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 Distances Enforcement Power From Pending Air Rules In Denka Suit

In a case that tests one of EPA’s rarely used Clean Air Act enforcement authorities, the agency is urging a federal court to reject a Louisiana chemical manufacturer’s claim that the action is preempted by a pending air rule for the sector, arguing its “endangerment” enforcement power is separate from any conclusions reached in its proposed rule. In a Sept. 6 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in USA v. Denka Performance Elastomer and...

EPA May Have Early Edge As D.C. Circuit Prepares To Hear Auto Cases

A key appellate court is poised to hear high-profile oral arguments in a series of cases targeting Biden vehicle rules’ treatment of electrification as a carbon emissions control strategy, with some observers suggesting EPA could have an initial edge in defending its policies even as the Supreme Court might ultimately review the litigation. “I don’t expect this is going to go well for opponents” of the EPA policies, one legal expert says. The auto cases -- scheduled for argument Sept...

Judges Appear Skeptical Of Ex-Advisers’ Case Against EPA’s CASAC Picks

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appeared skeptical of the case brought by former EPA science advisers against the current Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) for being “unbalanced,” doubting their standing to sue and struggling to find a way to ensure “fair balance” on the panel. It is “not immediately clear” that the former advisers have individual standing to sue, Judge Bradley Garcia said during Sept. 8 oral argument in...

Environmentalists Push EPA On Fenceline Monitors But OIG Doubts Effects

Environmentalists are pushing EPA to require fenceline air monitoring at industrial facilities as a standard feature of regulations, seeking to protect communities overburdened by harmful emissions, but a new report from EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds that facilities often do not quickly remedy excess monitored emissions. In its Sept. 6 report , the OIG finds that fenceline monitoring has not always produced swift action to eliminate excess toxic air pollution in the refining sector, where EPA, states and...

Industry Groups Urge EPA To Retain PM2.5 Limits, Focus On Wildfires

A coalition of 24 national industry groups is urging EPA to drop its plan seeking to strengthen federal limits for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and instead retain existing standards, citing implementation hurdles as well as diminished contribution of industrial sources relative to others such as wildfires that now account for most PM2.5 emissions. In their Sept. 7 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “urge EPA to maintain the existing National Ambient...

CASAC Urges EPA To Tighten Secondary NOx-SOx Limits, Criticizes Methods

A majority of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) are planning to urge the agency to toughen “secondary” standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by more than EPA staff has recommended but are also planning to call for a second draft of staff advice, possibly delaying the review. At the conclusion of a two-day virtual meeting Sept. 6, all but one of the seven-member chartered CASAC called for EPA to tighten the...

Hill Democrats Press EPA To Strengthen Truck GHG Emissions Proposal

Several dozen Capitol Hill Democrats are urging EPA to strengthen its proposed “phase 3” heavy-duty truck greenhouse gas rule, arguing the current plan falls short of actions that the truck sector is already committing to and pressing the agency to meet its goal of finalizing the package this year. The pitch, in a Sept. 5 bicameral letter from 81 lawmakers to EPA, essentially rebuts a prior letter from over two dozen members of Congress -- including four Democrats -- that...

South Coast Delays Vote On Stringent EtO Rule Amid Industry Pushback

Faced with significant industry opposition, South Coast air district officials have delayed by at least two months a vote on their landmark plan to slash ethylene oxide (EtO) from medical sterilization facilities and bolster enforcement, though EPA recently agreed to a court-ordered March 2024 deadline to issue its final federal rule governing the facilities’ emissions. “We are pioneering something, and we don’t know what the future holds. So I just want to be extra careful because it does relate to...

Environmentalists Urge EPA To Restore Good Neighbor Rule If Stays Lifted

Environmentalists are warning EPA it must swiftly restore states’ participation in its partially stalled interstate air rule if courts lift their stays of the so-called Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) across multiple states, seeking to counter calls from industry groups and some states for the agency to delay any return to implementing the rule if the judicial pauses end. In Aug. 30 comments, environmental groups Air Alliance Houston, Appalachian Mountain Club, Clean Air Task Force, Downwinders at Risk, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense...

