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.

CO2 Debate Blamed For Tepid Reaction To Bush's Call For Clear Skies

Members of Congress' lukewarm response to President Bush's mention of Clear Skies in his State of the Union address is a sign that lawmakers are still uncertain whether a final version of the plan will address carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to industry and environmentalist sources. The issue of CO2 controls has been a stumbling block in efforts to break a congressional stalemate over Clear Skies,with Democrats and some Republicans pushing for regulation of the greenhouse gas and GOP leaders...

Circuit Review Of Duke Energy Case Seen As Key To Other Pending NSR Suits

A pending federal appellate court case could provide a key test for EPA's ongoing enforcement suits against utilities for allegedly violating its original new source review (NSR) rules, with many observers saying the ruling could trigger eventual Supreme Court review. The case , United States v. Duke Energy Corp. , could determine how industrial facilities calculate an increase in emissions that triggers NSR requirements, industry lawyers and other legal experts say. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit...

White House Official Agrees To Review Air Toxics Waiver In Clear Skies Bill

The White House's top environment official James Connaughton promised a closer review of controversial Clear Skies provisions that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) says would allow industrial facilities to avoid existing controls and emit huge amounts of toxic chemicals. The exchange between Clinton and Connaughton took place at a Senate environment committee hearing on a reintroduced Clear Skies bill, as part of congressional efforts to jump-start action on the administration-backed legislation. Clinton's concerns echo criticisms also voiced at the hearing...

EPA Eyes Colorado VOC Reduction Plan As Natural Gas Industry Model

EPA regional sources say a Colorado plan to reduce ozone-forming emissions at oil and gas drilling sites by capturing the releases could serve as a national model. Agency sources say that recent rising energy prices have made it profitable to store and sell the emissions. The Colorado plan focuses on emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from oil and gas drilling sites that agency sources say are contributing to smog concerns, particularly in the West. The emissions-control plan is being...

OMB Reportedly Seeks Alternative Risk Estimates In EPA Cancer Guide

White House regulatory officials are reportedly seeking the inclusion of language in EPA's long-awaited revisions to its cancer risk assessment guidelines that would require the agency to present chemical safety estimates to protect a smaller percentage of the general population alongside its more conventional estimates. But EPA sources and some academic researchers are raising concerns that the addition would lead to weaker environmental standards because it will allow policymakers to justify future standards based on the alternative safety estimates. The...

EPA To Propose Changes To Auto Fuel Economy Labeling This Summer

EPA plans to release a proposal this summer for changing its procedures on determining gasoline mileage estimates for vehicles, according to an agency source. Environmentalists say the agency's current procedures overestimate the fuel efficiency of vehicles by as much as 20 percent. The agency has been working since early last year on the proposed rulemaking, which could revise consumer notifications of the fuel economy rating for model-year vehicles. EPA has been reviewing public comments submitted last July on an initial...

Senate GOP Vows Procedural Maneuver To Force Floor Vote On Clear Skies

Faced with a 9-9 vote on the Clear Skies bill, Republican senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee are eying a special procedural maneuver to allow them to sidestep the committee gridlock and bring the bill directly to the floor for debate. The procedure, known as Rule 14, allows for legislation or a resolution to bypass committee review and be immediately placed on the Senate floor calendar. Generally this rule is invoked for non-controversial resolutions that are not reviewed...

Trial Lawyers Threaten Suit Attacking Novel Asbestos Cleanup Method

Public interest attorneys are threatening to file a lawsuit challenging a controversial method for cleaning up asbestos-contaminated buildings, claiming that the technique violates EPA standards. But the attorneys and some environmentalists acknowledge that EPA in response to the lawsuit could revise its asbestos cleanup requirements to allow for continued use of the method. The upcoming suit comes as local government officials are calling on EPA to allow for use of the method, which reduces the cost of demolishing asbestos-contaminated buildings,...

PACT MAY HELP ACTIVISTS FIGHT RESULTS OF EPA STUDY ON CAFO EMISSIONS

A recent settlement between environmentalists and a major poultry producer will provide activists detailed data on toxic agricultural emissions, which they could use to challenge the results of a study EPA will conduct as part of its controversial safe harbor agreement with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). EPA officials say they may use the results of their study to determine whether CAFO emissions can be exempted from permit requirements under the Clean Air Act. Under the Jan. 26 settlement in...

SAN JOAQUIN RULE TO CHARGE DEVELOPERS POLLUTION FEE BOGS DOWN

A landmark San Joaquin Valley air district regulation that would establish an "indirect source" fee on developers of new residential, commercial and industrial units to mitigate pollution has bogged down over technical, legal and political reasons, according to sources. Officials recently decided to carve out the residential portion of the rule and proceed with it first, putting off the provisions for commercial and industrial development, according to a district official. Environmentalists charge district officials simply lack the "political will" to...

