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.

NPS Backs EPA Plan To Add PFAS To Air Emissions Reporting Rule

The National Park Service (NPS) is backing EPA’s suggestion to subject PFAS releases to a proposed rule aimed at boosting reporting of air toxics under the federal air emissions reporting requirements (AERR), offering to collaborate with the agency in future efforts to address the effects of PFAS and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in national parks. “The new emissions information collected under this rule will aid the NPS in our work to protect air resources in parks,” NPS says in...

Local Officials Ask EPA To Update Landfill Rules To Address Food Waste

Dozens of municipal and local officials from across the country are asking EPA to update its landfill methane rules in an effort to better address the potent greenhouse gas emission that is caused by food waste, a step that would dovetail with a new EPA initiative aimed at keeping such waste out of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. The officials sent an Oct. 31 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan asking the agency to “update its existing landfill standards, with...

Environmentalists Renew Calls To Tighten RMP, Citing Recent Incident Data

Two environmental groups are renewing their push for EPA to strengthen its upcoming Risk Management Program (RMP) update, citing data on chemical-facility accidents as recent as Oct. 15, as supporters of a strict policy continue to raise public concerns that the agency’s upcoming final rule will fall short of their goals in several key areas. On Nov. 9, the nonprofits Coming Clean and Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) jointly released an incident tracking report compiling data...

Federal Wildfire Plan Calls For Prescribed Burns, Exceptional Event Waivers

The Biden administration has issued a multi-agency plan for fighting wildfires and their smoke impacts, signed by EPA, federal land managers and others, that calls for more “prescribed” burns to prevent uncontrolled fires, efficient state use of the agency’s “exceptional events” air waivers, and consideration of how prescribed fires affect attainment of federal air quality standards. The action, in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and work plan announced Nov. 9, likely bolsters congressional and industry calls for the agency to...

Goffman Signals EPA May Expand Flexibility In Final Power Plant GHG Rule

EPA’s top air official is signaling that the agency might incorporate additional flexibilities in the final version of its closely watched power plant greenhouse gas standards, suggesting the administration is open to suggestions from federal power regulators and states about tools needed to preserve grid reliability. “I think what we’re going to have to do is go back to the features that we proposed -- in terms of compliance timelines, the way we subcategorize facilities that have different functions, maybe...

Backing EPA, Appellate Courts Send ‘Good Neighbor’ Suits To D.C. Circuit

Federal appellate courts in Chicago and Cincinnati are transferring industry lawsuits challenging EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule to the D.C. Circuit as a “nationally applicable” regulation, bolstering the agency’s position as opponents of the rule attempt to block it in numerous venues, including the Supreme Court. In a Nov. 9 order , a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which is based in Cincinnati, granted EPA’s motion to transfer the consolidated...

OMB Finalizes Cost Benefit Changes Likely To Bolster GHG, EJ Focus

The Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has finalized the first major change to its cost benefit guide in two decades, including changes that would boost the estimated benefits of greenhouse gas rules and prod a new emphasis on the distributional effects of regulations on disadvantaged populations. The new “Circular A-4” which revises a 2003 policy with the same designation, largely retains proposed language earlier this year that included a lower initial discount rate used to reduce estimate future benefits...

Final A-4 Guidance

OMB Explanation


Appellate Judges Question EPA’s Power To Override States’ Air Quality Plans

Appellate judges are weighing EPA powers to scrap states’ air quality plans and replace them with direct regulation in a dispute over a federal ozone plan for Pennsylvania that the state and industry say undermines states’ rights, but the agency and environmentalists say is essential to comply with an earlier judicial remand over weak emissions limits. At oral argument Nov. 6 in Keystone-Conemaugh Projects LLC v. EPA, et al. , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

Environmentalists Rebut Critics’ Reliability Claims On EPA Power Plant Rule

As federal energy regulators prepare to review the reliability effects of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards, environmentalists are seeking to rebut industry claims that that the plan could endanger grid reliability, with advocates arguing that regional grid operators and utilities should enhance their planning to integrate cleaner energy resources. A Nov. 7 analysis from the clean energy group Energy Innovation (EI) argues that maintaining reliability under EPA’s proposed standards is technically possible, and that the primary threat to reliability...

