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.

Both Sides Express Optimism After High Court Declines To Stay GHG Rule

Supporters and opponents of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards are expressing optimism over their future litigation prospects after the Supreme Court rejected critics’ request to stay the rule as merits challenges proceed in a lower court, though rule critics are acknowledging disappointment that the justices did not immediately pause the measure. While the court’s Oct. 16 order declines to issue a stay, three justices expressed a willingness to conclude that at least some elements of EPA’s power plant rule...

Kentucky sues EPA over Louisville ozone designation delay

Kentucky is suing EPA over the agency’s delay in determining that portions of the Louisville area now attain the agency’s 2015 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone, a move that would ease regulatory requirements for local industry, after EPA already reclassified Indiana counties in the Louisville region to attainment. In a lawsuit filed Oct.16 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the state says...

Supreme Court Rejects Calls To Stay EPA’s Power Plant GHG Standards

The Supreme Court is rejecting calls from Republican-led states and power companies to stay implementation of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards as litigation over the measure proceeds in an appellate court, dealing a blow to critics of the regulation. The court in an Oct. 16 order notes that several applications to stay the measure are “denied,” though it flags a dissent from one justice as well as concerns about the legality of EPA’s rule from two others. Specifically, Justice...

Tow Truck Companies Mount Final Bid To Ease CARB Clean Truck Rule

Tow truck companies are mounting a final bid to persuade California air officials to significantly ease mandates in the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule, expanding assertions that a dearth of new conventional combustion trucks will leave them without sufficient vehicles to continue operations and could cripple essential motorist services. “State regulators have created an insurmountable roadblock for towing and recovery truck drivers by mandating electric engine technology that can’t yet support custom, high-performance trucks,” asserts Brandon Neal, owner of Truck...

Democratic AGs, Environmentalists Defend EPA Cost Bar In NAAQS Rules

Democratic attorneys general (AGs) and environmentalists are rushing to defend EPA’s longstanding view that consideration of costs in setting national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) is barred under the Clean Air Act and Supreme Court precedent, in litigation over tougher particulate matter (PM) limits that revives this fundamental question. In an Oct. 15 final brief in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al., v. EPA et al. , Democratic AGs from 16 states, New York City, the District of Columbia and Harris...

EPA Downplays Effect From Plan To Approve Phosphogypsum Road Pilot

EPA is downplaying environmentalists’ concerns that its proposed approval of a small-scale pilot project that would permit use of radioactive phosphogypsum in a Florida roadway could set a broader precedent, saying the agency is following statutory requirements to assess uses of the phosphate byproduct. “The approval of an individual project for other use of phosphogypsum does not imply approval of any other or future request. EPA’s full review process, including risk assessment, must take place for each request for other...

EPA’s Tougher Gasoline Tank Rule Makes Few Concessions To Industry

EPA is finalizing tougher emissions standards for new volatile organic liquid (VOL) storage tanks, including thousands of gasoline tanks, a measure that is largely in line with its 2023 plan while making only minor adjustments in response to industry criticism that the regulation is impractical or unlawful. In an Oct. 15 Federal Register notice , EPA updates the new source performance standards (NSPS) for the sector, seeking to further reduce emissions from the more than 9000 liquid tanks involved...

EPA Plans To Block Texas Haze Plan Amid Fight Over Program’s Future

EPA plans to largely disapprove Texas’ plan for implementing the second phase of the agency’s regional haze program, raising numerous concerns that the agency is now considering as it takes comment on the program’s future under a likely major revision, and underscoring how difficult it will be to implement the current phase. In a proposal slated for publication in the Federal Register Oct. 15, EPA finds multiple faults with the Texas state implementation plan (SIP) for the haze program’s...

EPA Backs Oregon Haze Plan Over Park Service, Environmentalists’ Criticism

EPA has granted final approval to Oregon’s plan for implementing the regional haze program’s second phase, despite pushback from the National Park Service (NPS) and environmentalists who say it does not meet the stringent requirements of the Regional Haze Rule (RHR), amid an ongoing review of the program. In a notice published in the Federal Register Oct. 8, EPA approves Oregon’s state implementation plan (SIP) for the second phase of the regional haze program, which runs from 2018 to...

