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.

EPA Plans Quick Release Of Implementation Plans For Tighter PM2.5 NAAQS

DURHAM, NC -- EPA is preparing to quickly issue measures for implementing tighter fine particle (PM2.5) limits, should officials as expected tighten the standards within weeks, possibly addressing difficult problems such as how to handle wildfire smoke that industry groups and others warn would undercut efforts to meet new limits. Speaking Dec. 6 at the annual Air Information Exchange hosted by the Air and Waste Management Association here, Peter Tsirigotis, director of EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards...

EPA Sees Mixed Outlook On Regulatory Deadlines Amid 2024 Pressure

EPA’s just-issued Fall Unified Agenda shows a mixed outlook for key rulemaking deadlines, with the agency retaining prior deadlines for many policies while delaying several major air rules -- and seeking to accelerate its schedule for completing long-delayed TSCA regulations. The new agenda , released Dec. 6, keeps some major rulemaking deadlines close to where they were in the Spring agenda, including those for various rules governing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and key climate policies, among others. But the...

States, Environmentalists Defend EPA’s Disapproval Of Interstate Air Plans

States, cities and environmental groups that support EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule are defending the agency’s disapproval of state interstate ozone plans that was a predicate for the rule, and are backing its efforts to move suits from regional courts to the District of Columbia. In recent amicus briefs filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, states concerned about interstate air pollution back EPA’s position in State of Arkansas, et al. v....

Sierra Club Cites Coal Phasedown Deal To Push For Tougher PM Limits

Sierra Club is seizing on the Biden administration’s recent international commitment to phase down coal use for energy to push EPA to set tougher federal limits for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), arguing that slashing coal power would bring major benefits in conventional air pollution cuts as well as greenhouse gas reductions. “Coal pollution is responsible for over 460,000 deaths over the last two decades, and the Biden administration has a critical opportunity to demonstrate global leadership and save thousands of...

Republicans, White House Clash Over Bill To Bar EPA’s EV-Focused Rules

House Republicans are gearing up to vote on legislation that would bar EPA from adopting its pending multi-pollutant standards for model year 2027 and later passenger vehicles, though a veto threat from the White House is underscoring the ongoing political clash over federal policies that encourage vehicle electrification. The House Rules Committee met Dec. 4 to consider legislation including H.R. 4668, sponsored by Rep. Tim Wahlberg (R-MI), that would specifically prohibit EPA from implementing or enforcing its pending regulation that...

Judges Wrestle With EPA Definition Of ‘Significant’ Interstate Air Pollution

Federal appellate judges are wrestling with competing assertions by EPA and states over their respective powers to define a “significant contribution” by one state to others’ problems attaining national air quality limits -- an issue that could determine whether states are subject to EPA’s Good Neighbor plan for curbing interstate ozone emissions. During Dec. 4 oral argument in State of Texas, et al. v. EPA , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit weighed...

EPA SCC Updates Poised To Bolster Case For Looming GHG Regulations

EPA in tandem with its final oil and gas methane rules is finalizing updated estimates of the climate change damages from an incremental ton of greenhouse gas emissions, formally embracing higher social cost of carbon (SCC) values with broad implications for future climate rules beyond the agency’s methane standards. The agency’s use of the updated values to analyze the climate benefits of its methane rule also opens the door for Republican state officials or others to challenge the values in...

Biogas Industry Urges Court To Scrap EPA’s Reform Of Sector’s RFS Rules

Biogas industry groups are urging a federal appeals court to scrap EPA’s reform of the sector’s participation in the renewable fuel standard (RFS), arguing that EPA exceeded its legal authority by imposing numerous restrictions on biogas producers to prevent fraud, and that the new requirements are burdensome and not required. In their Nov. 30 opening brief filed in Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas v. EPA , biogas producers say EPA lacks statutory power for its shakeup of how facilities supply...

