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.

State Air Regulators Seek ‘Clear’ EPA Enforcement Guidance For GHGs, PFAS

The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) that represents air regulators in 35 states is asking EPA to provide “clear” direction on how enforcement should work for the agencies’ current or future regulations governing greenhouse gases and possibly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- two top priorities for the Biden administration. In a Sept. 29 letter to EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), NACAA warns that the enforcement office’s recently finalized National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECIs)...

ENRD Touts ‘Progress’ On EJ Enforcement Strategy In First-Time Report

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) is highlighting a host of actions it took to implement its environmental justice (EJ) enforcement strategy since launching the push last year in a first-time “progress report,” highlighting major court actions as well as how it is coordinating with EPA’s EJ office to prioritize those issues. “One year later, we are pleased to share the progress the Department has made in advancing environmental justice under the Strategy, through the efforts...

Despite Mass Denials, EPA Insists Refineries Can Still Win RFS Waivers

EPA is arguing that despite its mass denials of all recent petitions from small refineries for renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers, refiners can still in theory secure such waivers, one of several arguments the agency is advancing to defeat litigation targeting the waiver denials. In a redacted Oct. 11 brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit case Sinclair Wyoming Refining, LLC, v. EPA , the agency rejects assertions that its current policy...

EPA extends comment deadline on air reporting plan

EPA is extending the public comment period for its August proposal that would enlarge the scope and nationwide consistency of air toxics reporting requirements and broadly bolster data that feeds into the agency’s national emissions inventory (NEI) which in turn plays a key role in developing new limits on such pollution. In an Oct. 12 Federal Register notice , EPA extends the deadline for input on its pending proposal from Oct. 18 until Nov. 17 -- almost four months...

EPA Floats Approving L.A. Warehouse Air Rule, Potentially Upending Lawsuit

EPA is proposing to approve the regional Los Angeles air district’s landmark warehouse indirect source rule (ISR) as part of California’s state implementation plan (SIP) to attain federal air standards -- an action that could short-circuit litigation by truckers and airlines that say the rule violates preemption provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and other laws. “This is a huge blow to the industry challenging the regulation,” says Adrian Martinez, an attorney with Earthjustice, which recently sued to compel...

Uhlmann Touts Novel Climate Enforcement Priority, Outlines Authorities

EPA’s enforcement chief is touting the agency’s recently announced plan to incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation throughout the agency’s enforcement actions, noting that officials will prioritize investigations at facilities that face the highest climate change risks and will use myriad civil and criminal authorities to enforce EPA’s rules. “To meet the urgency of this moment, EPA’s enforcement and compliance programs will prioritize enforcement and compliance actions to mitigate climate change, and will include climate adaptation and resilience in case conclusions...

Environmentalists, Industry Spar Over EPA Coke Ovens Air Toxics Plan

Environmentalists and industry are taking opposing positions concerning EPA’s proposal to tighten air toxics limits for coke ovens, with environmental groups criticizing the rule’s lack of ambition even as they support its fenceline air monitoring mandate, while industry is charging the monitoring requirement is impractical and unnecessary. EPA took public comment through Oct. 2 on its proposal published Aug. 16 to tighten standards for coke ovens, which would impose stricter emissions limits and regulate hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) not addressed...

D.C. Circuit Seeks To Speed Litigation Over EPA’s Good Neighbor Rule

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is requiring state and industry groups challenging EPA’s Good Neighbor interstate ozone rule to quickly provide proposed briefing formats and address other procedural matters while again rejecting an industry request to stay the rule. In an Oct. 11 per curiam order , a three-judge panel gave the parties in the consolidated litigation, State of Utah v. EPA, et al., 30 days to “submit proposed formats for the...

Kentucky Says EPA ‘Moved Goal Posts’ In Disapproving Interstate Air Plan

Kentucky is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to vacate EPA’s disapproval of its interstate ozone plan, marking another appellate court to hear merits arguments from states seeking to permanently block the agency from imposing federal ‘Good Neighbor’ requirements to limit states’ emissions. In its Oct. 10 opening merits brief in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. EPA , Kentucky charges that EPA without explanation changed its basis for approving such plans and wrongly relied on air quality...

