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.

BP, MISSION ENERGY WANT CALIFORNIA GHG RULE TO BACK CO2 STORAGE

Petroleum giant BP and power producer Edison Mission Energy are asking state utility regulators to essentially endorse the companies' plans to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) underground at a proposed hydrogen-fueled power plant as a preferred low-carbon strategy to comply with a pending greenhouse gas (GHG) standard for electricity sales. Company officials argue that government acknowledgment, and a definition of carbon sequestration as a preferred low-carbon method for power generation, will bolster investments in future projects, and that the upcoming rulemaking...

NEW ARB EMISSIONS MODEL IMPLICATES CENTRAL VALLEY TRUCKS

An air board staff revision to a key mobile source emissions forecasting model is drawing concerns from at least one major air district and stakeholders over the redistribution of diesel emissions away from populated coastal regions to the Central Valley. Valley air officials argue a lack of funding needed to mitigate this added pollution must be addressed, while other stakeholders question the motives behind the staff proposal. The update to the emissions model is seen as key to determining how...

EPA STEPS UP CLAIMS THAT NEW ENERGY PROPOSALS REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS

EPA and top Bush environment officials are stepping up claims that their energy policy proposals reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a move observers perceive as a way to deflect criticism over President Bush's reluctance to back carbon dioxide (CO2) caps in the face of growing state efforts to act. "We are seeing the beginning of a drumbeat from the administration that they are taking action [on greenhouse gases] despite all appearances to the contrary," one environmentalist says. However, observers on...

EPA EYES FLEXIBLE APPROACH FOR ISSUING "AREA SOURCE" TOXIC RULES

DENVER -- EPA is developing an innovative rule under the air toxics program for relatively small emissions sources, known as area sources, that would impose "performance-based" requirements that set overall emissions limits while allowing industry flexible compliance options, officials say. The rule is intended to help the agency address many area source categories at once, allowing EPA to comply with a looming court-ordered deadlines for issuing rules for 50 categories in the next few years. Agency sources say a more...

PAPER INDUSTRY EYES NOVEL CAP-AND-TRADE PLAN IN EPA SECTOR PROGRAM

DENVER -- EPA is discussing possible strategies with the pulp and paper industry to impose broad pollution limits in exchange for waiving many key air rules, as part of the agency's new "sector-based" effort to look beyond individual regulations and consider an industry's overall air quality impact. But agency sources stress they have not agreed to allow any flexibility for the industry so far, and will only do so if it yields net environmental benefits. The approach is also raising...

EPA IG Nominee Joins Two Other Bush Picks Facing Democratic Holds

Alex Beehler, the Bush administration's nominee to be the next EPA inspector general (IG), is joining two other Bush nominees to the agency facing Senate holds. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is planning to place a hold on Beehler's nomination, the senator's spokeswoman says, after Democrats questioned his suitability for the job at his confirmation hearing before the Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee Sept. 13. Beehler's record "doesn't mesh with the IG's job," Boxer said at the hearing, adding that...

GOP Moderates Fighting Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Deadline Extension

A group of moderate House Republicans is urging EPA not to delay next month's deadline for all on-road fuel to meet the agency's new ultra-low-sulfur diesel standard while at the same time Nebraska's Democratic senator is pressing EPA to extend the deadline to the end of the year to avoid adversely impacting farmers. Some House Representatives from the "Tuesday Group" -- a collection of Republican moderates -- were scheduled at press time to meet with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson Sept...

States Warn Haze Monitor Cuts May Affect Work On Other Air Issues

State officials are warning that EPA's proposal to cut 35 emissions monitors for the national regional haze monitoring network could adversely affect their work on agency air issues other than haze, such as monitoring for particulate matter (PM) and tracking pollution reductions from other agency air rules. In recent comments to a committee overseeing the potential cut in monitors, a host of state environmental officials say the monitors are vital in tracking pollution reductions achieved through recent EPA rules, and...

Recent EPA Nanotech Review May Help Push For More Risks Disclosure

A recent EPA review that found a nanomaterial to have "unique" properties may give leverage to the push by environmentalists and others that some nanotechnology substances should be considered "new" under federal toxics law, which would require industry to submit more information on possible risks, observers say. The review comes as the chemical industry is making the argument that the broad definition of "chemical substance" under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) allows nanomaterials to be regulated as existing chemicals...

Democrats Question EPA IG Nominee's 'Suitability' Ahead Of Panel Hearing

Alex Beehler, the Defense Department (DOD) official nominated by the Bush administration to be EPA's new Inspector General (IG), is facing questions from Democrats over his "suitability" to serve as the agency's chief watchdog at his upcoming confirmation hearing later this week, raising the prospect that Democrats could block the nomination at a time when several other nominations are being held. Beehler, a top DOD environment official and former environment and legislative affairs chief for Koch Industries, a major private...

