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 Drops Existing Gas Plants From GHG Rule But Eyes Future Measure

EPA is announcing plans to scale back the scope of its pending power plant greenhouse gas standards by removing proposed controls on existing natural gas plants, though the agency is coupling the move with a pledge to tackle those facilities’ emissions as part of a broader multi-pollutant strategy addressing GHGs, criteria pollutants and air toxics. The move is the latest indication EPA is moving to offer assurances that its push to finalize the power plant GHG rule in the coming...

EPA poised to issue EtO sterilizers air rule

EPA is poised to issue its closely watched air toxics rule limiting ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers, with the agency reportedly ready to offer industry more compliance flexibility than proposed after they warned of drastic consequences. The final rule cleared White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review Feb. 28 ahead of a March 1 judicial deadline to finalize it. The proposed version of the rule unveiled April 11 would revise the national emissions standards for hazardous...

'Climate Penalty’ Worsening Air Pollution, Sharpening EPA Policy Dilemma

Recent studies are projecting that a warming climate is significantly worsening air quality in the United States, thwarting efforts to cut pollution and meet EPA’s tougher fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards as well as its existing ozone limits, even as scientific evidence continues to suggest health harms at ever lower levels of pollution. In its 10th National Risk Assessment , “Atrocious Air,” released Feb. 12, the First Street Foundation, a Brooklyn, NY-based group that seeks to quantify climate risks for...

Deepening Split, 10th Circuit Backs EPA On Venue For GNP SIP Denial Suits

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is detailing its view that EPA’s disapproval of states’ “good neighbor” air plans is “nationally applicable” and must be litigated in the D.C. Circuit, rejecting other courts’ reasoning and deepening a circuit split as the Supreme Court considers staying EPA’s broader interstate air policy. In a Feb. 27 unanimous opinion in the consolidated case State of Utah v. EPA , a 10th Circuit panel explains its recent order transferring the litigation...


OMB Finalizes Guidance For Reviewing Rules’ Effects On Ecosystems

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is finalizing new guidance about how to weigh federal regulations’ effects on ecosystem services, defined as “contributions to human welfare from the environment or ecosystems,” with observers saying the guide will make EPA and other agencies less likely to overlook important benefits of rules. The Feb. 28 final guidance builds on the Biden administration’s November revisions to broader cost-benefit review guidance, known as Circular A- 4, that is expected to boost...

EPA Adopts Broad Definition Of ‘Port’ Eligible For $3 Billion In IRA Money

EPA has adopted a broad definition of what constitutes a “port” eligible for a new $3 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding program, backing calls from the agency’s environmental justice advisors and others who sought an inclusive definition to ensure that smaller facilities, including “dry” ports located near vulnerable communities, would be eligible. EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the release of two notices of funding opportunities for the agency’s Clean Ports program during a Feb. 28 visit to the Port...

NRDC Says Analyses Show ‘Modest’ Effects From EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

A clean energy expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says multiple analyses of EPA’s proposed power plant greenhouse gas standards show the rule will have relatively limited effects on generation capacity and grid reliability, even as top EPA officials are preparing additional flexibilities in the rule to address concerns. “The key finding from all of these studies is generally these rules are rather modest. They have modest impacts on costs, they have modest impacts on emissions, and capacity...

Opposing ‘Super Deference’ To EPA, Luminant Seeks SO2 Status Rehearing

Texas power generator Luminant is asking a federal appeals court for en banc rehearing of its decision upholding EPA’s designation of areas in the state as violating national air quality limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2), citing the court’s “super deference” to EPA that amounts to an “unwarranted and dangerous expansion of agency power.” In a Feb. 23 petition , Luminant asks the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to review its Jan. 11 split panel ruling...

Industry Pushes OMB To Ease EPA’s Integrated Iron & Steel Air Toxics Rule

The steel industry is pressing Biden administration officials to walk back much of EPA’s imminent final rule to further limit air toxics emissions from the integrated iron and steel production sector, citing inaccurate agency data and assumptions, infeasible emissions limits, high costs and impractical monitoring requirements. At a meeting with White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials Feb. 15, officials from U.S. Steel Corp. in a written presentation cited numerous EPA errors in calculating the limits on hazardous...

