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.

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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.

EPA, States Discuss Crediting Compliance Assistance In Enforcement Pacts

EPA and state officials are considering ways to value compliance assistance and give credit to programs that perform well under the agency's new evaluation methods, according to state sources and EPA documents. EPA's review of state enforcement programs is important because poor marks could lead the agency to demand additional inspections and other steps states must take in federal-state arrangements that lay out enforcement responsibilities, such as the agency's state-by-state performance partnership agreements (PPAs). The reviews can also affect EPA...

INHOFE CITES EPA FUNDS FOR MERCURY STUDY TO SEEK NEW GRANT CONTROLS

Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) is citing EPA funding for a controversial Harvard University study -- which found significantly higher benefits from reducing mercury pollution than the agency found in its controversial power plant mercury rule -- to push Administrator-nominee Stephen Johnson to tighten control over grant funds. Inhofe is also citing the study to launch a broader inquiry into how often EPA has funded studies conducted with the involvement of EPA employees or experts...

HAGEL LIKELY TO DROP EMISSIONS CREDITS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE BILL

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is poised to introduce a revised version of climate change legislation that would drop a controversial emissions credit provision that critics say would open the door to mandatory greenhouse gas controls, according to Senate and other sources. Hagel is considering revising his bill as he and other prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (AZ), are jockeying to be a leading voice on the high-profile issue of climate change. Sources say Hagel will likely delete from his...

EPA FINDS INCREASED RISKS FROM AIR TOXIN RELEASED DURING FOREST FIRES

New EPA data to be included in the agency's upcoming air toxics assessment will show a sharp increase in non-cancer health risks compared to data the agency released three years ago, with most of the risk coming from a pollutant released during forest fires and from vehicle exhaust, agency sources say. While EPA currently classifies the pollutant -- known as acrolein -- as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP) subject to regulation under its air toxics program, observers say they are...

LAWMAKERS HALT CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY PUSH, CALL FOR MORE AIR DATA

The Legislature this week threw a wet blanket over ambitious attempts to ease the siting of waste conversion technology facilities in the state, with lawmakers saying they need more information on air emissions before they can decide whether to encourage the construction of these facilities. The legislators' call for more information comes as the waste board continues to struggle with a $1.5-million report on these technologies, which was initially finalized but then reconsidered after the board was told by lawmakers...

ARB PRESSED TO EASE DEATH ESTIMATES IN NEW OZONE STANDARD REPORT

Under heavy criticism by major industry organizations, air board officials are considering toning down some of their estimates of how many deaths could be prevented and illnesses avoided by tightening the state's ozone attainment standard, according to sources. While officials are not expected to relax their proposed 0.07-parts-per-million (ppm) eight-hour ozone standard, changes to the illness and death estimates could be significant in terms of how various interest groups use the numbers to justify future legislation or rules to crack...

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY LEADERS ATTACK BILL EXPANDING AIR DISTRICT

San Joaquin Valley county supervisors are blasting legislation that would add six new members to the valley's air district board, accusing lawmakers of shifting local accountability and control to Sacramento and San Francisco politicians. The county supervisors are also members of the valley's air board and their testimony marks the first time in two years that district board members themselves have testified against legislation to expand the board's membership, indicating that they fear this year's bill may have the legs...

DEMOCRATS KILL BILL TO STOP UNION CEQA 'GREENMAIL' OVER POWER PLANTS

Democrats on the Senate energy committee this week shot down a Republican's attempt to curtail alleged "greenmail" by unions to delay power plant approvals through environmental objections until energy companies agree to employ organized labor. The death of the bill reflects what many believe is an impossible attempt to restrict the rights of labor groups to weigh in substantively on the environmental elements of proposed energy facilities. The bill, SB 628 (Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga), directs the California Energy...

EPA MAY EXEMPT AGRICULTURE FROM POSSIBLE COARSE PARTICLE STANDARD

EPA may consider ways to exempt animal feedlots and other rural sources from a possible strict new standard for particulate matter (PM) emissions, after members of a scientific advisory panel suggested that urban emissions pose the greater health risk, sources inside and outside the agency say. The way to address rural emissions is just one of the decisions that EPA leadership will face later this year, after scientific advisors called for strengthening the existing ambient air quality standards for fine...

EPA EYES HIGHWAY BILL FUNDING TO BOOST DIESEL RETROFIT PROJECTS

EPA wants a final congressional highway bill to provide federal funds for industry to update diesel engines to help meet the agency's air quality standards, EPA officials say, a provision that the construction industry may oppose because it could give states unprecedented authority in overseeing the updates. The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee included the funding provision for the projects in its version of the massive federal highway financing bill that is now awaiting a floor vote, but the...

