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.

Newsom Signs Bill Allowing E15 Fuel Sales While Evaluation Continues

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed into law a bill allowing fuel suppliers to sell gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol (E15), effective immediately, as environmental officials work on evaluating the fuel’s potential impacts and the state air board is expected to issue interim guidance while working on longer-term rules for the industry. The new law appears likely to significantly expand the market for E15 at a time when biofuels supporters are seeking removal of EPA regulatory barriers to...

Appliance Makers Criticize Eased HFC Limits, Highlighting Industry Split

A key group representing appliance manufacturers is criticizing the Trump EPA’s proposal to ease various Biden-era end-use restrictions for climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons, arguing compliance deadline extensions for the grocery and other sectors would make it hard for manufacturers to plan their products and ultimately aid foreign industry. The EPA proposal “would disrupt multi-year planning and investment by U.S. manufacturers,” argues Samantha Slater, vice president of government affairs with the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) that represents companies that make equipment...

Vehicle Makers Join EPA In Attacking CARB Effort To Reinstate Older Rules

Major car and truck manufacturers are joining EPA in attacking the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) proposed rules to reinstate older vehicle criteria emissions limits, charging the dual-track regulatory plan violates administrative procedures and hikes compliance uncertainty across the market. But environmentalists and officials in Northeastern and other states that have adopted CARB’s stricter vehicle emission rules are strongly supporting the board’s new proposals. The proposed rules “do not provide clarity and instead sow confusion and uncertainty into California’s certification...

‘Diesel Brother’ arrested over failure to pay CAA fine

David Sparks, one of the “Diesel Brothers” found to have violated the Clean Air Act in the first-ever citizen suit over mobile source emissions, was arrested Oct. 7 and will face a contempt of court hearing Oct. 9 for failing to pay nearly $1 million in court-ordered fees that stemmed from the enforcement action. Sparks, who starred on the Discovery Channel show called “Diesel Brothers,” was arrested after Judge Robert Shelby of the U.S. District Court for the District of...

Industry, Free Market Groups Craft Broad Target List For State Climate Laws

Industry and free market groups are detailing a broad assortment of state climate laws that they want the Trump administration to challenge in new legal actions, arguing the Justice Department (DOJ) must intervene to assert federal preemption over a host of measures affecting vehicle emissions, climate-related disclosures and cap-and-trade programs. In recent comments submitted to DOJ, the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree Chamber) writes that numerous state and local climate programs “pose substantial burdens on businesses across the...

Louisiana Study Finds Higher Air Toxics Cancer Risks Than EPA Estimates

A new peer-reviewed study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University finds that levels of cancer-causing air pollution from petrochemical plants in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” are 11 times higher than prior EPA estimates, opening the door to new attacks on Trump administration efforts to waive or roll back current agency regulations. “These results confirm what communities in Louisiana are living every day. But state and federal political leaders are responding to this emergency with free passes for facilities to keep pumping...

Environmentalists appeal AFO air emissions ruling

Environmentalists are appealing a federal district court ruling that upheld EPA’s ban on air emissions reporting by animal feeding operations (AFOs) after the district court agreed with EPA that federal law prohibits such emergency right-to-know reporting. In their suit filed Oct. 3 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, et al. v. EPA , the groups seek to overturn the Aug. 7 district court ruling in a suit of...

EPA Withdraws Extension Of Coke Ovens Air Toxics Compliance Deadlines

EPA has withdrawn its interim final rule (IFR) extending air toxics compliance deadlines for the coke ovens sector, avoiding difficult legal arguments over the legality of its use of “good cause” authority to directly extend the deadlines without first issuing a proposal, and effectively mooting litigation over the issue by environmentalists. In a rule signed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin Oct. 2, but not yet published in the Federal Register , EPA scraps the July 8 IFR, citing new data...

Shutdown Raises Questions On Pace Of EPA’s GHG Regulatory Rollbacks

Observers are increasingly asking whether the ongoing federal government shutdown could last long enough to slow EPA’s rollbacks of greenhouse gas regulations, even as some sources are flagging factors that could blunt or eliminate such effects, including leftover funds and the possibility that key staff will be exempted from furloughs. “I can’t speak with any certainty,” one agency source says about divergent rumors about how long the agency can continue operating at relatively normal levels with such leftover funds. The...

