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.

Court allows interlocutory appeal over aircraft emissions suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is allowing major airlines and the Port of Seattle to pursue an interlocutory appeal in pending litigation over aircraft emissions, where they plan to argue that the nuisance suit over emissions from a local airport is preempted by the Clean Air Act. The court in a May 1 order in Cindy Codoni, et al. v. Port of Seattle, et al. , granted a request from the defendants to appeal a lower...

EPA Floats Proposed Repeals Of ‘Carbon Standards,’ MATS Updates

Update appended The Trump EPA has submitted two draft proposed rules to the White House for inter-agency review that would repeal Biden-era climate and air toxics requirements, including one measure that generally refers to “carbon pollution standards” and another that specifically references updated air toxics limits for coal plants. The carbon standards repeal proposal and the air toxics rule repeal proposal both arrived at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on May 2, according to public notices of...

EPA Unveils Agency-Wide Reorganization Affecting Major Program Offices

EPA is announcing a major reorganization in line with orders from President Donald Trump to eliminate staff, slash funding and restructure federal agencies, unveiling plans to reform the administrator’s office as well as the air, water, and chemical offices while gutting the research office and moving many of its scientists elsewhere or firing them. In a May 2 announcement , EPA says planned changes include shifting research functions to program offices; creating an office to work with states on air...

Senate GOP Vows To Block California Vehicle Waivers, As Litigation Looms

Senate Republicans are reportedly vowing to scuttle EPA’s preemption waivers for California vehicle emissions programs using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), even though this would require overruling conclusions by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Senate parliamentarian that the waivers are not subject to CRA. Observers, however, say such an approach is likely to spark extended litigation on the question of whether rescinding the waivers is an illegal use of the CRA. “If they go forward in the Senate...

EPA Takes First Step In Bid To Ease Power Supply For AI Data Centers

EPA is signaling that it plans a relaxation of rules allowing limited use of emergency generators in demand response programs, in order to ensure power supply to data centers that drive artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with the agency announcing that a Duke Energy program meets existing conditions for use of generators in this context. “The Trump Administration is taking action to rectify the previous Administration’s actions to weaken the reliability of the electricity grid and our ability to maintain our...

Senate Votes To Scrap Biden-Era Air Toxics Source Reclassification Rule

The Senate has voted on party lines to approve a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution repealing the Biden EPA’s rule that prevents major sources of certain air toxics from reclassifying as more lightly regulated “area” sources, clearing the way for the House to adopt the measure despite environmentalists’ warning of unintended consequences. Senators May 1 voted 52 to 46 to approve S.J. Res 31, a measure sponsored by Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) that seeks to scrap the Biden EPA’s 2024...

DOJ Sues Michigan, Hawaii To Block Expected Climate Nuisance Suits

The Trump administration is seeking to preemptively block Michigan and Hawaii from joining over two dozen other state and local governments that are seeking climate-related damages from oil and gas companies, as the Justice Department (DOJ) seeks to implement a White House directive to attack state and local climate change policies. DOJ’s complaints in federal district courts also respond to major oil and gas companies’ push for the Trump administration to help them fight numerous ongoing climate nuisance and fraud...

House Backs Attack On California’s ZEV Rule, Shifting Focus To Senate

The House has approved a resolution that would overturn California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) program and its 2035 zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales mandate, even as it remains unclear how the Senate will respond to the measure and two other House-approved resolutions opposing California vehicle emissions programs. House lawmakers on May 1 backed the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution targeting ACC II in a 246-164 vote, including three dozen Democrats who supported the measure. That vote came on the...

EPA Moves To Reconstitute Science Panels With Energy, Economic Focus

EPA is reconstituting two science advisory panels -- the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and the broader Science Advisory Board (SAB) -- whose members were dismissed early in the Trump administration, and is seeking to ensure that CASAC members are qualified to dispense advice on energy and economic impacts in addition to environmental issues. In notices scheduled for publication in the Federal Register May 1, EPA solicits nominations for new members of the panels. For both panels, applicants...

Universities, Industry Slam ‘Unnecessary’ Biden Gas Turbines NOx Plan

A group representing turbine makers and major universities is criticizing the Biden EPA’s plan to impose tougher air pollution controls on gas turbines across several sectors, arguing its call for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for many turbines is “unreasonable” and “unnecessary” and providing the rationale to weaken or abandon the measure. The Biden EPA proposed the rule to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants from new and modified gas turbines under a review of the new source performance standards...

