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.

Trump Grants Two-Year Air Toxics Rule Waiver For Arizona Copper Smelter

President Trump is exempting an Arizona copper smelter from compliance with Biden-era air toxics regulations for two years, citing national security concerns regarding the supply of copper, a move that adds to the already long list of industrial facilities similarly exempted from air rules tightened by the Biden administration. In an Oct. 24 declaration , Trump waived compliance with the 2024 national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) that tightened emissions limits for “primary” copper smelters that smelt copper...

Sen. Lee Introduces Legislation To Ban Citizen Suits Under Clean Air Act

Senate energy committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced legislation that would ban citizen suits under the Clean Air Act (CAA), saying the bill would “protect Americans from lawfare by climate extremists,” though the “Fair Air Enforcement Act” goes well beyond climate change and would put an end to all citizen enforcement suits under the law. Lee introduced the measure, S. 3049 Oct. 23 and it was referred to the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. At the time of...

California Warns Trump Rollbacks Threaten Ability To Meet EPA Air Goals

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are warning that the Trump administration’s rollback of multiple air regulations -- including repealing the state’s authority for several of its strict vehicle standards -- will significantly increase pollution, health impacts and death, while also threatening the state’s ability to achieve federal air standards. “California has led the world in cleaning up the air we breathe -- but the fight isn’t over. Now, the federal government is stripping away the tools we need to...

Bill expected to limit attorneys’ fees in CAA citizen suits

Lawmakers are expected to soon introduce a bill to cap attorneys’ fees in Clean Air Act (CAA) citizen suits after a Utah man was recently jailed for failing to pay more than $800,000 in such fees in a landmark case where he was found to have violated the law for defeating required vehicle emission controls, his attorney says. “I have reason to believe another bill is coming down the line that caps attorneys’ fees in private rights of action (as...

Former Officials Doubt EPA Can Preserve Preemption Without GHG Finding

Two former Biden administration officials are asserting that courts will not allow EPA to simultaneously argue it lacks a legal basis to regulate greenhouse gases, but that the Clean Air Act would still preempt both common law climate suits and state vehicle emissions programs. The critiques underscore a debate over whether EPA’s high-stakes push to undo its GHG endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG rules could open new paths to advancing climate nuisance claims and state vehicle emissions limits --...

Senate Advances Bill Easing NEPA, Air Policy For Forest Management Efforts

A Senate committee has approved legislation that rolls back National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements for forestry management projects, easing the path for passage of the bipartisan bill after the House approved similar legislation earlier this year. Enacting such legislation could mark one of the few NEPA-related measures to pass this Congress, despite calls from lawmakers in both parties for broader NEPA revisions. In addition to the NEPA waiver, the legislation also requires EPA to work with agencies to update...

Environmentalists Seek Rehearing Of ‘Affirmative Defense’ Permit Ruling

Environmental groups are asking the full D.C. Circuit to rehear a panel ruling that upheld the lawfulness of “affirmative defenses” in Title V air operating permits when it vacated a Biden-era rule barring such defenses from civil liability for excess emissions during plant malfunctions. In an Oct. 20 petition for rehearing en banc , groups including Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Environmental Integrity Project say that the panel’s Sept. 5 decision in SSM Litigation Group v....

CARB Unveils Plan For New Vehicle Emission, ZEV Rules Amid Trump Attacks

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are outlining their new rulemaking for criteria pollutant, greenhouse gas and zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) standards for model year 2031-and-beyond cars and trucks, as the board continues to fight the Trump administration’s attacks on the state’s ability to set more stringent rules than EPA. “As a result of these illegal and unconstitutional actions by the federal government, we find ourselves in . . . an enormous emissions-reduction hole,” said Chris Grundler, CARB’s deputy executive officer...

Group sues to force EPA action on more than 100 California SIP rules

An environmental group is suing to compel EPA action on more than 100 individual air pollution regulations and plan elements across California contained in state implementation plan (SIP) submissions made to the agency between August 2018 and January 2024. “The Administrator has not taken final action on any of these SIP submissions, and they are now all overdue,” states an Oct. 19 complaint filed by Our Children’s Earth Foundation against EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in the U.S. District Court for...

