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.

Amid ‘Mandate’ Fight, EDF Finds Battery EVs Not Needed For EPA Auto Rule

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is sharpening claims that EPA’s light- and medium-duty vehicle emissions proposal is flexible enough to allow multiple compliance strategies, flagging analysis that industry could even comply with the requirements without any battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales. The group’s analysis, styled as a rebuttal to auto manufacturers’ comments claiming EPA’s plan depends on a rosy assumption of vehicle electrification over the next decade, could also aid EPA in justifying its proposal as a performance-based standards approach...

EPA Grants Louisiana Primacy To Permit CCS Wells, Despite EJ Concerns

EPA has quietly granted Louisiana primary authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to permit carbon dioxide wells needed for carbon capture and storage (CCS), despite concerns from environmental justice (EJ) advocates who fear the approval will harm local communities. “That's a damn shame to announce primacy during Christmas/holiday break. Louisiana cannot be trusted with Primacy,” the Louisiana Sierra Club said in a Dec. 28 tweet. EPA Administrator Michael Regan Dec. 28 signed the rule granting the Pelican State...

Litigants Clash Over EPA’s ‘Retroactive’ Boiler Rule As Oral Argument Looms

Industry and environmental groups have filed final briefs in a case over EPA air toxics limits for industrial boilers, clearing the way for a federal appellate court to schedule oral arguments that will test the agency’s adoption of standards that the industry parties say are unlawfully retroactive and wrongly apply to existing plants. While environmentalists are generally defending the agency’s approach, they charge officials ignored newer data and set impermissibly weak limits. Completion of briefing in the case , U.S....

EPA Faces Wide Range Of Reliability Concerns Over Power Plant GHG Rule

The utility sector, fossil fuel groups, grid operators, Republican officials and even some Democratic senators are reiterating sweeping concerns about EPA’s proposed power plant greenhouse gas rule’s risks to grid reliability, even as environmentalists and Democratic state officials defend the rule as a relatively modest effort amid broader trends toward cleaner electricity. EPA re-opened comments on reliability-related issues linked to its high-profile GHG standards in response to concerns from a small business advisory panel. In addition to issues linked to...

EPA Increases Civil Penalties Over 3 Percent In Annual Inflation Adjustment

EPA is boosting its minimum and maximum monetary penalties for civil violations of the many laws it administers by roughly 3.2 percent under its standing authority to adjust those figures for inflation every year, though the agency is emphasizing that it sets penalties on a case-by-case basis for each enforcement action. In a Dec. 27 Federal Register notice , EPA says it has calculated the cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2024 -- the key factor in its annual inflation adjustments...

Industry, Texas Push Back Against EPA’s Tougher Gasoline Tank Standards

Industry groups and Texas regulators are pushing back against EPA’s proposal to tighten air emissions requirements for volatile liquid tanks, including gasoline storage facilities, faulting a shift in EPA’s definition of a “modification” that triggers tougher regulation, even as environmentalists press for EPA to further strengthen the rule. In Dec. 8 joint comments on EPA’s Oct. 4 proposal , major oil and chemical sector groups raise a host of concerns over the plan, which would revise the new source performance...

Environmentalists Threaten Suit Over EPA Failure To Implement SO2 Limit

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Sierra Club are threatening to sue EPA for failing to implement its 2010 federal air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2), charging that the agency has failed to ensure 11 states have plans in place for attaining the limits. In a Dec. 20 letter to EPA, the groups announce their intent to sue over EPA’s failure to ensure that state implementation plans (SIPs) are in place that are required to meet the primary,...

D.C. Circuit sets argument in key EtO air rule suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has scheduled oral argument for early next year in an industry lawsuit against a major EPA air toxics rule for the “miscellaneous” organic chemical manufacturing sector (MON), in a test of the agency’s risk assessment for ethylene oxide (EtO) that also underpins other significant air rules. The court issued a Dec. 21 order setting arguments for Feb. 16 in Huntsman Petrochemical LLC v. EPA . The chemical industry suit...

DOJ Slated To Levy Record-Setting Penalty On Engine Maker Cummins

Engine manufacturer Cummins has reached agreement “in principle” with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and California officials to pay a nearly $1.7 billion Clean Air Act civil penalty -- the largest ever -- for installing emissions control defeat devices on almost one million engines fitted in Dodge RAM pickup trucks. Cummins disclosed the agreement in a Dec. 22 8-K disclosure report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In a statement the same day , the company said it has...