INDUSTRY WEIGHS CASE-BY-CASE PERMIT CHALLENGES AFTER COURT REJECTION

Industry officials may challenge EPA's whole effluent toxicity (WET) tests on a permit-by-permit basis, an industry attorney says, after a federal circuit court rejected industry efforts to rehear arguments over the reliability of the WET tests. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a request April 14 by the Western Coalition of Arid States and an industry group called the WET Coalition to rehear arguments in Edison Electric Institute (EEI), et al. v. EPA, et...

EPA TO DELAY HAZE RULE BASED ON AGREEMENT WITH ENVIRONMENTALISTS

EPA has made an abrupt decision to delay issuing a landmark regional haze rule the agency was required by court order to issue April 15. The agency will delay the rule until June 15 based on an agreement with Environmental Defense, the group that brought the lawsuit setting the original deadline, agency officials say. Agency officials had indicated earlier this month that EPA was on track to complete the rulemaking. The initiative would require power plants and other industrial sources...

CRITICS WARN NEW EPA CRITERIA WILL STOP DETECTION OF MERCURY HOT SPOTS

A shift in the agency's criteria for defining mercury "hot spots" in its recent power plant rule is raising concerns among some EPA staff, who say the new approach is unlikely to detect the hotspots and ignores levels of the contaminants in humans. "They've basically defined the problem away," one EPA source says. Critics have long raised concerns that the Bush administration's cap-and-trade approach to regulating power plants' mercury emissions could create "hot spots" around facilities that purchase emissions credits...

Mercury Study Bolsters Senator's Push For EPA Grant Reforms

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) is citing EPA funding for a controversial Harvard University study -- which found significantly higher benefits from reducing mercury pollution than the agency found in its controversial power plant mercury rule -- to push EPA Administrator-nominee Stephen Johnson to tighten control over grant funds. Inhofe is also citing the study to launch a broader inquiry into how often EPA has funded studies conducted with the involvement of EPA employees or...

Navajo Deal On Limiting Utility Pollution May Be Model For Other Tribes

The Navajo nation has cut an unprecedented deal with two power plants located on tribal lands after they agreed to set permit levels no stricter than EPA levels, including for future mercury rules. Tribal sources say the deal -- which also allows the tribe to collect permit fees for use to develop additional clean air programs -- may be a model for other tribes seeking to win similar agreements with utilities located on their lands. The deal, which requires final...

EPA AIR STUDY SEES RISING NON-CANCER RISK FROM FIRES, MOBILE SOURCES

New EPA data to be included in the agency's upcoming air toxics assessment will show a sharp increase in non-cancer health risks compared to data the agency released three years ago, with most of the risk coming from a pollutant released in forest fires and mobile source emissions, agency sources say. While EPA currently classifies the pollutant -- known as acrolein -- as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP) subject to regulation under its air toxics program, observers say they are...

EXPIRING ICR AUTHORITY MAY ALLOW BOILERS TO AVOID MACT PERMIT 'HAMMER'

EPA may not renew an expiring information collection request (ICR) authorizing the agency to seek data from industry for air toxics permits, which could allow industrial boilers to avoid obtaining site-specific permits due to EPA's failure to promulgate a rule for the units by a court-ordered deadline, according to an agency official. If authority for the ICR is not renewed, the agency cannot collect the information it will need to consider the site-specific permit applications industry must soon file. The...

NORTHEAST MAY DELAY DECISION ON EMISSIONS 'LEAKAGE' IN CLIMATE PLAN

Northeast states may postpone a decision on how to prevent the displacement of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to other parts of the country under their regional greenhouse gas initiative (RGGI), in order to launch the program first and address the issue in future years, industry and environmentalist sources say. The states have long been concerned that power companies might decide to produce more electricity in areas that are not subject to the mandate, creating what is known as emissions "leakage."...

INDUSTRY GROUPS SEEK MODELING DETAILS TO ASSESS IMPACT OF RGGI CAPS

Industry officials are asking Northeast states to release detailed modeling results on the impact of a pending regional cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases, because they have unanswered questions on the cost of the program and how it will impact electricity consumers, industry they and other observers say. These concerns come as states have unveiled the broad outlines of new modeling results that show the economic impacts of the regional program could be much higher than in earlier predictions. Some industry...

CALIFORNIA FACES UNCERTAIN IMPACT FROM OUTCOME OF EPA CLIMATE CASE

A pending federal court decision on EPA's authority to limit greenhouse gases may be a key factor in a separate lawsuit over California's pending standards for automobiles, since both cases raise the issue of whether the Clean Air Act allows the regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2), sources involved in the cases say. Yet observers differ in their assessment of how the litigation on EPA's authority will affect the lawsuit over the California rules. Some industry officials believe that if the...

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