EPA Issues Food Waste Plan But Declines To Commit To Landfill Air Rules

The Biden administration during ongoing international climate talks in Dubai has announced a new inter-agency strategy to limit food waste and associated methane emissions, though officials are declining for now to commit to strengthening Obama-era standards for the landfill sector, despite wide-ranging calls for such a pledge. The inter-agency strategy , which EPA Administrator Micheal Regan released Dec. 2 at the Dubai climate conference, includes various non-regulatory actions that EPA and other agencies are considering to prevent food waste and...

EPA awards Houston monitoring money ahead of critical report

EPA is giving Houston nearly $500,000 to bolster air toxics monitoring in environmental justice (EJ) communities, announcing the award just one day before environmentalists released a report criticizing high levels of air pollution exposure in those same communities. EPA Region 6 held a Nov. 29 event that included local officials and Democratic members of Congress who offered support for the $498,000 grant to Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (ACTS) to launch a citizen science project to monitor hazardous air pollution in...

Touting ‘Global Leadership,’ EPA Tightens Flaring Curbs In Methane Rule

In one of the Biden administration’s signature moves at the international climate talks, EPA has unveiled its long-awaited oil and gas sector methane standards for new and existing facilities, touting the rule’s stronger curbs on flaring, greater projected emissions cuts, and its embrace of a “super emitter” program that allows third parties to track large emissions events. Even so, the final rule -- released Dec. 2 at the climate conference in Dubai -- also includes additional flexibility for industry and...

Final Rule

Fact Sheet

Regulatory Impact Analysis



EPA floats taconite, lime air toxics rules

EPA is moving closer to issuing a final air toxics rule for the taconite iron ore processing industry, and a proposed revision of air toxics regulations for the lime manufacturing sector, sending the rules for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review Nov. 30, according to the office’s website. OMB review typically takes up to 90 days, but can be faster or slower, depending on the circumstances. EPA’s proposed taconite sector rule would set first-time mercury emissions...

Steep Decline In NOx May Limit Impact Of ‘Good Neighbor’ Rule Stays

New EPA data shows a steep national decline in ozone-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) from power plants, driven largely by reduced coal use, indicating that current stays of the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule or even its ultimate rejection by the courts might have less impact on air quality than initially thought. Data released by the agency Nov. 30 shows that in the 10 states now implementing the GNP for power plants, NOx emissions fell by 18 percent from...

EPA Aims To Strip ‘Affirmative Defense’ From Oil And Gas Air Toxics Rules

EPA is proposing to remove “affirmative defense” provisions shielding the oil and natural gas industry from civil liability for malfunctions in the production and transmission sectors, in line with agency policy and legal precedent, as the agency presses to remove waivers for periods of plant startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) more broadly. In a Federal Register notice published Dec. 1, EPA proposes to remove the affirmative defense from its national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) rules for...

EPA Punts Midwest E15 Fuel Approval To March, Citing Refiners’ Concerns

EPA says it needs until late March to finalize its controversial rule that would allow for 15 percent ethanol (E15) fuel sales year-round in some Midwestern states, fighting Iowa and Nebraska’s latest legal moves to force issuance of the rule, amid pressure from refiners and others to stall the measure and reported White House reluctance to authorize it. “EPA has received numerous administrative petitions seeking to delay the effective date of the final rule. EPA is required to consider such...

Plaintiffs seek to preserve emissions cheating case against GM

Consumer plaintiffs seeking to sue General Motors (GM) for allegedly submitting false emissions testing data to EPA are urging a federal appeals court to preserve their suit, arguing their state-law claims do not conflict with the Clean Air Act and are not preempted, as industry groups charge. “Claims of deception under state laws do not conflict with any EPA findings or otherwise conflict with federal law,” and the case should be allowed to proceed, the plaintiffs say in their Nov...

Industry, Environmentalists Clash Over Legality Of EPA’s Air Reporting Plan

Industry groups and environmentalists are at odds over the legality of EPA’s planned expansion of air emissions reporting, with a host of manufacturers warning the plan exceeds the agency’s legal authority and would overburden regulators and facilities, but environmentalists counter that the expansion is not only legally necessary, but must go further to measure air toxics. In public comments submitted to EPA ahead of a Nov. 17 deadline and recently posted to the docket, numerous groups express their views on...

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