Goffman Signals Extended CCS Timeline In Upcoming Power Plant GHG Rule

EPA air chief Joe Goffman is signaling that the final version of the agency’s power plant GHG proposal, which is slated to be sent to the White House for interagency review “very shortly,” will provide additional time to implement control measures like carbon capture and storage (CCS), acknowledging prior flexibility mechanisms are not adequate by themselves. During a Feb. 26 panel at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), Goffman emphasized that EPA is taking...

EPA Again Plans To Reject Pennsylvania Power Plant Ozone Controls

In a dispute with implications for regional air quality in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, EPA continues to feud with Pennsylvania over the state’s controls on ozone-forming emissions from power plants, proposing to again reject regulators’ planned controls for specific facilities, as litigation continues over previously disapproved similar controls. In a notice published in the Federal Register Feb. 21, EPA notifies the state of its intent to deny the 2022 source-specific reasonably available control technology (RACT) controls submitted by the...

EDF Defends Heavy Truck Rule With New Analysis Downplaying ZEV Needs

New Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) analysis recently submitted to EPA’s regulatory docket for its pending “phase 3” heavy truck greenhouse gas rule touts manufacturers’ ability to comply with the requirements without zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) for most vehicle classes, echoing similar work the group conducted on EPA’s passenger vehicle rule. The pitch is one of several points that EDF and other environmental groups are raising as they continue meetings with the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) on both...

Harris County sues Texas over new concrete batch permit

Harris County, TX, along with Lone Star Legal Aid and other community groups, is suing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) over its failure to require existing concrete batch plants (CBPs) to quickly comply with the state’s new general permit, a measure that when issued prompted EPA to end an ongoing civil rights inquiry. County Attorney Christian Menefee announced the Feb. 22 suit , Harris County, et al. v. TCEQ , filed in the District Court of Travis County,...

Texas Fights To Scrap EPA Policy On Clean Air Act ‘Contingency’ Measures

Texas is challenging EPA’s policy barring states from relying on pre-existing pollution controls as “contingency measures” (CMs) required if states miss deadlines to attain federal air standards, in a fight over EPA’s disapproval of measures for Dallas and Houston that has regional implications and could deepen an existing circuit split on the issue. In its opening brief filed Feb. 22 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in State of Texas v. EPA, Texas says that...


OECA’s Criminal Program Taking Stepped Up Role In Enforcement Efforts

EPA’s enforcement chief is highlighting the growing involvement of the agency’s criminal enforcement program in its overall enforcement efforts, including stepped up coordination between its criminal and civil programs to be more intentional and consistent about which program should handle cases and how. “We are promoting far greater strategic coordination between our criminal and civil enforcement programs,” David Uhlmann, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), said in a keynote address to the American Legal Institute-Continuing...

EPA Punts Midwest E15 Approval Until 2025, Disappointing Biofuels Groups

EPA is delaying until 2025 application of its just-released rule enabling year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) in Midwestern states, citing refiners’ warnings about a shortage of fuel supply that would result should it apply the rule earlier, and disappointing biofuels producers that will again require an emergency waiver to sell E15 this summer. In its rule issued Feb. 22, but yet to be published in the Federal Register , EPA revises its fuel volatility regulations to allow...

‘Good Neighbor’ SIP Cases Transferred To D.C. Circuit Amid Justices’ Review

A federal appellate court has granted EPA’s request to transfer two states’ cases against its denial of their interstate ozone plans to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, potentially boosting the agency’s fortunes in litigation over the federal Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) even as the Supreme Court seems poised to stay the rule. The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which appears to be the first time a federal appellate court has...

Former EPA Counsel Sees Broad Precedent From ‘Good Neighbor’ Rule Stay

The Supreme Court appears poised to issue a historic emergency stay of EPA’s “Good Neighbor” Clean Air Act rule and in doing so would reset the landscape for administrative law, potentially setting precedents by considering facts that occurred after a rule was finalized and by considering costs in a stay, says Kevin Minoli, who served as EPA’s principal deputy general counsel and is now a partner at Alston & Bird. The case, Ohio v. EPA , “is shaping up to...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Sign up for 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.