EPA Readies Action Justifying Limited Good Neighbor Program After Remand

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review an action further explaining how the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule can function with fewer states than the 23 originally intended, after the Supreme Court stayed its implementation over doubts about the program’s viability and fairness. According to its website, OMB on Oct. 10 received a document that EPA describes as a “notice” containing its response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Court agrees to restart EPA’s Denka suit but on slow timeline

A federal district judge is granting EPA’s request to restart its novel “imminent and substantial endangerment” enforcement suit against Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) over chloroprene emissions from its LaPlace, LA, synthetic rubber plant but is not moving at a fast pace. Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in an Oct. 8 order in EPA v. Denka granted EPA’s motion to reopen the case and set a status hearing for Nov. 21...

California EJ Groups Plan Suit Against EPA To Compel Valley SIP Actions

Several California environmental and environmental justice (EJ) groups are threatening to sue EPA over its alleged failure to take final action to determine whether the San Joaquin Valley attained the 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard, and to decide whether to approve the valley’s plan to attain a 2015 ozone standard. “The San Joaquin Valley has already failed twice to attain [the 1997] standard by deadlines in 2015 and 2020,” writes Brent Newell, an attorney representing the groups, in...

CARB Floats Tier 5 Off-Road Engine Rule Options To Ease EPA Alignment

California air officials are floating new compliance options for their evolving first-time “Tier 5” emission standards for new off-road diesel engines, including one pathway with a delayed effective date to enable or smooth potential alignment with similar national rules that EPA is expected to pursue. “We’re very cognizant of the fact that it’s sort of simpler and less expensive for everyone, including engine manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and people who buy equipment with diesel engines if the standards are harmonized nationally,”...

Judges Weigh ‘Ripeness’ Of Texas’ Case Over EPA Ozone Sanctions Finding

A panel of 5th Circuit judges is weighing whether to grant Texas’ bid to scrap an EPA finding that the state failed to submit a required plan to attain federal ozone limits in three cities, though they are grappling with whether the suit is ripe as the state may still be able to avoid any sanctions that are slated to kick in next year. During Oct. 7 oral argument in State of Texas v. EPA , attorneys for the state...

Equipment Groups’ Suit Joins Effort To Block CARB ZEV Truck Fleet Rule

Truck equipment industry groups are suing to block the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) zero-emission truck regulation, adding to three other separate federal lawsuits by industry groups that are also targeting the measure. The Specialty Equipment Market Association & Performance Racing, Inc. (SEMA) and the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) “recognize that the ACF Regulations are currently being challenged in other pending lawsuits. SEMA and NTEA felt it important to bring this suit on behalf of...

D.C. Circuit Judges Appear Skeptical Of Suits Over EPA’s HFC Allocations

A panel of D.C. Circuit judges appears skeptical of a pair of challenges to EPA’s most recent rule outlining how officials will allocate allowances under its hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) phasedown program, including a sweeping claim that the 2020 HFC control statute is unconstitutional under the so-called nondelegation doctrine. Under that argument -- advanced by the refrigerant company Choice Refrigerants -- the law known as the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act does not outline how EPA must allocate allowances to various...

EPA ‘Compelled’ To Cut Affirmative Defense From Air Permits, Agency Says

EPA is defending its rule removing “affirmative defenses” for malfunction emissions from air permits as “reasonable” and “compelled” by the Clean Air Act and legal precedent, arguing in a new legal filing that its action comports with an appellate court’s bifurcated view of such defenses, amid industry accusations that the rule is unlawful. In an Oct. 7 brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in SSM Litigation Group v. EPA , the agency...

OMB Mulls Methane Reconsideration Rule As Industry Urges Faster Pace

The White House has begun reviewing EPA’s draft proposed rule that would reconsider what the oil and gas sector says are two crucial provisions in the agency’s methane emissions standards for the sector, even as the industry is pressing officials to take quicker action on the measure to avoid compliance challenges. The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) began review of EPA’s draft proposal Oct. 7, according to its website. The rule is an outgrowth of EPA’s May...

EPA Suggests Denka May Need To Go Beyond New Rule To Cut Emissions

EPA is suggesting that Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) may need to take additional steps beyond complying with a new air toxics rule limiting chloroprene emissions at the company’s manufacturing plant -- the nation’s only source of the pollutant -- in order to meet a separate enforcement action. In a Sept. 30 filing , EPA says it is seeking a court order in the Clean Air Act “imminent and substantial endangerment” enforcement case it is seeking to reopen requiring the facility...

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