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.

Senators call for E15 emergency waiver

Senators of both parties from biofuel-producing states are pressing the Biden administration to quickly issue an emergency waiver authorizing summertime sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15), citing geopolitical turmoil that they say threatens energy supplies, after EPA delayed its authorization of year-round E15 in Midwestern states until 2025. In their April 11 letter to President Joe Biden, 20 senators led by Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), and longtime ethanol advocate Charles Grassley (R-IA) ask...

EPA Secondary NAAQS Proposal Requires No Additional Pollution Cuts

In an apparent defeat for environmental groups and the agency’s science advisors, EPA is proposing only a minor tightening of its “secondary” air standards for sulfur oxides (SOx), and planning to leave such ecosystem-based limits for other pollutants unchanged, resulting in a rule that would require no additional emissions cuts by industry. The proposal , released by EPA April 11, would revise the secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) under a combined review of limits for SOx, nitrogen oxides...

Republicans Attack Good Neighbor Air Rule As ‘Major Questions’ Violation

House and Senate Republicans are charging that EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule violates the Supreme Court’s doctrine that “major questions” of public policy should be decided by Congress, rather than executive agencies, raising the stakes in the battle over the heavily contested regulation. In an April 8 amicus brief , dozens of lawmakers tell the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in State of Utah, et al. v. EPA, et al...

EPA Officials Eye Broad Outreach To Help Address Chemicals In Indoor Air

EPA officials are planning to conduct broad outreach to better communicate the risks indoor chemical exposures pose to vulnerable communities and the private sector “regardless” of any regulatory limits, two agency officials told a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) workshop reviewing the issue. “One of the things that we definitely can do better is communicating the uncertainty and the evolving nature of our knowledge,” of indoor air chemical exposure risks, EPA’s Vito Ilacqua, director of the air...

Youth Plaintiffs Reject EPA Motion To Dismiss Novel Climate Lawsuit

Youth plaintiffs are opposing EPA’s recent request to dismiss their novel constitutional litigation that argues the agency is discriminating against them by permitting unsafe levels of climate-warming pollution to be emitted from the facilities that it regulates. The youth argue in an April 8 filing in Genesis B., et al. v. EPA, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that the court should hear their “claims of systematic harm and discrimination by these...

EPA’s SOCMI Rule Faces Industry Suits Over Chloroprene, Other Mandates

EPA’s new air rule governing organic chemical and polymer manufacturing plants appears likely to face a series of industry challenges, with Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the nation’s only synthetic rubber manufacturer, vowing to challenge its chloroprene provisions while also joining with ethylene oxide (EtO) and other manufacturers in challenging its substantive requirements. A DPE spokesman tells Inside EPA the company “vehemently opposes” provisions that impose a 90-day deadline to comply with the rule’s control and monitoring requirements for chloroprene,...

EPA Retains Strict Air Limits For Chemical Plants But Delays Monitoring

EPA has unveiled its sweeping rule limiting emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) and the synthetic rubber component chloroprene, along with other air toxics, from hundreds of organic chemical and polymer manufacturing plants, largely finalizing the rule as proposed, but adding additional time for industry to install fenceline air monitors. The final rule also dropped a proposed cap on flaring of ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions, after agency officials found it was no longer needed. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and...

Additional Fights Loom After D.C. Circuit Rejects EPA Vehicle Waiver Suits

An appellate court’s rejection of litigation from Republican states and liquid fuels groups challenging EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s prior round of vehicle emissions standards represents a major initial victory for backers of strong state requirements, though it could be followed by several additional cases seeking to limit such rules. In addition, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s April 9 ruling in State of Ohio, et al. v. EPA, et al . comes amid...

D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenges To EPA Waiver For California Auto Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is rejecting Republican states’ constitutional challenge to EPA’s Clean Air Act federal preemption waiver for California’s passenger vehicle emissions standards, a decision that could bolster a suite of other final and pending waivers the state is seeking. In addition, the court in an April 9 opinion dismissed statutory challenges brought by both the states and liquid fuels groups, concluding that both sets of petitioners lack standing to bring the...