EPA Wins Lengthy Pauses In MATS, Coke Ovens Lawsuits Amid Shutdown

EPA has won lengthy abeyances in litigation brought by environmentalists and industry over its waivers from tougher Biden-era mercury and air toxics power plant standards (MATS), and against tougher Biden-era regulations for coke plants, while it writes new rules for both sectors and other suits also stall because of the government shutdown. The delays give the agency significant room -- in one case until at least the middle of 2026 -- to craft new measures to replace the actions being...

Environmentalists Sue Over Trump Waiver For Chemical Plants’ Air Toxics

Environmentalists are suing President Trump and EPA over presidential waivers from Biden-era air toxics standards for dozens of major chemical plants, claiming the exemptions exceed presidential authorities and violate the Clean Air Act, as EPA works to reconsider and likely walk back the regulations. In their lawsuit filed Oct. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 10 environmental groups led by Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) challenge Trump’s proclamation “purporting to exempt 50 chemical manufacturing...

Shutdown Appears To Have Little Effect On EPA GHG Endangerment Plan

EPA is reiterating its goal of finalizing a rollback of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and associated vehicle GHG limits by the end of this year, as multiple sources say there is little evidence that the rulemaking has been delayed yet by the ongoing government shutdown. “The agency aims to finalize the rulemaking before the end of the year,” the agency’s press office said in an Oct. 21 statement to Inside EPA ’s Climate Extra . While uncertainty persists about...

House GOP Bill Includes Gas, Nuclear As ‘Clean Energy’ For EPA Policy

A key House Republican voice on energy issues is floating legislation that would direct EPA and other agencies to define “clean” energy as including natural gas and nuclear, while also defining “reliable” energy to omit intermittent sources such as wind and solar power. The legislation from Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH) thus offers the latest example of congressional Republican attacks on longstanding federal support for renewable power -- echoing the Trump administration’s stance to explicitly favor certain energy types over others...

API Breaks With Biofuels Groups To Oppose Year-Round E15 Authorization

Breaking an alliance with biofuels groups, the American Petroleum Institute (API) is dropping its support for draft bipartisan legislation that would authorize 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) for effective year-round sales when it is otherwise barred by federal rules in the summer, following a reversal on the issue by several states. “Over the past eight months, legislative, regulatory, and market developments have created a substantially different operating environment for refiners and fuel suppliers. These changes have led API to reassess...

Lummis offers bill to bar CAA vehicle emission controls

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has introduced legislation that would effectively bar EPA from requiring emission controls in vehicles in response to what she calls heavy-handed enforcement by Biden officials who imprisoned Wyoming mechanics “for keeping school buses, fire trucks and ambulances running in cold, harsh climates.” Lummis introduced the bill, S. 3007 , the “Diesel Truck Liberation Act,” Oct. 14. The measure has been referred to the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. The bill prohibits EPA from requiring “the...

Suppliers Warn Of Potential Job Losses From Rescinding EPA Auto Rules

The Trump administration’s push to scuttle vehicle greenhouse gas standards and the agency’s related GHG endangerment finding is sparking objections from auto suppliers that such a move could compromise domestic markets for clean technologies and ultimately shift jobs in relevant technologies abroad. The concerns from the Manufacturers of Emissions Control Association (MECA), detailed in comments on the agency’s proposal to scuttle the standards, join broader warnings that the U.S. risks losing the battle for clean technology leadership as federal agencies...

EPA Seeks To Dismiss Small Refiners’ Lawsuits Over Denied RFS Waivers

EPA is urging a federal appeals court to dismiss some small refiners’ lawsuits over the agency’s denials of renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers, arguing the refiners are unlawfully seeking to reopen a 2014 rule to litigation, while biofuels groups are fighting for the right to intervene in the proceedings. In cases being consolidated under REH Company, LLC v. EPA , in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, small refiners are challenging EPA’s denial of...

EPA Facing Stubborn Backlog Of State Air Plans Amid Staffing, Budget Cuts

EPA is facing a stubbornly large backlog of unprocessed state implementation plans (SIPs) for meeting federal air quality standards, according to recent agency data, underscoring how challenging it will be to significantly reduce processing times in line with Trump administration priorities, as agency staffing and funding undergo reductions. In a Sept. 25 presentation to the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) Fall Business Meeting in Raleigh, NC, EPA air official Scott Matthias, director of the Air Quality Policy Division...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.