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.

BATTLE BREWS OVER NEXT ARB CONSUMER PRODUCT CRACKDOWN

Another battle is brewing over the air board's controversial consumer products regulation, which is poised to include more products for volatile organic compound (VOC) emission reductions. A new survey of a plethora of consumer products and their emissions will serve as the basis for the amended rules, and is seen as the initial battleground over the regulation. The Air Resources Board considers the consumer products regulation, which is the most stringent in the country, a vital piece of its overall...

SMALL OIL MARKETERS PUSH ARB TO RESCIND GAS PUMP VAPOR RULE

Representatives of smaller gasoline stations are hopeful that an upcoming air board cost-effectiveness review of new gasoline vapor-reduction monitoring equipment will lead the board to eliminate a statewide requirement mandating the expensive technology. The dispute over the equipment marks another potential snag in the board's extensive regulation to reduce emissions from gas pump equipment, which is considered a major element of the state's plan to meet national ambient air quality standards. While most gas stations will be required to phase...

BOXER WIN ON SUPERFUND DATA MAY REVIVE PUSH FOR RENEWED INDUSTRY TAX

Sen. Barbara Boxer's recent success obtaining long-sought U.S. EPA data on the Superfund program -- and an agreement from Republicans to hold a rare oversight hearing on the program -- could provide the lawmaker with a key opportunity to make renewing the expired Superfund taxes an issue for Democrats heading into this year's midterm elections, sources said. The data -- which EPA compiled after Boxer blocked the administration's nominee to head the agency's waste office -- may show the health...

CARBON TRADING GROWTH PREDICTED, DESPITE MODEST MONTREAL OUTCOME

Although recent international negotiations in Montreal over the future of greenhouse gas reductions produced only a modest agreement on how to proceed with climate change actions, markets for trading carbon reduction credits are growing and will continue to strengthen in the coming years, according to a number of experts, who cite continuing momentum among states as a sign that emissions trading can be attractive to both regulators and businesses. Expectations for bigger carbon markets were given a boost by the...

STUDIES SHOW COST-EFFECTIVENESS PLAN COULD LIMIT STRICT EPA RULES

As scientists prepare to release a report the White House sought to implement a controversial approach for assessing the costs of EPA and other agencies' rules, two new documents suggest that if the agency were to adopt the so-called cost-effectiveness approach, it may not be able to cite a slew of regulatory benefits the agency currently uses to justify stringent regulations. The documents -- an EPA economic research strategy and a case study of EPA's non-road diesel rule developed by...

SWEEPING EPA NAAQS REVIEW MAY ERODE STAFF ROLE IN SETTING STANDARDS

EPA staff and outside observers are concerned that a new Bush administration plan to comprehensively evaluate the process for setting air standards for particulate matter (PM) and other criteria pollutants may undermine the key role that agency staff play in developing the scientific basis for updating standards. The critics say the evaluation may have been prompted by Bush environment officials' perception last fall that their options for setting new PM standards were limited by the advice they received from career...

EPA, MISSISSIPPI EYE POST-KATRINA 'BIO-BASED' ECONOMY TO ADDRESS DEBRIS

As part of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, EPA and Mississippi may develop a plan to encourage "bio-based" activities in the state that could include building an industrial facility to burn storm debris and vegetation planted to replace the vast acres of forestland the state lost to the storm. Additionally, the state is discussing constructing biomass pipelines to process and transport the fuel. In Mississippi, debris from fallen trees and other types of biomass -- or burnable, woody material --...

EPA RENEWABLES RULE LEAVES KEY QUESTIONS ON FUEL MANDATE UNRESOLVED

EPA has set the stage for future battles over implementing a renewable fuels standard from the 2005 energy law, by issuing an interim regulation that does not require individual refiners to use a minimum amount of ethanol in 2006, and omitting from the rule key details affecting the program's future implementation through 2012. The direct final regulation, which EPA released Dec. 28, codifies a requirement in the energy law for the oil industry to ensure that at least 2.78 percent...

SEC RULING ON GE PLAN MAY SHAPE FIGHT OVER CORPORATE GREEN STRATEGIES

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) may influence the extent to which companies must disclose the nature of their sustainability efforts when it rules on a resolution demanding that General Electric (GE) justify its highly publicized "ecomagination" campaign to its shareholders. But GE disputes the need for SEC involvement, saying its efforts to promote energy efficient products do not constitute a climate change "policy," as the investment group contends, but is merely a "strategy" that can be excluded from the...

Sweeping EPA NAAQS Review May Erode Staff Role In Setting Standards

EPA staff and outside observers are concerned that a new Bush administration plan to comprehensively evaluate the process for setting air standards for particulate matter (PM) and other criteria pollutants may undermine the key role that agency staff play in developing the scientific basis for updating standards. The critics say the evaluation may have been prompted by Bush environment officials' perception last fall that their options for setting new PM standards were limited by the advice they received from career...