Environmentalists Say ‘Delinquent’ EPA Must Tighten Gas Turbines Plan

Environmental groups are asserting EPA must tighten its proposed update to new source performance standards (NSPS) for gas turbines, which they say is years overdue and unlawfully weak, even as various industry groups are outlining a rationale for Trump officials to drop it by asserting it is “unnecessary” and “unreasonable.” Despite the long odds of EPA finalizing the existing proposal as written, much less tightening it further, environmental groups say EPA includes too many loopholes in the plan by excluding...

Automakers Endorse Capitol Hill Effort To Scuttle California ZEV Mandate

Automakers are formally endorsing a proposal under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to scuttle EPA’s preemption waiver for California’s 2035 zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, as House Republicans vow to press ahead despite procedural questions surrounding the Senate’s use of the CRA to target such waivers. “Alliance for Automotive Innovation urges the House to repeal the [EPA] rule permitting California and affiliated states to ban the sale of new gas vehicles -- and mandate 100 percent electric vehicle sales by...

Faulting EPA, 10th Circuit Remands Colorado Oil, Gas Emissions Plan

The 10th Circuit has handed EPA a partial defeat in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists against its approval of a revision to Colorado’s air permitting regulations that apply to ozone emissions from oil and gas drilling, remanding the agency’s approval for failure to consider environmental impacts of the state’s plan. In an April 28 opinion in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) v. EPA and State of Colorado , Judge Robert Bacharach on behalf of himself and Judges Bobby Baldock and...

EDF sues EPA to force answers on air toxics waivers

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is suing EPA to force the agency to respond to the group’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on which industrial facilities have requested or won presidential waivers from air toxics regulations in the power sector, chemical industry and beyond. EDF filed suit April 25 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying EPA missed a statutory deadline to respond to the group’s March 27 records request. The law requires...

EPA Issues Emergency Air Waiver Enabling Summer Sales Of E15 Fuel

EPA is issuing an emergency waiver permitting the sale of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) this summer when it would otherwise be barred by federal fuel volatility regulations, a move that biofuels supporters are welcoming even as a push to permanently authorize year-round E15 sales has faltered in Congress. “President Trump’s commitment to farmers and the Renewable Fuels Standard has been a cornerstone to his leadership. In my confirmation hearing, I pledged to establish certainty when it came to the...

L.A. SIP Plan Aims To Meet Ozone Limit But Falls Short Of EPA’s CM Guide

Los Angeles-area air regulators are submitting to EPA several rules to attain the 2015 ozone standard but are also including an “infeasibility justification” because the cuts will fall short of Biden-era guidance for “contingency measures” (CM) that states must include in their state implementation plans (SIPs) to ensure air quality progress. Officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), which is in “extreme” nonattainment with the 2015 8-hour ozone standard, April 24 released their draft “Air Basin Contingency...

D.C. Circuit Punts On EPA Bid To Stay GHGRF Ruling But Sets Quick Briefing

The D.C Circuit is delaying a decision on whether to grant EPA’s request for a long-term stay of a lower court decision that would restart funding for grant recipients under EPA’s greenhouse gas reduction fund (GHGRF) program, instead approving a quick schedule to consider the merits of the agency’s appeal. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit says in an April 28 order that “consideration of the motion for stay [will] be...

House lawmakers cite tariffs in push for E15 waiver

Midwestern lawmakers of both parties are again pressing the White House to issue an emergency waiver from federal fuel regulations to allow sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) this summer, arguing effects from the administration’s tariffs are another reason to do so as a deadline approaches for retailers to switch fuels they sell. In their April 22 letter to President Donald Trump, 25 House members led by Reps. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Angie Craig (D-MN) urge “swift action to...

Industry Resists Biden EPA Plan For Small Chemical Plants EtO Emissions

Industry groups are resisting the Biden EPA’s “costly” and “unjustified” plan to impose tougher air rules for hundreds of small “area source” chemical plants, including new limits for ethylene oxide (EtO), offering an early test of how the Trump administration will handle mandatory Clean Air Act (CAA) reviews of air toxics rules. EPA accepted public comment through April 14 on its area source plan for Chemical Manufacturing Area Sources (CMAS), which would tighten national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants...

Environmentalists Press EPA To Tighten Area Sources Chemical Air Plan

Environmental groups are urging EPA not to abandon a Biden-era plan to tighten air toxics limits for smaller “area source” chemical plants, and even to go further by adding new limits and eliminating a regulatory “loophole” that the groups say would leave the public unprotected from harmful pollutants. In April 14 comments , groups including California Communities Against Toxics, Clean Air Council, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club and Union of Concerned Scientists, among others, say EPA must...

Pages

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