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.

GOP Energy Package Would Repeal State Water Review For Gas Pipelines

House Republicans are preparing to take up a massive energy permitting bill after energy committee lawmakers adopted a new plan to scuttle a Clean Water Act (CWA) state certification requirement for natural gas pipelines while also approving with limited or no changes a suite of pending bills that would scale back a host of EPA authorities. Those measures will be incorporated into a broader multi-committee package, H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act,” which will also include provisions narrowing the...

Environmentalists Urge EPA To Drop Contested Michigan Ozone Approval

Environmentalists are urging EPA to withdraw its planned approval of Michigan’s “exceptional events” request that would ease otherwise-mandated limits on volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions that contribute to ozone levels in Detroit, fearing the agency has prejudged its decision before the comment period closed in part to bolster auto industry development plans. While EPA has faced state lawsuits over prior rejections of exceptional event requests, the agency has never been sued over its approval of one, a step that environmentalists...

Environmentalists Signal Likely Litigation Over Revised Lime Kilns Air Rule

Environmental groups are signaling strong opposition to EPA’s plan to strengthen air toxics limits for lime kilns, arguing that the agency still has not addressed the full suite of pollutants emitted by the plants, suggesting fresh litigation over the issue is likely, even as industry groups appear poised to challenge the rule as unreasonably tough. Industry groups including the National Lime Association (NLA) are already objecting to EPA’s January proposal to tighten the national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants...

EPA Inks Grid-Reliability MOU With DOE As Regan Seeks Flexible Rules

EPA Administrator Michael Regan is touting a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) focused on ensuring electric grid reliability as the Biden administration pursues its clean energy agenda, telling industry executives that EPA is aiming to write flexible and innovative regulations. Speaking March 9 at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Regan outlined the MOU he signed the same day with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, as part of a broader discussion about EPA’s...

EPA Doubles Down On Its Broad View Of ‘Appropriate’ MATS Regulation

EPA’s threshold rule renewing its finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” (A&N) to regulate power plants’ air toxics emissions hinges on a broad legal interpretation under which the agency need not provide a full accounting of the mercury and air toxics standards’ (MATS) projected benefits, even as EPA tries to measure more of the air toxics benefits. The final rule , signed by Administrator Michael Regan Feb. 15 and published in the Federal Register March 6, restores the...

EPA Issues Final Rule Extending Lapsed State Deadlines For ACE Rule

EPA is extending until April 2024 now-lapsed deadlines for states to submit plans for how they will meet Trump-era greenhouse gas standards for coal-fired power plants, relying on unusual procedures to quickly extend the deadlines in a move EPA says reflects drawn out litigation over the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule that was vacated and later reinstated by default. The deadline extension rule , scheduled to be published in the March 10 Federal Register , also signals that the Biden...

Midwestern Officials Threaten To Sue EPA Over Delayed Start For E15 Sales

Midwestern attorneys general (AGs) are threatening to sue EPA over its proposed decision to delay the start date for summer sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) in their states until 2024, as pressure mounts on the agency to drop its oil industry-backed position that earlier sales risk insufficient fuel supply, and to instead allow summer sales this year. In a March 6 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the AGs of Iowa and Nebraska protest the agency’s proposal to...

Oil Sector Protests EPA Deal To Review Oil And Gas Air Toxics Rules

An oil sector group is strongly objecting to EPA’s proposed consent decree with environmentalists that sets deadlines for the agency to review and likely tighten air toxics regulations for oil and gas production, arguing the draft deal “is inappropriate, improper, and inadequate” and “should be withdrawn and withheld pending further analysis.” In Feb. 23 comments , the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), which represents smaller, independent oil and natural gas producers, criticizes the proposed consent decree published by EPA...

Senate Democrats’ Bill Raises Pressure On EPA Over Crypto Emissions

Senate Democrats are raising the pressure on EPA to measure and track the emissions associated with cryptocurrency mining operations, offering a bill that seeks to force the agency to gather such data even as the agency has previously acknowledged it already has authority to require reporting of such data. At a March 7 hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s (EPW) clean air and climate panel, Democrats also made the case for the industry to convert to far...

EPA Contests ‘Improper’ OIG Report Faulting ‘Flawed’ Wood Stove Testing

EPA is at odds with its Office of Inspector General (OIG) over a recent report that found the agency’s testing and certification program for wood heaters unreliable and deficient, with the agency agreeing on the need for improvements, but also chiding the OIG for its failure to list all actions the agency is taking to improve testing. The OIG in its Feb. 28 report said, “EPA’s residential wood heater program does not provide reasonable assurance that wood heaters are properly...