SEC Ruling Sought On Challenge To GE 'Climate Change Policy'

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been asked to rule on whether General Electric (GE) must justify its highly publicized "Ecomagination" campaign to its shareholders. The request for an SEC decision comes from a free-market investment group that owns stock in the energy company giant, arguing that the campaign is merely an attempt to appease environmental activists and makes little business sense. But GE disputes the need for SEC involvement, saying that its efforts to promote energy efficient products...

EPA Air Study May Prompt Focus On Greater Mobile Source Controls

EPA's imminent release of a comprehensive air toxics assessment could lead to pressure from states and activists for additional regulation of the mobile source sector, because the data show the most significant cancer risk coming from benzene emissions that largely arise from vehicles, sources say. EPA is slated to announce the results of its latest National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) based on 1999 data Jan. 11, according to an agency source. The NATA tracks emissions and estimated exposures from outdoor...

DEMOCRATS ARGUE SUPERFUND LAW ESSENTIAL TO REGULATING CAFOS

Key House Democrats are fighting a legislative push to exempt agricultural air emissions from Superfund law by arguing that the cleanup statute provides certain protections that are not available under air and water laws. But the legislative fight over the issue is likely to be deferred until 2006, after failed attempts to attach the legislative exemption as a rider to appropriations legislation, congressional sources say. Congress is considering whether to exempt manure from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from cleanup...

EPA REGIONS PLAN STRATEGIES FOR WESTERN APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENT

EPA regions that include about 20 Western states are developing draft strategy documents for EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock laying out priorities to be tracked by each region to foster greater cooperation on energy, mining, agriculture, diesel emissions, tribal programs and border issues, according to documents obtained by Inside Washington Publishers. The documents pertain to states in EPA regions VI, VIII, IX and X, or what the agency terms the "U.S. EPA Great American West Eco-Region" and describe "conceptual work...

EPA REJECTION OF IGCC IN AIR PERMITS PAVES WAY FOR COAL PLANT BATTLES

EPA has set the stage for a new round of clean air confrontations with environmental groups by issuing a finding that permit writers do not have to consider requiring the use of coal gasification as a best available control technology (BACT) in new coal-fired power plants' Clean Air Act permits. EPA's announcement came one day before a hearing in front of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) -- a state with numerous pending proposals for coal-fired facilities -- where...

STATE SITING BIDS, DOE PACT PRESSURE CONGRESS FOR CLEAN COAL FUNDS

Congress will face increasing pressure to fully fund the Bush administration's $1 billion FutureGen zero-emissions power plant project, after the Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it had reached a deal with an industry consortium to build the plant and a host of states are competing for the plant within their borders, observers say. When President Bush first announced in 2003 the plan to build a power plant that would capture and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2), he promoted...

EPA AIR STUDY MAY PROMPT FOCUS ON GREATER MOBILE SOURCE CONTROLS

EPA's imminent release of a comprehensive air toxics assessment could lead to pressure from states and activists for additional regulation of the mobile source sector, because the data show the most significant cancer risk coming from benzene emissions that largely arise from vehicles, sources say. EPA is slated to announce the results of its latest National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) based on 1999 data Jan. 11, according to an agency source. The NATA tracks emissions and estimated exposures from outdoor...

EPA EYES COST-EFFECTIVENESS APPROACH TO ASSESS NEW PM CONTROLS

EPA senior staff are developing advice to states on how to consider the most cost-effective pollution control options when implementing the agency's proposed new particulate matter (PM) air quality standards, according to EPA sources and an internal agency proposal obtained by Clean Air Report . Text of the proposal is reprinted on page 4. Other relevant documents are available at InsideEPA.com. The advice, which will be included in an upcoming package intended to implement the new PM standard, appears aimed...

TEXT: AIR OFFICE PROPOSAL TO ASSESS COSTS, BENEFITS OF PM CONTROLS

Since we seem to be stuck on how to address potential costs in the RIA -- let me try out an approach -- based on using benefit/cost data -- that could also help guide us when it comes time for implementation. In 1997 we used $10,000/ton for unknown costs because we believed measures were available for much less than that. OMB disagreed, but said if we were going to use that number we should be willing to incorporate it into...

PROPOSED PM STANDARDS IGNITE DEBATE ON STRINGENCY, MONITORING

Proposed new standards for particulate matter (PM) EPA unveiled Dec. 21 are already touching off a debate over the adequacy of the limits and how to measure compliance with them, after EPA called for tightening the current daily fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard but declined to endorse more stringent controls agency staff recommended. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. Environmentalists and some state officials are criticizing the agency's proposal, claiming it ignores EPA staff recommendations that the agency either issue...

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