Groups Attack South Coast For Shelving Railyard Rule To Pursue MOU

Environmental and equity groups are attacking South Coast air district officials for setting aside development of a landmark “indirect source rule” (ISR) to reduce pollution from railyards in favor of pursuing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the railroad industry. “We need a strong ISR that puts in place health-protective measures,” Heather Kryczka, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, commented during a Sept. 1 district board meeting. There has been “no analysis to evaluate whether an MOU...

Chevron Loses Second Bid To Challenge EPA Offshore Permitting Decision

A federal appeals court has dealt a second legal defeat to oil company Chevron’s attempt to reinstate a Trump-era determination that the firm does not need air permits for decommissioning work at two disused oil platforms off California’s coast, finding that the Biden EPA’s rejection of the Trump finding is not “final action.” In its Sept. 1 unpublished memorandum opinion in Chevron USA, Inc., v. EPA , the U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit finds that an April...

Reviewers Question OMB’s Discount Rates In Draft Cost-Benefit Guide

Peer reviewers assessing the Office of Management & Budget’s (OMB) draft cost-benefit guidance update are questioning officials’ plan to significantly reduce discount rates used to limit estimated future benefits of federal rules, offering suggestions that could spur a more moderate increase to estimated climate rule benefits. The suggestions are part of a broader comments to OMB about its proposed updates to 2003 cost-benefit guidance -- known as Circular A-4 -- that lays out procedures for how EPA and other agencies...

Denka Loses Bid To Block EPA’s Use Of IRIS Value In Enforcement Suit

A federal judge is rejecting Denka Performance Elastomer’s (DPE) efforts to block EPA’s use of a conservative Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) value as the basis for a novel enforcement action, opening the door to a precedent on the use of such values that industry groups charge could have a “substantial impact” on many other businesses. In an Aug. 30 order in United States. v. DPE and Dupont Specialty Products USA , Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court...

Environmentalists’ Suit Seeks To Require EPA Fenceline Monitoring Reviews

Environmentalists are seeking to force EPA to expand its consideration of fenceline air monitoring when reviewing air toxics rules, using a lawsuit over EPA’s lead battery manufacturing regulations to potentially limit the agency’s discretion to avoid in-depth consideration of the technology across various industry sectors. In Hoosier Environmental Council, et al. v. EPA , now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, environmental groups say EPA must consider fenceline monitors as a “development” in...

PacifiCorp threatens suit over EPA failure to act on states’ haze plans

Electric utility PacificCorp is threatening to sue EPA over the agency’s failure to approve state plans submitted by Utah and Wyoming to implement the agency’s regional haze program, following a similar threat by Wyoming over EPA’s failure to act on its plan. In letters to EPA Administrator Michael Regan Aug. 24, PacifiCorp gives 60 days’ notice of its intent to sue the agency over its failure to approve the two pending state implementation plans (SIPs). The company operates several coal-fired...

Pennsylvania, Ohio Clash Over EPA’s Stay Of Good Neighbor Air Rule

Pennsylvania is warning EPA that its decision to stay application of its Good Neighbor ozone rule in six states will allow unlawful “backsliding” on interstate pollution by “upwind” states, while neighboring Ohio says that instead, EPA should withdraw the entire Good Neighbor rule because the stays render it “no longer viable.” The sharp difference of view, outlined in comments submitted ahead of an Aug. 30 deadline for public input, likely reflects a broad split between Midwestern and Southern states “upwind,”...

Wyoming threatens suit over EPA inaction on haze plan

Wyoming is threatening to sue EPA over its failure to approve or disapprove the state’s second-round plan for compliance with the regional haze program that requires states to control air emissions and restore visibility in national parks and wilderness areas, only weeks after a federal appeals court upheld the state’s choices in an earlier round. In an Aug. 24 letter to EPA, Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill (R) gives the agency 60 days’ notice of the state’s intent to sue...

Science Board’s Criticism Of Ethanol GHGs Spurs Biofuels-Sector Pushback

A draft “commentary” by EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), questioning the agency’s estimation of corn ethanol’s greenhouse gas emissions when setting biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), is provoking pushback from biofuels advocates fighting for favorable GHG profiles for both ethanol and aviation biofuel. “According to the best available science, it appears there is a reasonable chance there are minimal or no climate benefits from substituting corn ethanol for gasoline or diesel,” SAB’s Aug. 21 draft letter...

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