EPA Plans ‘Fuller Explanation’ For Rejecting Mandatory Air Monitoring Reviews

EPA is planning to ask a federal appellate court to pause environmentalists’ landmark litigation seeking to force the agency to expand its consideration of fenceline air monitoring when reviewing air toxic rules so that the agency can provide a “fuller explanation” of why it does not believe such reviews are mandatory. EPA told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a Nov. 3 filing in litigation over its recent lead acid battery facility rules that...

CARB Poised To Seek EPA Waiver For Locomotive Rule Amid Industry Lawsuit

California air officials are slated this week to seek a Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waiver for a novel regulation to reduce pollution from existing locomotives, after receiving final state administrative approval of the measure just days before EPA finalized a rule that eases the path for California and other states to obtain such waivers. California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) finalized the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “In-Use Locomotive Regulation” on Oct. 27, and the regulation will “go into...

White House, Advocates Issue COP28 Priorities, Including Fossil Fuel Limits

The Biden Administration and environmental groups are detailing their priorities for the annual international climate summit this December in Dubai, including pressing countries to adopt more ambitious and detailed greenhouse gas targets under the Paris Agreement and urging support for explicit limits on fossil fuels. During the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations climate treaty, officials are poised to haggle over the details of any language related to fossil fuel restrictions. A top Biden administration official...

EPA confirms intent to finalize PM NAAQS by year’s end

EPA is confirming its commitment to issue a final rule likely tightening the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by the end of the year, amid significant opposition from industry groups and renewed calls from environmentalists for a significantly tougher limit. In its unopposed motion filed Oct. 31 in State of California, et al v. EPA, et al. , EPA asked the court for continued abeyance in the case, which consolidates states’ and environmentalists’ challenges...

Under OMB Pressure, EPA Shelves Plan Requiring AFO Emissions Reporting

EPA has dropped a draft proposed rule to impose air emissions reporting requirements on animal feeding operations (AFOs) under community right-to-know law, after pushback from White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials concerned about the plan’s practicality. Sources say the agency will proceed instead with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) to help guide its approach. OMB Oct. 27 completed interagency review of EPA’s March draft proposal that sought to rescind a 2019 Trump EPA rule that...

Appellate Judges Give Few Indications On Legality Of 2022 RFS Volumes

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit during Nov. 3 oral argument pressed EPA, refiners and biofuels groups about the legality of the agency’s 2022 biofuel blending mandates under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), but they gave little indication on whether they will uphold the requirements. Argument over EPA’s 2022 volumes rule centered on the agency’s Clean Air Act authority to “reset” statutory targets to lower levels once shortfalls in biofuel blending below prior...

Biofuels Groups Defend EPA’s Mass Denials Of Small Refinery RFS Waivers

Biofuels groups are defending EPA’s mass rejection of renewable fuel standard (RFS) waivers for small refineries, pushing back on refiners’ claims that the denials rely on a regional appellate ruling that is no longer in force, and rejecting claims that EPA re-wrote statutory conditions for granting waivers and acted with unlawful retroactive effect. In their Nov. 1 intervenor brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. LLC, et al....

EPA recruiting experts for CASAC NOx panel

EPA is inviting candidates to apply to join its special panel that will assist the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) in its oversight of EPA’s forthcoming review of federal air quality standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx), as the agency faces litigation seeking to compel faster completion of the review. In a notice published in the Federal Register Nov. 3, EPA seeks nominations for experts to review agency documents related to the review of “primary,” or health-based national ambient...

GOP Senators Urge FERC To Dial Up Review Of EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

Two Senate Republicans are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to enhance its scrutiny of the potential reliability effects of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas proposal, ahead of the commission’s technical conference next week that will include discussion of the rule. “[T]o develop an adequate record of the potential impacts of the EPA’s proposed rule, we believe you must do more than devote only a portion of your annual [reliability technical conference scheduled for Nov. 9] to this subject,”...

Supporters Back EPA Bid To Avoid High Court Stay Of Good Neighbor Rule

Environmentalists and “downwind” states are backing EPA’s efforts to stave off a Supreme Court stay of the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) air rule sought by “upwind” states and industry groups, seeking to allow the agency to continue implementing a measure that they say is crucial to attaining federal ozone standards. In recently filed briefs, a coalition of environmental groups that support the rule, as well as a group of nine downwind states led by New York, argue the high court...

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