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.

High Court Weighs Whether To Accept Three Climate Suits Absent SG Input

The Supreme Court has scheduled conferences where it could decide whether to accept industry requests to review appellate court decisions allowing climate nuisance suits to proceed in state rather than federal courts, even though the Biden administration has yet to respond to the court’s October request to offer its views on these types of cases. It is not clear whether the court during the March conference dates will decide whether to accept the appeals, or whether it will delay any...

Industry Groups Urge EPA To Weigh Costs, Drop Tougher PM NAAQS Plan

Major industry groups are urging EPA to drop its proposal to tighten national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particles, arguing that the plan is discretionary and therefore unnecessary because of high implementation costs, although environmentalists are warning that any consideration of costs would be unlawful. In testimony delivered at a Feb. 21 virtual public hearing on the plan , the NAAQS Regulatory Review and Rulemaking (NR3) Coalition argued that because the Clean Air Act does not mandate any...

API Questions EPA’s Draft SCC Update Absent Inter-Agency Work Group

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is raising a host of questions about why EPA released a draft update to the social cost of carbon (SCC) metric even as a White House inter-agency group is developing its own revisions to “interim” SCC estimates that agencies use to monetize climate benefits from rules. Supporters of stronger climate rules, however, are broadly backing the substance of EPA’s update, which includes far higher estimates of climate damages than the government’s current tool. In Feb...

Long Opposed To RFS, Oil Sector Groups Split Over EPA’s ‘Set’ Proposal

Oil sector groups that have historically opposed most aspects of the renewable fuel standard (RFS) program are divided on EPA’s “set” plan that fixes blending volumes through 2025 for the first time under the agency’s authority, with some groups saying EPA cannot increase volumes for procedural and legal reasons until 2025, while others call for the program to be restructured to boost advanced biofuel, rather than ethanol. In comments filed ahead of a Feb. 10 deadline , the American Fuel...

EPA Restores Threshold Finding Underlying Power Plant Air Toxics Limits

EPA has issued its final rule restoring the agency’s finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” (A&N) to regulate power plants’ air toxics, which forms the legal basis of the 2012 mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for the sector, bolstering both the existing MATS rule and EPA’s forthcoming proposal to possibly tighten the standards. “For years, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards have protected the health of American communities nationwide, especially children, low-income communities, and communities of color who often...

5th Circuit Will Rehear Exxon Penalty Case In Key Test On Citizen Standing

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will rehear en banc its case that upheld a landmark penalty against oil company ExxonMobil, renewing its focus on the crucial question of whether the citizen group that brought the enforcement action has standing in light of recent Supreme Court precedent that raised the bar for such actions. In a brief Feb. 17 order , the court grants Exxon’s petition for rehearing in Environment Texas Citizen Lobby, Inc. v....

Sierra Club Sues EPA To Force FIP For Curbing Incinerator Emissions

Sierra Club is suing EPA to force the agency to issue federal implementation plans (FIPs) to ensure states comply with existing air emissions regulations for two types of incinerators, citing “unreasonable delay” in issuance of the plans, as environmentalists push the Biden administration to cut air pollution from such sources. “EPA has failed to issue mandatory federal plans implementing EPA’s standards for commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators (‘CISWI’) and standards for other categories of solid waste incinerators (‘OSWI’),” the...

EPA settles suit over Texas startup, shutdown air plan

EPA has reached a proposed agreement with environmentalists setting a deadline for the agency to act on Texas’ efforts to modify its state implementation plan (SIP) to ensure that federal particulate matter (PM) standards apply on a “continuous” basis, but which petitioners say actually opens regulatory loopholes. In a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication Feb. 17, EPA announces a proposed consent decree with Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and Sierra Club that would end litigation in the U.S. District...

EPA Facing Tough Fight As States Sue Over Interstate Air Plan Disapproval

EPA appears headed for a tough legal battle that may define its future policy on interstate air pollution, as states begin litigation against the agency’s sweeping disapproval of their plans to limit cross-state ozone, which is a prerequisite to the expansion of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) that officials plan to soon finalize. Utah and Texas have already filed suit in regional appellate courts over EPA’s Feb. 13 rule that disapproves the state implementation plans (SIPs) of 19 states...