SOUTH COAST FLEET-RULE WAIVER ALL BUT DEAD FOLLOWING EPA REVIEW

It appears unlikely the air board will seek a waiver from U.S. EPA to allow the reinstatement of controversial South Coast air district "clean fuel fleet" rules that were shot down last year by the Supreme Court. In a win for the diesel engine and vehicle industry, EPA officials told state board staffers there are at least three conditions that must be met for the rules to potentially qualify for a federal waiver -- one of which could take up...

ENGINE MAKERS TO SEEK DELAY OF ARB HEAVY-DUTY DIESEL OBD RULE

Heavy-duty diesel engine makers are expected to seek a delay or relaxation of a draft air board regulation requiring 2010 engines to meet advanced on-board diagnostic (OBD) specifications that improve emission controls. The engine makers say they are already burdened with meeting new state and national 2007 engine emission standards, and the air board should seek harmony with a federal OBD rule being developed that would kick in later. The Air Resources Board's proposed OBD rule for heavy-duty engines aims...

BP DENIES CHARGES IN GROWING SOUTH COAST ACTION SEEKING $597 MILLION

BP continues to deny any wrongdoing in a ballooning South Coast air district legal action against the petroleum company that now seeks an unprecedented $597 million in fines. The district alleges in a second lawsuit filed last week that the company is violating "thousands" of emission control rules at its Carson refinery. "We take these [charges] extremely seriously, but we respectfully disagree with the allegations, in terms of how we conduct our operations," said a BP spokesman this week. "No...

SOUTH COAST REMOTE SENSING PLAN TO NAB VEHICLES DRAWS ARB IRE

Air board officials are objecting to a plan by the South Coast air district to launch a program to nab high-polluting vehicles with roadside remote sensing devices, and direct their owners to scrap or fix the vehicles to pass inspection. State officials say the South Coast plan is premature, in part because they intend to begin this summer an unprecedented research project into remote sensing technology to determine its effectiveness. The technology is controversial because experts say it can be...

PACT MAY HELP ACTIVISTS FIGHT RESULTS OF EPA STUDY ON CAFO EMISSIONS

A recent settlement between environmentalists and a major poultry producer will provide activists detailed data on toxic agricultural emissions, which they could use to challenge the results of a study EPA will conduct as part of its controversial safe harbor agreement with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). EPA officials say they may use the results of their study to determine whether CAFO emissions can be exempted from permit requirements under the Clean Air Act. Under the Jan. 26 settlement in...

OBSERVERS QUESTION VOINOVICH DEADLINE FOR NEGOTIATING CLEAR SKIES DEAL

Sen. George Voinovich's (R-OH) vow to give competing sides six months to negotiate a compromise on President Bush's controversial Clear Skies proposal is being rejected by a wide range of observers, who say competing groups are unlikely to narrow their long-standing differences over carbon dioxide (CO2) controls, as well as contentious provisions in the bill. Voinovich, the chairman of the Senate clean air subcommittee, is vowing to abandon President Bush's controversial Clear Skies proposal unless opponents and supporters of the...

ACTIVISTS CRITICIZE EPA PLAN FOR FACILITY WAIVERS IN RESIDUAL RISK RULE

EPA air office efforts to exempt low-risk industrial facilities from a new round of air toxics controls are facing criticism from environmentalists, who say the Clean Air Act does not allow the agency to provide site-specific exemptions. The office is drafting a rule that would exempt industrial facilities from air toxics control requirements if the facilities can demonstrate their emissions pose minimal risks to public health. Agency sources say the exemptions are being considered as a way to focus EPA's...

MCCAIN MAY CHAIR POSSIBLE NEW SENATE CLIMATE CHANGE SUBCOMMITTEE

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) may head a new subcommittee on climate change being considered by the Senate commerce committee, which would allow the influential lawmaker to retain oversight over the high-profile issue despite having to step down as chairman of the full committee. A new climate change subcommittee could be announced as early as next week as part of a restructuring of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee. McCain, who has been a leading voice in Congress for greenhouse...

EPA OFFICIAL URGES UTILITIES TO LIMIT PUSH FOR EMISSIONS TRADING FLEXIBILITY

TUCSON, AZ -- A top EPA air official is urging the electric utility industry to use discretion in pushing for greater flexibility under Clear Skies legislation and the agency's clean air interstate rule (CAIR) because support for the cap-and-trade approaches in both plans depends on them being environmentally credible and economically sustainable. "The success of cap-and-trade rests on its credibility -- its credibility environmentally and its credibility financially," Brian McLean, director of EPA's office of atmospheric programs, said at an...

Maryland Lawmakers Push Power Plant Bills In Advance Of Clear Skies

Maryland lawmakers plan to introduce legislation in the coming week that would impose emission restrictions on four pollutants from power plants in advance of the Bush administration's Clear Skies legislation. A number of states have voiced concerns that the federal legislation could make it more difficult for local authorities to establish their own air quality requirements, and the Maryland legislation is intended to establish state standards before Congress enacts the Bush administration's legislative plan.Maryland Del. James Hubbard (D) and Sen...

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