Industry Fights EPA Proposal To Count ‘Fugitive’ Emissions In Air Permits

A range of industry groups and GOP-led states are fighting EPA’s plan to require new source review (NSR) permit applicants to count “fugitive” emissions when deciding if more-rigorous permit review and additional pollution controls are required, signaling likely litigation, while environmentalists and some state regulators are welcoming the proposal. In comments submitted ahead of a Feb. 14 deadline, industry groups criticize EPA’s Oct. 14 proposal that would scrap a 2008 rule that sought to exempt some facilities from having to...

OMB reviewing EtO limits in EPA chemical sector air toxics rules

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review its proposal to review and possibly tighten air emissions limits for facilities in the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry (SOCMI), with more-stringent limits likely for the industrial solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) and other pollutants. The proposal sent to OMB March 3 includes Clean Air Act-mandated technology reviews of four related air toxics regulations, known as national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP), for facilities in the...

CARB Rejects Industry Call To Align Truck Rule With EPA’s, Citing Benefits

California air board officials appear to be rejecting industry calls to align their landmark heavy-duty truck standards with EPA’s comparable, but less-stringent national standards for model year 2027 and later vehicles, arguing it would significantly reduce the expected nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission cuts to be achieved. Citing new estimates, officials argued that certain compliance flexibilities in EPA’s rule would undercut the NOx emissions reductions the state’s rules are slated to achieve if they were to align the two programs. “The...

EPA Touts First-Time Enforcement Actions Under HFC Control Statute

EPA is touting its first-ever enforcement actions under the 2020 hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) control law, targeting companies it says illegally imported the potent greenhouse gases often used in refrigeration, in an effort to ensure compliance with the law’s program to sharply phase down HFCs. Under the program, EPA issues a declining number of allowances to HFC manufacturers and other companies in the sector. The firms must spend these credits to import or make HFCs. The credit pool will get progressively smaller,...

WHEJAC establishes workgroup for input on NAAQS

The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) is establishing a small, informal workgroup to draft the group’s position to EPA on its proposed rule revising the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) 2.5 in response to industry opposition to the tougher standards. “We are already seeing major industry pushback to improvement of these NAAQS, which of course is not surprising, but I think illustrates the importance of a very loud and clear environmental justice message,”...

D.C. Circuit Upholds Current CSAPR, But Tougher Legal Fights Await

A federal appeals court has upheld EPA’s current iteration of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in litigation brought against the interstate air emissions program by the utility sector, deferring to EPA’s technical expertise, but tougher legal tests are looming over officials’ recent decisions to scrap states’ interstate air plans and expand CSAPR. In a unanimous opinion issued March 3, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld EPA’s 2021 revision of...

EPA Staff Recommends Retaining Ozone NAAQS, As Agency Delays Rule

EPA staff is again recommending that the agency leave unchanged its national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone, as the agency is also delaying proposal of a rule to retain or alter the standards until next spring, with a final decision slated for the end of 2024 -- days before the end of President Joe Biden’s current term. The staff recommendations are a rejection of calls from environmentalists to significantly tighten the ozone standard, a move that could indirectly...

EPA Cracks Down On Importers’ HFC Reports Amid Refrigerant Phasedown

EPA in recent weeks has stepped up enforcement over companies’ failure to report imports of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), a move that advocates say is an important sign the agency is serious about curbing HFC-related violations as it implements a congressionally mandated allowance program to sharply phase down the chemicals. The agency’s actions addressing violations of its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule are linked to EPA’s HFC phasedown, sources say, given that they concern activity used to calculate companies’ baselines used to...

EPA Proposes Delaying Year-Round E15 Approval In Eight States To 2024

EPA is proposing to grant requests from eight states to revise federal fuel regulations to allow sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) year-round, but plans to delay the effective date until 2024 as sought by the oil sector, meaning that E15 fuel will not be available this summer absent emergency action by the agency. A proposal just signed by EPA Administrator Michael Regan but not yet published in the Federal Register would approve the removal of a 1...

EPA Files Novel Emergency Suit To Push Denka To Cut Chloroprene Releases

Citing rarely used emergency authority under the Clean Air Act, EPA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are asking a federal court to force Denka Performance Elastomer LLC, to reduce chloroprene emissions from its neoprene manufacturing facility in Louisiana, a move that escalates a long-running dispute over the risks posed by chemical. The Feb. 28 complaint , United States v. Denka Performance Elastomer LLC and Dupont Specialty Products USA LLC , filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District...

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