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.

Consultants Reject Calls For New Environmental Law For Nanotech

A respected nanotechnology consulting firm is recommending in a major annual report on environmental and health challenges pertaining to nanotechnology risk evaluation that policymakers should adjust current laws and regulations instead of creating a new law that has authority over the promising new technology. Lux Research Inc., a New York-based nanotechnology consulting firm, released its second annual report on the technology's environmental, health and safety risks in June, urging industries to collaborate on efforts to limit risks; for companies and...

GAO Advice On EPA Risk Practices May Force Steps Toward OMB Guide

Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations on EPA risk assessment practices requested by Senate environment committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) could force EPA to take steps to amend its risk practices that fall short of reforms recommended by the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) but may still satisfy industry critics and proponents of the OMB reforms, EPA sources and other observers say. The GAO report focuses on improving transparency, expertise, planning and training in risk analysis for EPA staff, whereas...

COURT BACKS EPA DISCRETION TO MAKE MAJOR CHANGES TO PROPOSED RULES

A federal appeals court has backed EPA arguments that the agency has discretion to finalize rules that are dramatically different from what was proposed without first re-proposing the measure for public comment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit July 11 ruled in American Coke & Coal Chemicals Institute v. United States Environmental Protection Agency that the agency acted within its authority when it finalized a 2002 effluent limitation guideline for iron and steel facilities that...

CONSULTANTS REJECT CALLS FOR NEW ENVIRONMENTAL LAW FOR NANOTECH

A respected nanotechnology consulting firm is recommending in a major annual report on environmental and health challenges pertaining to nanotechnology risk evaluation that policymakers should adjust current laws and regulations instead of creating a new law that has authority over the promising new technology. Lux Research Inc., a New York-based nanotechnology consulting firm, released its second annual report on the technology's environmental, health and safety risks in June, urging industries to collaborate on efforts to limit risks; for companies and...

EPA UNVEILS 'ROADMAP' APPROACH IN SCALED-BACK MERCURY STRATEGY

EPA has unveiled a "roadmap" detailing current agency activities on controlling mercury releases in the environment, three years after state officials and environmentalists called for the agency to adopt more aggressive measures in its national strategy for addressing the toxin. The July 5 plan, EPA's Roadmap for Mercury , describes progress EPA has made in recent years in reducing mercury, as well as ongoing mercury control efforts. According to the report, air emissions of mercury -- a potent neurotoxin --...

MTBE Ruling Hampers Industry Preemption Defense In Future Lawsuits

A federal court's recent ruling rejecting oil industry claims that the Clean Air Act preempts state tort lawsuits over contamination from the fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) sets a significant precedent for future suits by frustrating industry's ability to raise the preemption argument again, plaintiffs' lawyers say. Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled June 23 in In re: MTBE Products Liability Litigation to reject industry arguments that the...

Senate May Abandon Efforts To Pass Refinery Legislation This Year

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, says he may not call a committee vote this year on legislation intended to expedite refinery permitting after a related bill failed to pass the Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee last year. "I don't know if we're going to do [a bill] this year or not," Domenici told reporters July 13, following a committee hearing on H.R. 5254, the Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act. The bill...

STATES, ACTIVISTS SEEK INDUSTRY ALLIES IN HIGH COURT CLIMATE CASE

States and environmental groups that successfully convinced the Supreme Court to hear a high-stakes case over whether EPA is required to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) are now trying to convince industry groups that have supported CO2 regulation to weigh in on their behalf, after an electric utility company filed a brief in a separate CO2 case being heard in a lower court. State and environmentalist sources familiar with both cases say it is highly significant that New Orleans-based Entergy Corp...

OIL INDUSTRY BIDS FOR ELIMINATING FIVE-YEAR NAAQS REVIEW IN AIR ACT

A petroleum industry group is mounting a legislative push to remove a Clean Air Act requirement that EPA review national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) every five years, which could come up for discussion at a hearing Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) has scheduled on EPA's controversial proposal for new fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards. EPA is already seeking to amend its NAAQS review process to ensure that it can meet the five-year review deadline. But agency officials are struggling to...

INDUSTRY, ENVIRONMENTALISTS CLASH ON PORT EMISSIONS TRADING PLAN

Industry groups, environmentalists, the air board and U.S. EPA staffers are weighing the merits of integrating an emission trading program into air board plans to reduce pollution from port activities. While sources said this week that the plans are in their infancy, environmentalists are already skeptical of the localized air quality benefits that industry claims emission trading would offer. The plan is seen as significant to industry because it may advance additional trading programs throughout the state. The Maritime Goods...