TCEQ Seeks NAS Review Of EtO Assessment, In Challenge To IRIS Values

At the request of Texas’ regulators, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is launching a panel to review the state’s risk assessment of ethylene oxide (EtO), a review that could challenge EPA’s conservative assessment, which serves as the basis for several major air rules, including the controversial plan to regulate sterilizer emissions. NASEM Oct. 10 announced that it is seeking to solicit nominations for experts to review the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) 2020 EtO Carcinogenic...

House GOP Pushes To Ensure EPA Works With FDA On EtO Sterilizer Plan

Key House Republicans are urging the White House to ensure that EPA coordinates with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as officials craft a set of rules for ethylene oxide (EtO) at sterilization facilities, arguing the agency did not consider FDA supply chain data before proposing the rule, opening the door to medical device shortages. In a Sept. 28 letter to Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council (NEC), and Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy...

EPA taps new SAB chair, members

EPA Administrator Micheal Regan has appointed a Howard University engineering professor as the next chair of the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), as well as several new members to critical advisory positions on the board, its subcommittees and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). EPA announced Oct. 10 that Regan has tapped Kimberly Jones, associate provost for faculty affairs and an environmental engineering professor at Howard University, an historically black college or university (HBCU) in Washington, D.C., as the...

EJ Groups Doubt Railyard MOU Will Allow SCAQMD To Force Pollution Cuts

Environmental and equity groups are raising concerns that a proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) the Los Angeles regional air district is preparing to negotiate with the rail sector to cut pollution at railyards faces significant enforcement challenges and forfeits maximum emission reductions that could be achieved through an indirect source rule (ISR). “Any policy must have enforcement mechanisms built into it. Merely taking the railroads to court for noncompliance with the MOU is not sufficient, nor will it deliver timely...

States Ask Appeals Court To Restart Case Over Trump Ozone Standards

New York and more than a dozen states, together with New York City and Washington, D.C., are asking a federal appeals court to restart their case seeking to overturn the Trump EPA’s 2020 rule retaining Obama-era national ozone limits, after EPA decided to drop its reconsideration of the rule in favor of a new and time-consuming statutory review of the standards. In their joint Oct. 6 motion filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,...

EPA Floats Tougher Air Rule For Gas Distributors Amid Competing Pressures

EPA is moving closer to unveiling its final rule toughening emissions standards for nearly 10,000 bulk gasoline distribution facilities amid competing pressures from industry groups, lawmakers and others who have warned that the rule’s compliance costs are a possible cause of fuel price inflation while environmentalists are pushing to toughen the rule’s standards. EPA sent the rule for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review Oct. 5, a process that typically takes up to 90 days, but can...

EPA’s New Use-Limits, Management Plans Boost Broader HFC Phasedown

EPA is advancing two additional rules to restrict climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), including a final rule speeding a shift to less-damaging alternatives in a suite of specific end uses, as well as proposed mandates to limit HFC leaks in appliances and encourage reclamation and reuse of the chemicals. “This final rule supports our transition away from HFCs and positions our nation to be competitive on the global stage, while the proposed emissions reduction and reclamation program will help ensure we achieve...

Final Rule Setting HFC End-Use Restrictions

Fact Sheet On End-Use Restrictions

Proposed HFC Management Rule

Fact Sheet On HFC Management Rule


Environmentalists Petition EPA To Set NO2, SO2 NAAQS’ ‘Increments’

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and allied groups are petitioning EPA to set “increments,” the maximum allowable increases in pollution, for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) under the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for those pollutants, years after the group claims EPA should have done so. In their Oct. 4 petition for rulemaking, CBD, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Sierra Club say that EPA must establish the required increments with respect to EPA’s 1-hour...

EPA Faces Major Decisions On Air Toxics Program Amid Broad Rule Agenda

EPA is working through a series of broad policy issues in its air toxics program, including requirements for re-classified sources, newly listed pollutants and others, even as officials face pressure to meet court deadlines to complete emissions rules for a host of sectors, which are keenly sought by environmentalists worried about dangerous pollution. In one recent major change, EPA unveiled a proposal Sept. 22 that generally retains a Trump-era policy that allows “major” sources of air toxics to limit their...

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