EPA Issues PFAS Disposal Guidance Ahead Of Water, Cleanup Rules

EPA has released a long-awaited update to its interim disposal guide for PFAS that continues to highlight methods from its 2020 guidance -- interim storage, landfilling, underground injection control (UIC) and thermal treatment including incinerations under certain conditions -- as less likely to pose environmental impacts than other methods. EPA April 9 issued its updated “Interim Guidance on the Destruction and Disposal of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Materials Containing Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances [(PFAS)],” a day after the White...

Interim Guidance

Fact Sheet




GOP offers CRA resolution to repeal RMP rule

House Republicans have introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that seeks to roll back EPA’s controversial rule tightening many aspects of its risk management program (RMP) for chemical facilities, teeing up a statutorily mandated vote on the repeal in the coming weeks. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on March 29 filed H.J. Res. 123 , which if passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President would scrap EPA’s recent RMP rule. “Yet again, EPA is creating a...

Manufacturers Expected To Pass On EPA Auto Rule Suit Due To Flexibilities

EPA’s decision to ease the near-term stringency of its final passenger vehicle emissions standards -- via softer top-line requirements and additional credit flexibilities -- makes it unlikely that auto manufacturers will challenge the rule, industry and other observers say, though lawsuits are expected from GOP states and liquid fuels groups. However, the picture is not yet certain as industry has months to make such decisions, with a 60-day period to file suit over EPA’s model year 2027-2032 light- and medium-duty...

Industry, States Target Fundamental NAAQS Process Issues In PM Lawsuit

Industry groups and states suing over EPA’s tougher fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard are raising a series of concerns with the broader standard-setting process, charging that Congress unlawfully delegated authority to the agency to set such standards as well as citing officials’ failure to consider costs and feasibility when crafting the reconsidered rule. In a statement of issues filed April 5 in the consolidated case Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al v. EPA, et al , a coalition of major industry...

Clock starts for suits against EPA’s sterilizers air rule

EPA has published its rule limiting emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) from commercial sterilizers in the Federal Register , starting a 60-day clock for litigants to file suit against the regulation that is broadly supported by environmental and community groups, but opposed by chemical sector groups, medical equipment suppliers and others. The rule , released in March and published in the Register April 5, tightens standards for sources such as sterilization chamber vents and aeration room vents, and adds...

EPA Urged To Ease ‘Contingency Measure’ Policy Amid Fears Of SIP Effects

Wisconsin officials are joining southern California regulators and municipalities in pressing EPA to withdraw its controversial plan to reject a Los Angeles-area state implementation plan (SIP) to attain air standards, while also urging the agency to relax its disputed “contingency measures” (CM) policy by recognizing state limits in reducing emissions. Gail Good, director of air management for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, warned EPA Region 9 in an April 3 comment letter that unless the agency eases its CM...

States Stress Need For EPA Mobile Source Rules To Meet SIP Requirements

California and other air regulators are stepping up calls for EPA to pursue stringent rules on federally regulated mobile sources so they can advance acceptable “contingency measure plans” (CMPs) in state implementation plans (SIPs) -- part of a push to convince the agency to withdraw its proposed disapproval of a Los Angeles-area SIP. In recent comments, top officials from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and Wisconsin’s environmental agency pressed EPA to step-up...

Petro-Chemical Sector Urges Officials To Ease EPA’s Imminent SOCMI Rule

Refining and chemical industry groups are urging the Biden administration to ease EPA’s imminent rule limiting emissions from a wide array of organic chemical and polymer manufacturing, in a last-ditch bid to head off tougher controls on the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) and other pollutants, though EPA is not expected to make their requested changes. According to a recently posted presentation , the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), during a March 21 meeting,...

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