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.

Public health groups urge EPA to grant California air waivers

A coalition of over 20 public health groups led by the American Lung Association (ALA) is urging EPA to quickly grant Clean Air Act waivers sought by California to authorize four state clean air programs, addressing “advanced clean cars,” heavy-duty truck low nitrogen oxides (NOx) standards, harbor craft and small off-road engines. “California’s pending waiver requests represent policies projected to save thousands and over $50 billion in public health benefits. EPA must act to ensure life-saving clean air standards related...


States Urge Critics To Drop Suits Over Ozone Rule As EPA Weighs Expansion

East Coast states are urging their “upwind” neighbors to drop a slew of lawsuits aimed at halting EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) for limiting interstate ozone, warning that the cuts required to improve public health and meet statutory deadlines are at risk as the Biden administration weighs a new plan that might further enlarge the rule’s scope. In comments submitted to EPA Oct. 30, the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC), a regional air body comprising 12 states in the Northeast and...

EPA Tells High Court There Is No Basis To Stay Good Neighbor Air Rule

EPA is urging the Supreme Court to reject a request from three states and several industry groups for a full stay of the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule, arguing that the rule’s reduced scope following lower courts’ narrower stays does not render it unworkable or retroactive, and that critics both lack standing and will likely fail on the merits. The applicants “have not established that their case-specific and record-intensive objections to the Rule would warrant this Court’s review...

Petitioners Revive Case Over Trump Ozone Limits After Lengthy EPA Review

Democratic-led states and environmentalists are restarting their appellate challenge to the Trump EPA’s 2020 ozone standards, targeting the prior administration’s procedural and policy decisions to retain the 2015 standards while criticizing the agency’s decision to keep “secondary” welfare-based limits the same as health-based standards. After the Biden administration’s lengthy reconsideration that eventually led to EPA deciding to retain the 2020 standards, briefing has now resumed in State of New York, et al. v. EPA, et al ., before the U.S...

EPA Faces Lawsuit Notice Regarding Long-Stalled GHG NAAQS Petition

Environmental groups, now joined by two states and a tribe, are giving EPA 180 days’ notice that they will file suit to force EPA to respond to a 2009 petition seeking a national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for greenhouse gases, after the Biden EPA has not acted on the petition even after withdrawing Trump officials’ 11th-hour denial. The Oct. 30 notice of intent (NOI) to sue claims EPA has unreasonably delayed responding to the December 2009 petition to establish...

Groups Fight CARB’s SIP ‘Contingency Measure’ Based On Draft EPA Guide

California air officials have approved a rule to tighten the state’s vehicle smog check program as a “contingency measure” for the state implementation plan (SIP) to meet federal air quality standards, but environmental justice (EJ) groups that sued the board to compel such action are charging it fails to meet legal mandates and is inappropriately based on draft EPA guidance. “The smog check contingency measures are based on a draft -- and I want to emphasize that, ‘draft,’ -- guidance...

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Testimony Of Erin Simon

Testimony Of Markus Eriksen


EPA To Seek Input On Small Business’ Requests On Power Plant GHG Rule

EPA is readying a supplemental notice for its closely watched power plant greenhouse gas rule that will seek input on “regulatory flexibilities” recently requested by a small business advocacy panel, a move that could address concerns from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) advocacy office, which charged that the rule could harm small entities. An agency spokesperson tells Inside EPA’s Climate Extra that the pending notice would give the public an opportunity to comment on “specific regulatory flexibilities suggested”...

Court Leans Toward Extending Interstate Air Rule Stay In West Virginia

A divided regional appeals court panel appears inclined to grant West Virginia’s request for a continued stay of EPA’s disapproval of the state’s interstate ozone plan, a move that would extend a freeze on implementing the federal Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) rule in the state, amid intense uncertainty over the rule’s future nationally. During an Oct. 27 hearing, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit seemed to split 2-1 on whether to confirm that...

Democrats Push Tough Plastics Bill But Also Weigh ‘Innovative Approaches’

Democratic lawmakers are pushing for tough new legislation that seeks to drive more aggressive EPA action targeting single-use plastics as well as future permits for plastics facilities while also seeking input on voluntary “innovative approaches” and “ambitious” efforts from companies to promote reduction, reuse and recycling. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) on Oct. 24 introduced an updated version of their “Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act,” which they tout as “the most comprehensive plan ever introduced...

Wyoming, PacifiCorp Sue EPA To Force Approval Of State Haze Plans

Wyoming and electric utility PacifiCorp are suing EPA to force agency approval or denial of Wyoming and Utah state implementation plans (SIPs) for curbing regional haze, filing suits in federal district courts only days before environmentalists are expected to sue over EPA’s failure to act on these and many other haze plans. Wyoming in a suit filed Oct. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming says EPA has missed an August deadline to approve or deny...

Utah Fights EPA On Interstate Ozone, As High Court, 4th Circuit Action Looms

Utah is making final arguments in litigation against EPA’s disapproval of the state’s interstate ozone plan, a legal prerequisite to the largely stayed Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) rule, as the Supreme Court weighs whether to fully stay the federal rule and another appellate court prepares for a hearing on whether to further stay West Virginia’s participation in the program. In final merits briefs submitted Oct. 24 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in State of Utah...

EPA Said To Delay Schedule For Completing ‘Phase 3’ Truck GHG Rule

EPA’s timeline for finalizing tougher “phase 3” greenhouse gas requirements for heavy-duty trucks appears to be slipping, with sources tracking the rulemaking stating that officials are now aiming to issue the package sometime in March rather than by the end of this year as EPA has previously hoped. EPA’s press office did not immediately respond to a query on the issue. But an industry source cites indications from the agency that it is now eyeing a March timeframe for the...

EPA Expected To Tighten PM2.5 Annual Limit To Low End Of Planned Range

EPA is expected to select a tougher annual standard for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at the low end of the range it has proposed, sources say, a move that industry groups say would set the standard close to background levels and push many more areas of the country into nonattainment and increase their regulatory burdens. The sources say that agency and White House officials are discussing a limit of 9 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) amid recent lobbying activity from...

Steel Industry Sues EPA Over Tougher Electric Arc Furnace Air Rule

The steel sector is suing EPA over the agency’s tougher air regulations for electric arc furnaces (EAFs) used in steel recycling, which the industry says is “impermissibly retroactive” and unsupported by emissions data or legal authority, in the latest in a series of current and likely future lawsuits to be brought by steelmakers against the Biden EPA. In their suit filed Oct. 24 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the American Iron and Steel...

CARB Weighs Tough Post-MY25 Auto GHG Limits Based On EPA Plan

California air regulators are considering tough new greenhouse gas standards for model year 2026-35 passenger vehicles via amendments to the state’s existing Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulation, which does not address GHGs, based in part on EPA’s pending multi-pollutant standards that would cover many of the same model years. In addition, California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff are also considering updates to the ACC II’s existing zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) purchase mandate provisions. The state’s August 2022 rule established...

EPA Floats New Air Modeling Guidance, With Focus On Cumulative Impacts

EPA is proposing an update to its technical guidelines on modeling air pollution, with a new emphasis on estimating the cumulative impact of multiple pollution sources on local populations, in an action that has implications for how air regulators determine attainment of potentially tougher federal air quality limits, and how they write air permits. In an Oct. 23 proposed rule , EPA announces the intended update to its Guideline on Air Quality Models, including changes to its American Meteorological Society...

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