the city of Detroit to meet the 2015 ozone air quality standard, is “what environmental injustice looks like,” and say they are considering a lawsuit. Nicholas Leonard of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center (GLELC) tweeted the same day that while Michigan and EPA “want to pretend air on the...

CASAC Majority Backs Tougher Ozone Limits, ‘Ecological’ Secondary Limit

All but one of EPA’s top clean air advisors are backing a draft report urging the agency to drop its opposition to stricter federal ozone limits and instead adopt much tougher standards, including a first-time distinct secondary limit to protect the environment that would use a unique “form,” ahead of a meeting next week where the panel will finalize its advice. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and its larger special ozone panel recently posted a draft letter and...

EJ Advocates Warn EPA Power Plant GHG Plan Will Harm Fenceline Areas

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates are skeptical of EPA’s new proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from baseload coal- and gas-fired power plants and say it will bring additional harm to EJ areas and not alleviate impacts, contradicting a top Biden administration priority. The advocates say EPA’s plan to exempt new “peaker” plants from any requirements, allow coal plants to install carbon capture & sequestration (CCS) technology and allow new gas plants to co-fire with hydrogen will all result in more...

EPA Readies Regulatory ‘Infrastructure’ Plan For Newly Listed Air Toxics

EPA is preparing to propose a rule creating the “regulatory infrastructure” for how to address Clean Air Act requirements triggered by the listing of new hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) such as 1-bromopropane (1-BP), though the agency is months behind schedule and environmentalists are pressing officials to quickly set such limits. The agency sent its proposal for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review May 16, according to OMB’s website. OMB review typically takes up to 90 days,...

Senate Democrats Float Permitting Draft With Focus On Clean Energy

Senate environment panel Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) and several other Democrats are floating draft permitting legislation with a specific focus on speeding transmission lines and other climate-friendly energy projects while also bolstering the profile of environmental justice (EJ) and early community engagement in environmental reviews. The May 18 discussion draft provides a counterpoint to several other Capitol Hill bills that would accelerate fossil fuel projects at a time when questions are swirling about whether any permitting legislation could be attached...

Judges Split On ‘Finality’ Of EPA Email In Sinclair RFS Waiver Denial Case

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit at May 17 oral argument appeared split on whether an EPA staffer’s email constitutes “final agency action” that refiner Sinclair can sue over in its bid to force EPA to “replace” renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance credits for 2018, suggesting the company may struggle to reach the merits of its case. In Sinclair Wyoming Refining Company v. EPA , the refiner claims it is owed credits, known as renewable...

Hill Republicans Leverage CRA To Attack Biden Environment Initiatives

Capitol Hill Republicans are ramping up use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) as a tool to attack Biden administration environment and clean energy policies, measures that are unlikely to block any of the policies though they provide other benefits such as bolstering GOP unity and accentuating splits among Democratic constituencies. The series of recent CRA votes shows “a bipartisan majority in a divided Congress recognizes how harmful these regulations are, and importantly, rejected them,” says a Senate Republican aide...

Officials Defend Permitting Agenda As Carper Readies Targeted Draft Bill

Biden administration officials are vowing to support legislation that would yield faster yet “quality” environmental reviews while defending various administration actions on the issue, as a key Senate Democrat vows to release a draft permitting bill with more “targeted” legislative changes than GOP proposals. “We will continue to evaluate permitting reform proposals to assess whether they improve the speed and quality of processes for big transformational projects,” White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Brenda Mallory told a May 17...

OMB reviewing RFS ‘set’ rule

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun reviewing EPA’s final “set” rule defining biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2023 through 2025, amid reports the agency may drop its controversial plan to issue RFS credits for electric vehicles (EVs). The rule, which the agency must issue next month as required by a consent decree deadline, would set biofuel blending volumes under EPA’s own authority for the first time, rather than relying on...

Signaling Refiners, EPA, BP Ink Air Act Deal With Record $40 Million Penalty

EPA and a BP subsidiary have signed a Clean Air Act settlement over alleged hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions at the company’s Whiting, IN, refinery that includes a record-setting $42 million penalty, the largest in history at a stationary source and part of a deal that officials say “sends an important signal” to the refining sector to cut its emissions. In addition to the penalty, the settlement also requires injunctive relief valued at nearly $200 million, as well as a...

Judges Mull Limits Of EPA Powers At Hearing Over Wyoming Haze Plan

Federal appellate judges are weighing the limits of EPA and state powers to set controls on haze-forming emissions from coal-fired power plants in Wyoming, after oral argument May 16 in a long-running case in which state and industry officials are alleging EPA’s partial disapproval of a state haze plan exceeded its authority. In State of Wyoming v. EPA, et al., the state is challenging EPA’s disapproval of its determination of which controls are required at PacifiCorp’s Wyodak coal-fired plant,...

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