Groups Spar Over Multiple Technical, Legal Issues In EPA Methane Rule

Environmentalists are touting new analysis to defend EPA’s proposed oil and gas sector methane curbs, even as state air regulators call for federal funds to help implement the standards, and the agency’s harshest critics appear poised to challenge the rule’s threshold legal authority. The divergent views are reflected in formal comments filed by a Feb. 13 deadline on EPA’s supplemental methane emissions plan. The arguments also underscore continuing debate on a proposed super-emitter response program (SERP) aimed at bolstering the...

EPA Projects IRA Will Result In Coal ‘No Longer Needed’ For Baseload Power

EPA is presenting initial projections that the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) clean energy incentives could mean that coal-fired electricity will no longer be needed to provide “baseload” power generation in the coming years, and that the law could lead to a 90 percent reduction in coal plants’ overall capacity. The initial modeling results were presented Feb. 15 by Cara Marcy, an EPA electricity analyst, during a Resources for the Future (RFF) event, “Exploring the New Baseline for Electricity in the...

CARB To Relax Truck NOx Rules To Address Possible MY24-26 Shortage

California air regulators are planning to relax their landmark heavy truck low-nitrogen oxide (NOx) “omnibus” standards for model year 2024-26 vehicles, in response to reports that major manufacturers do not plan to offer new trucks that meet those limits and are focusing on achieving tougher MY27 limits as well as rules requiring zero-emission models. “Unanticipated changes in product lines may indicate the need for additional legacy engines beyond current production caps and/or need for provisions to mitigate the incremental cost...

Environmentalists Seek To Intervene In Refiner’s Test Of EPA Permit Policy

Environmentalists are seeking to intervene in precedent-setting litigation that a troubled Virgin Islands refinery has brought against EPA, citing concerns that the agency is primarily interested in its ongoing administrative process with the facility while they want to ensure that the facility complies with the agency’s permitting policy and that nearby residents are protected. The groups -- the St. Croix Environmental Association, Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, represented by the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law & Graduate...

EPA poised to issue MATS ‘appropriate’ finding

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed review of EPA’s final rule finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” (A&N) to regulate power plants’ air toxics emissions, clearing the way for EPA to revive the finding that provides the legal basis of the landmark mercury and air toxics standards (MATS). The revived A&N rule completed review Feb. 13, according to OMB’s website, allowing for EPA to soon publish the rule in the Federal Register . The...

EPA Moves To Reinstate Startup, Shutdown ‘SIP Call’ For Three States

EPA is readying a plan to bar three states -- Texas, North Carolina and Iowa -- from exempting emissions during periods of facility startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) in their Clean Air Act state implementation plans (SIPs) as the agency seeks to catch up on long-delayed implementation of the policy that the Trump administration stalled. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed interagency review of the plan Feb. 13, according to OMB’s website, clearing the way for...

EPA Urged To Include Chloroprene IRIS Value In Pending Neoprene RTR

Environmentalists are pressing EPA to incorporate its industry contested risk value for chloroprene in its pending court-ordered proposal to conduct a Risk & Technology Review (RTR) of neoprene production facilities, which does not include a chloroprene health standard 13 years after the agency first adopted the value. One environmentalist following the issue tells Inside EPA Feb. 10 that groups are “hoping EPA will integrate” the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) chloroprene value -- first set in 2010 to reflect...

Democrats Renew Calls For Strict EPA Scrutiny Of Chemical Recycling

Democratic lawmakers are renewing calls for EPA to expand its efforts to address the plastic production crisis by strictly regulating chemical recycling technologies, citing it as a “misguided” solution, but a recent Energy Department (DOE) report calls for advancing such efforts and investing in further research and development for the technology. In a Feb. 9 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, a coalition of 47 Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Jeff...

GAO finds RFS waiver denials not subject to CRA

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found EPA’s June decision to deny 69 requests from small refiners for waivers from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending obligations is not a “rule,” and therefore not eligible for reversal under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). In a Feb. 9 decision , GAO finds that under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), EPA’s denial of the waivers, or small refinery exemptions (SREs), cannot be scrapped using the CRA. The finding, first reported by Politico...

API Flags ‘Numerous’ Concerns About EPA’s Methane Super-Emitter Plan

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is raising multiple concerns about EPA’s supplemental methane emissions plan, charging its approach to alternative monitoring technologies is “impractical” and that the proposed super-emitter response program based on third-party data is legally deficient and should be voluntary. The concerns from the oil and gas sector’s primary trade association surface in a summary of formal comments the group is filing by a Feb. 13 deadline, as multiple groups weigh in on EPA’s supplemental proposed oil and...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Sign up for 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.