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.

CARB Poised To Seek EPA Waiver For Locomotive Rule Amid Industry Lawsuit

California air officials are slated this week to seek a Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waiver for a novel regulation to reduce pollution from existing locomotives, after receiving final state administrative approval of the measure just days before EPA finalized a rule that eases the path for California and other states to obtain such waivers. California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) finalized the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “In-Use Locomotive Regulation” on Oct. 27, and the regulation will “go into...

White House, Advocates Issue COP28 Priorities, Including Fossil Fuel Limits

The Biden Administration and environmental groups are detailing their priorities for the annual international climate summit this December in Dubai, including pressing countries to adopt more ambitious and detailed greenhouse gas targets under the Paris Agreement and urging support for explicit limits on fossil fuels. During the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations climate treaty, officials are poised to haggle over the details of any language related to fossil fuel restrictions. A top Biden administration official...

EPA confirms intent to finalize PM NAAQS by year’s end

EPA is confirming its commitment to issue a final rule likely tightening the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by the end of the year, amid significant opposition from industry groups and renewed calls from environmentalists for a significantly tougher limit. In its unopposed motion filed Oct. 31 in State of California, et al v. EPA, et al. , EPA asked the court for continued abeyance in the case, which consolidates states’ and environmentalists’ challenges...

Under OMB Pressure, EPA Shelves Plan Requiring AFO Emissions Reporting

EPA has dropped a draft proposed rule to impose air emissions reporting requirements on animal feeding operations (AFOs) under community right-to-know law, after pushback from White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials concerned about the plan’s practicality. Sources say the agency will proceed instead with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) to help guide its approach. OMB Oct. 27 completed interagency review of EPA’s March draft proposal that sought to rescind a 2019 Trump EPA rule that...

Appellate Judges Give Few Indications On Legality Of 2022 RFS Volumes

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit during Nov. 3 oral argument pressed EPA, refiners and biofuels groups about the legality of the agency’s 2022 biofuel blending mandates under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), but they gave little indication on whether they will uphold the requirements. Argument over EPA’s 2022 volumes rule centered on the agency’s Clean Air Act authority to “reset” statutory targets to lower levels once shortfalls in biofuel blending below prior...

Biofuels Groups Defend EPA’s Mass Denials Of Small Refinery RFS Waivers

Biofuels groups are defending EPA’s mass rejection of renewable fuel standard (RFS) waivers for small refineries, pushing back on refiners’ claims that the denials rely on a regional appellate ruling that is no longer in force, and rejecting claims that EPA re-wrote statutory conditions for granting waivers and acted with unlawful retroactive effect. In their Nov. 1 intervenor brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. LLC, et al....

EPA recruiting experts for CASAC NOx panel

EPA is inviting candidates to apply to join its special panel that will assist the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) in its oversight of EPA’s forthcoming review of federal air quality standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx), as the agency faces litigation seeking to compel faster completion of the review. In a notice published in the Federal Register Nov. 3, EPA seeks nominations for experts to review agency documents related to the review of “primary,” or health-based national ambient...

GOP Senators Urge FERC To Dial Up Review Of EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

Two Senate Republicans are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to enhance its scrutiny of the potential reliability effects of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas proposal, ahead of the commission’s technical conference next week that will include discussion of the rule. “[T]o develop an adequate record of the potential impacts of the EPA’s proposed rule, we believe you must do more than devote only a portion of your annual [reliability technical conference scheduled for Nov. 9] to this subject,”...

Supporters Back EPA Bid To Avoid High Court Stay Of Good Neighbor Rule

Environmentalists and “downwind” states are backing EPA’s efforts to stave off a Supreme Court stay of the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) air rule sought by “upwind” states and industry groups, seeking to allow the agency to continue implementing a measure that they say is crucial to attaining federal ozone standards. In recently filed briefs, a coalition of environmental groups that support the rule, as well as a group of nine downwind states led by New York, argue the high court...