Biofuels Groups, Refiners Clash Over RFS Volumes ‘Reallocation’ Proposal

Biofuels groups and refiners are clashing over EPA’s proposal to partially compensate for waivers it issued for small refineries from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates, with biofuel producers insisting on a full “reallocation” of volumes to non-exempt refiners, and refiners opposing any reallocation as unlawful. During an Oct. 1 virtual public hearing on EPA’s supplemental RFS volumes proposal for 2026 and 2027, biofuels groups restated their opposition to EPA’s approval of small refinery exemptions (SREs) in general, and...

Lawsuits Mount Over EPA’s RFS Compliance Waiver Denials For Refiners

Litigation is growing over EPA’s denial of compliance waivers for small refiners from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending requirements, as the agency shifts its rationale for granting or denying waivers and prepares to compensate for such waivers in RFS volumes for 2026 and 2027. Refiners’ lawsuits are being consolidated under REH Company LLC v. EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in line with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in EPA v....

Grassley pushes year-round E15 in any farm aid bill

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is pushing to ensure that any bill providing temporary aid to farmers faced with adverse market conditions due to President Trump’s tariffs also approves 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) for use year-round, a move that would eliminate the need for presidential emergency waivers allowing summertime sales of the fuel. “Any legislation with ad hoc payments to farmers should include allowing year-round, nationwide E15,” Grassley said in an Oct.1 Senate floor speech. Although ad hoc farm aid...

Environmentalists Press EPA To Disclose AI Use In Vehicle, GHG Rollbacks

Environmentalists are pressing for a “detailed disclosure” by EPA of any use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its rulemaking to undo its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle standards, arguing that failure to do so violates procedural requirements and removes safeguards against error. Their call, as part of broader comments to the agency on its GHG repeal proposal, signals concern with a general EPA statement on the use of AI in rulemakings that the agency quietly posted to its...

EPA Floats Revisions To RMP, ‘Worst Case’ Spill Rules Ahead Of Shutdown

EPA has floated a pair of draft measures aimed at reconsidering the Biden administration’s Risk Management Program (RMP) final rule, as well as its Clean Water Act (CWA) “worst case” spill rule, submitting both measures to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review days before the government shutdown began Oct. 1. While the agency sent both measures to OMB for interagency review on Sept. 29, it is not clear what effect the lapse in federal funding...

EPA Rejects CBD’s ESA Challenges To Secondary Air Quality Standards

EPA is rejecting environmentalists’ legal arguments that its largely unchanged “secondary” national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx) wrongly evaded Endangered Species Act (ESA) review, arguing that listed species are unaffected and no action was required. In their suit , Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) v. EPA, et al. , environmentalists are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate EPA’s Dec. 27 revision...

Groups Say EPA Ignores Trillions In Harm From Ending Vehicle GHG Limits

Environmental and other groups are floating new analyses claiming that EPA’s proposed repeal of Biden-era vehicle greenhouse gas standards for vehicles ignores trillions of dollars of harms the plan would cause, part of an effort to make the case that EPA is acting arbitrarily in moving to scuttle its vehicle GHG program. The analyses are included in broader comments to the agency that claim EPA’s draft cost-benefit analysis for its plan is flawed for reasons including that it ignores the...

EPA, MDAQMD cut deal dropping FIP, accepting new rules

EPA and California’s Mojave Desert air district are proposing to settle the district’s lawsuits challenging Biden-era implementation of a federal implementation plan (FIP), by both dropping the FIP process and accepting the district’s previous new source review (NSR) rule submittals to help meet air standards. In a Federal Register notice slated to be published Oct. 2, EPA explains that under the proposed settlement agreement, the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD) agrees to file a pleading to dismiss...

EPA Proposal Floats Novel De Minimis Air Toxics Waiver For Lead Smelters

EPA is proposing to exempt de minimis air toxics emissions from lead smelters from regulation, a novel policy the agency says remains compatible with a key legal precedent requiring regulation of all toxics emitted by a facility. In its proposed rule published in the Federal Register Oct. 1, the agency also weighs the impact of a court decision that enables use of “affirmative defenses” in permits. EPA’s proposal generally makes only minor changes to the national emission standards...

CCS Sector Fears End Of EPA’s GHG Reporting Rule Could Harm Permitting

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector is pushing back against EPA’s proposal to scuttle greenhouse gas reporting requirements, warning that including CCS-related reporting in its plan would undercut current and planned investments in such efforts and potentially also delay permitting of underground injection wells by EPA or states. During an Oct. 1 public hearing, critics also warned that EPA’s proposed repeal of its GHG reporting rule for nearly all sectors could force industry into other disparate reporting regimes, with...

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