Court Sets Deadlines For EPA To Review ‘Area Source’ Chemical Air Rule

EPA has finalized a consent decree deal with environmentalists to review its air toxics rule governing smaller “area” sources in the chemical manufacturing sector, requiring the agency to propose potentially tougher limits for hundreds of such sources next year, with a final rule due in 2025. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Dec. 19 entered the decree , settling California Communities Against Toxics, et al. v. Michael Regan . The suit was filed by environmental groups to...

EPA Poised To Unveil Waste Combustor Plan Amid Stakeholder Clash

EPA is poised to release a long-awaited proposal that is expected to strengthen emissions standards for large municipal waste combustors (LMWCs), though environmentalists, industry and municipal officials are already clashing over the stringency of any new mandates and the potential benefits of the technology. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed review of EPA’s proposal Dec. 20, clearing the way for the agency to sign the proposal by Dec. 31 as required by a consent decree with...

D.C. Circuit Grants EPA Request To Pause Challenge To Truck Rule Waivers

An appellate court panel is granting EPA’s request to pause consolidated litigation challenging the agency’s approval of Clean Air Act preemption waivers for California’s zero-emission truck rules and related requirements in order to wait for rulings in two pending cases regarding federal and state auto greenhouse gas standards. The Dec. 21 order from a pair of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejects arguments made earlier this month by the plaintiffs -- Republican-led...

Senate Delays Confirmation Vote For Air Chief Goffman Until January

The Senate’s decision to adjourn its annual session Dec. 20 will delay until next year a pending vote on the nomination of Joe Goffman to formally lead EPA’s air office, after senators were unable to agree on a broad year-end package of federal nominations. The adjournment comes after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) earlier this week teed up a procedural vote on Goffman’s long-pending nomination, filing cloture on multiple nominees Dec. 18 . That development raised the possibility that...

Newsom Appoints New Executives At CARB Chair’s Office, DTSC

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has appointed a new chief of staff and policy advisor to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) chairman’s office, as well as a new chief deputy director at the toxics department. On Dec. 14, Newsom appointed Hazel Miranda, a Democrat, as chief of staff and policy advisor to CARB chair Liane Randolph, according to a press release from the governor’s office. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $189,864. In 2023, Miranda...

Justices Order Argument Over Critics’ Call To Stay EPA Good Neighbor Rule

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral argument early next year over industry and states’ calls to stay EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP), throwing the future of the agency’s interstate ozone policy further into doubt as critics push to block the measure nationwide after lower courts froze the rule’s application in 12 states. The court issued a Dec. 20 order agreeing to hear one hour of argument in its February 2024 session over applications for a national stay brought...

Judge Rejects Industry Claims Federal Laws Preempt L.A. Warehouse Rule

Setting a potential precedent, a federal judge is rejecting trucking and airline industry arguments that the Los Angeles region’s novel “indirect source rule” (ISR) to reduce pollution at warehouses is preempted by the Clean Air Act (CAA) and other federal laws, and is granting the regulators’ motion for summary judgment. The ruling is one of the first to provide legal support for California regulators’ growing focus on ISRs, which are now also targeting ports, railyards and other facilities, as they...

EPA Vehicle ‘Trends’ Report Sees Faster GHG Cuts Amid Tighter Standards

EPA’s latest annual fuel economy trends report is highlighting quicker improvements in fleetwide greenhouse gas and fuel economy as automakers begin to comply with the Biden administration’s current and future standards, after the industry generally made much more sluggish gains over the past several years. The Dec. 20 report , however, further confirms how a continuing market shift toward larger vehicles is blunting the possibility of even larger improvements, with the average emissions performance of several individual companies still declining...

OMB reviewing E15 approval for Midwest

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has commenced review of EPA’s final rule allowing year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) in Midwestern states, increasing the agency’s chances of meeting its March 28 target date for release of the rule as officials from the region press for action. According to OMB’s website, the office received the rule from EPA Dec. 18, starting a review process that generally takes about 90 days although controversial or complicated rules...

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