Senators Say EPA’s CCS Permit Delays Clash With Power Plant GHG Plan

Multiple senators are pressing EPA to speed permitting of carbon dioxide injection wells at the federal and state level, with some lawmakers also combining their pitch with claims that the agency’s power plant greenhouse gas standards premised on carbon capture and storage (CCS) are inconsistent with the current permitting pace. The calls, during a Nov. 2 Senate energy committee hearing, come as EPA officials are touting their carbon permitting efforts, including the new availability of almost $50 million in grants...

Industry Steps Up Opposition To CARB’s Removal Of Chrome-6 Rule Waiver

Industry groups are stepping up their opposition to the California air board’s 11th-hour deletion of key exemptions from phaseout and other regulatory requirements that the board included in recently adopted rules governing hexavalent chromium (chrome-6) at metal-plating operations, charging the action may violate state law. “The modifications remove provisions that plating facilities have been relying upon,” states an Oct. 20 letter to California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Officer Steve Cliff from the Metal Finishing Association of Northern California, Metal...

Parties In Talks On ‘Contingency Measures’ Suits Amid EPA Policy Struggle

EPA, state and local officials and environmentalists are in talks to resolve a pair of lawsuits related to proposed Los Angeles regional air district “contingency measures” (CMs) that seek to ensure a state implementation plan (SIP) attains federal air quality standards for ozone, an issue that regulators are struggling to address. Parties in the two cases -- South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) v. Michael S. Regan and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, et al. v. EPA...

EPA Signs Rule Easing Waiver Path For State Locomotive Air Regulations

EPA has finalized without change a long-expected measure that eases the regulatory path for California and other states to obtain a preemption waiver for their emissions standards for used locomotives, after officials severed the policy from still-pending federal emissions rules for heavy-duty trucks. “We received overwhelming support from commenters, as well as a few adverse comments,” the agency says in the text of its final rule that EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed Nov. 1 ahead of publication in the Federal...

Industry Coalition Urges White House To Ensure EPA Retains PM2.5 Limits

More than 70 national and regional industry trade associations are urging White House officials not to allow EPA to tighten federal standards for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), warning of dire economic consequences should the agency do so, as a final decision on the issue approaches in the coming weeks. In their Oct. 31 letter to White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients, the groups including the National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute and many others...

EPA Floats Eased Waste Rules To Encourage Recycling Of ‘Spent’ HFCs

EPA is proposing eased waste standards to encourage recycling of “spent” hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are often used as refrigerants but act as potent greenhouse gases, with the provisions seeking to complement a broader rule to limit leaks in appliances and grow the nascent HFC reclamation sector. Most of EPA’s Oct. 19 proposal addressing HFC management was developed under the 2020 American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act that created a comprehensive HFC control program at EPA. However, the agency alongside that...

Environmentalists Make Final Push On RMP Rule But Fear Industry Influence

Environmentalists are pushing to toughen EPA’s final risk management program (RMP) rule in a series of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meetings while warning that the agency is working too closely with industry on the policy, including one source who says it has shown trade associations the regulation, but not citizen groups. “[I]ndustry seems to know what’s in the final rule,” while environmental groups and fenceline communities that are “the most impacted by the rule” do not, an official...

Denka Asks Court To Reject EPA IRIS Value As ‘Bright-Line’ Air Toxics Limit

Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) is raising new counterclaims in its challenge to EPA’s novel enforcement action over emissions from its Louisiana facility, asking a federal court to reject the agency’s first-time effort to use an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) value as an air toxics limit because officials have never before used such a value as a “bright-line standard.” DPE makes the argument in an Oct. 25 “amended counterclaim” in its opposition to EPA’s Clean Air Act section 303 emergency...

Public health groups urge EPA to grant California air waivers

A coalition of over 20 public health groups led by the American Lung Association (ALA) is urging EPA to quickly grant Clean Air Act waivers sought by California to authorize four state clean air programs, addressing “advanced clean cars,” heavy-duty truck low nitrogen oxides (NOx) standards, harbor craft and small off-road engines. “California’s pending waiver requests represent policies projected to save thousands and over $50 billion in public health benefits. EPA must act to ensure life-saving clean air standards related...

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