Critics Warn Risk-Based MACT Waivers Will Slow Rule's Implementation

Environmentalists and state officials are warning in legal briefs that EPA's precedent-setting "risk-based" exemptions in an air toxics rule will slow regulatory process by forcing states to review the exemptions one by one. The officials filed briefs last month in a long-standing court case challenging EPA's maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule for plywood and composite wood products manufacturers, which could determine the legality of an approach the agency is also trying to implement in rules governing industrial boilers and...

State Officials Eye New Multi-Region Climate Emissions Inventory

State air officials are crafting a plan to create a new voluntary, multi-state greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions registry covering much of the United States, in an effort to allow industry to verify emission levels at multiple locations instead of working with a patchwork of state programs, according to sources involved in the effort. While they have not finalized any plan, staffers with the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR), the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) and the World...

RECENT EPA NANOTECH REVIEW MAY HELP PUSH FOR MORE RISKS DISCLOSURE

A recent EPA review that found a nanomaterial to have "unique" properties may give leverage to the push by environmentalists and others that some nanotechnology substances should be considered "new" under federal toxics law, which would require industry to submit more information on possible risks, observers say. The review comes as the chemical industry is making the argument that the broad definition of "chemical substance" under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) allows nanomaterials to be regulated as existing chemicals...

EPA LIKELY TO RESIST GROWING CALLS FOR BAN OF U.S. MERCURY EXPORTS

EPA is unlikely to oppose international sales of mercury in a soon-to-be-finalized mercury market report whose draft version -- obtained by Inside EPA -- was widely criticized by states and environmentalists now pressing the agency to disavow the practice ahead of international meetings on the issue, according to sources tracking the issue. The sources say it is unlikely that EPA will issue a forceful position or acknowledge that trading surplus mercury has harmful effects. They point to EPA's recent mercury...

States Adopt Competing Approaches To Address FutureGen CO2 Liability

Texas and Illinois -- the two states competing to site the $1 billion FutureGen power plant, which will demonstrate how to capture and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) -- are moving forward with different approaches to assuming liability should the CO2 escape. But the two approaches are raising questions about states' ability to address liability concerns in sequestration projects, with some state officials arguing that the federal government should assume ultimate responsibility for any liability. State officials are concerned that either...

EPA Includes New Rationale In NSR Rule To Address Appellate Ruling

EPA has included a legal justification in a newly released new source review (NSR) proposal apparently designed to thwart claims that one part of the plan, which would ease oversight of production bottlenecks at industrial facilities, violates a 2005 court ruling requiring the agency to regulate actual, as well as potential pollution increases. The agency's Sept. 8 proposal continues Bush administration efforts first begun by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to ease NSR rules as a way of...

Settlement Could Prompt Rule Revisions To Air Rules With PM Impact

A proposed consent decree between EPA and environmentalists could lead the agency to revise two air regulations that control particulate matter (PM) emissions in and around coal-fired power plants at locations other than the smokestack, including emissions from minerals used in control technology for lowering sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The agency announced in an Aug. 29 Federal Register notice that it has agreed to revisit two of its new source performance standards, one for nonmetallic mineral processing plants and one...

BACKERS OF CO2 CURBS EYE LIABILITY RELIEF TO BOLSTER INDUSTRY SUPPORT

Capitol Hill supporters of legislation to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are quietly considering whether to provide industry liability protection from global warming-related lawsuits, in an effort to win backing for mandatory greenhouse gas limits, according to Capitol Hill and other sources. Hill proponents of more assertive federal action on global warming say the issue is being quietly acknowledged as a factor that could bolster support for a mandatory climate change program. These sources note there is little incentive for...

STATES ADOPT COMPETING APPROACHES TO ADDRESS FUTUREGEN CO2 LIABILITY

Texas and Illinois -- the two states competing to site the $1 billion FutureGen power plant, which will demonstrate how to capture and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) -- are moving forward with different approaches to assuming liability should the CO2 escape. But the two approaches are raising questions about states' ability to address liability concerns in sequestration projects, with some state officials arguing that the federal government should assume ultimate responsibility for any liability. State officials are concerned that either...

STATES SAY HAZE MONITOR CUTS MAY HURT IMPLEMENTATION OF OTHER RULES

State officials are warning that EPA's proposal to cut 35 emissions monitors for the national regional haze monitoring network could impede their work on agency air issues other than haze, such as monitoring for particulate matter (PM) and tracking pollution reductions from other agency air rules. In recent comments to a committee overseeing the potential cut in monitors, a host of state environmental officials say the monitors are vital in tracking pollution reductions achieved through recent EPA rules, and also...

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