AUTOMAKERS RIP A.G. REQUEST TO DELAY LAWSUIT OVER GHG REGULATION

Auto industry attorneys this week ripped Attorney General Bill Lockyer's (D) request to delay the trial date of a closely watched industry lawsuit challenging the air board's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-reduction regulations for vehicles. The industry lawyers charge the state has repeatedly delayed key steps in the case and that further delay will cripple the ability of automakers and dealers to sell cars in California. The dispute is part of a larger national debate over the government's authority to regulate...

GROUPS EYE SUIT AGAINST EPA, VALLEY DISTRICT OVER ATTAINMENT METHODS

Environmentalists are weighing a legal challenge against U.S. EPA and the San Joaquin Valley air district over the agencies' determinations that the region is in attainment with a federal particulate matter (PM) standard. But district and federal air officials defend both the disputed attainment proposal and the data that led them to recommend attainment status. A legal challenge that questions federal and local officials' recent declaration of air quality attainment for the area could have significant impacts on future attainment...

ARB DELAYS WOOD-PRODUCT FORMALDEHYDE RULE UNDER INDUSTRY ATTACK

Air board staff is delaying by at least two months, and possibly longer, board consideration of a controversial rule to reduce formaldehyde emissions from composite-wood products, in the face of continued fierce opposition from national industry organizations and companies. The delay reflects staff's struggle over several key components of the proposed regulation, including enforcement and longer-term emission standards. The rule, "Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) to Reduce Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products," is considered by the Air Resources Board...

ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEK STRONGER L.A. PORT CLEAN AIR PLAN

Environmental groups are pressing Los Angeles and Long Beach port officials to strengthen their recently released draft clean air action plan, complaining that the strategy should set more definitive standards and deadlines for emission reductions. The critics say the plan falls short of a comprehensive "No Net Increase" plan gathering dust in the Los Angeles mayor's office. Measures to reduce port emissions -- from trucks, cargo vehicles and ships -- are considered critical to local and state officials to protect...

STATE WIND POWER BOOM SEEN BOOSTING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

An expected boom in wind energy projects in southern California to help utilities meet renewable energy mandates is expected to also boost wind companies' prospects in other states moving in the same direction, according to sources. A handful of private companies are expected to help California roughly double its wind energy production over the next few years, with longer-term output expected to add 4,000-5,000 megawatts (MW) of wind-generated electricity to the state's grid. Major contracts between wind power companies and...

FUEL ADDITIVE COULD OFFER FIRST-TIME AIR ACT TEST FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY

An effort by a nanotechnology company to seek EPA approval to market an engineered nanomaterial that is believed to improve diesel fuel economy and reduce emissions is being followed by a number of observers who say this application may be a first test of how the Clean Air Act (CAA) applies to engineered nanomaterials. Because the materials are eventually dispersed in engine exhaust, the effort could also serve as an early test of EPA's response to "dispersive" uses of engineered...

EPA REPORT TOUTS IGCC BENEFITS DESPITE DENYING BACT DETERMINATION

EPA's new report on integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), the clean coal emissions technology that proponents say is critical to capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and limiting other emissions, is strongly touting the technology's benefits even though the agency in 2005 stopped short of recommending IGCC for clean air permits. The agency released the report in the midst of settlement talks with environmentalists over its recommendation. An environmentalist says activists are pressing the agency to issue guidance that would limit the...

ACTIVISTS SAY REVISED NEPA REVIEW FAILS TO ADDRESS CLIMATE IMPACTS

Environmentalists are arguing that the federal government has failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in a revised review of the air quality impacts of a proposed railroad project that will transport Western coal to Midwestern power plants, because the new analysis fails to address greenhouse gas emissions from burning the coal. The Sierra Club and the Mid States Coalition for Progress, a group representing local landowners, say in their July 5 opening brief in Mayo Foundation,...

EPA Grants First-Time Support For Flexible State Compliance Program

ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- EPA is backing a Massachusetts program that allows non-traditional compliance options for dry-cleaning facilities, a move that could lay the groundwork for the agency to approve a slew of other states' efforts to win recognition from the agency for alternative compliance programs. However, it is unclear whether agency support of the state program means EPA and state environmental commissioners have reached agreement on a broader process for considering and approving other innovative state enforcement programs. Lisa Lund,...

Auto Companies Outline Voluntary Plans To Reduce Greenhouse Gases

Some of the world's largest auto companies are detailing new plans to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through product and operational changes, while also assessing risks that climate change poses to their bottom lines. The climate change-related plans are included in written responses the companies recently sent to the London-based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a group of institutional investors. CDP plans to hold an event providing an overview and assessment of the responses in September...

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