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.

Final EPA Auto Rule Nods To Industry But Still Wins Environmentalists’ Praise

EPA’s just-issued final multi-pollutant rule for passenger vehicles includes several concessions to automakers, including eased near-term greenhouse gas limits and more time to meet fine particle standards, but it is nevertheless garnering strong praise from environmentalists who deem it a historic rulemaking that helps address climate and air pollution. In addition, the agency’s March 20 final rule includes new analysis highlighting automakers’ ability to comply with the new requirements via multiple fuel-saving technologies, in a bid to fend off legal...

Final Rule

EPA Fact Sheet

Response To Comments

Regulatory Impact Analysis

Air Quality Analysis


Rail Sector Fights EPA Plan To Grant California Waiver On Locomotive Rule

The rail industry is resisting EPA’s proposal to grant a Clean Air Act waiver to allow a California rule limiting air pollution from in-use locomotives, arguing the measure is unachievable on the current timeline, is too costly and would threaten the national rail system, contradicting supporters of the rule who say it is vital for public health. During a virtual public hearing March 20, rail sector representatives and municipal officials from areas hosting major rail facilities urged EPA to reject...

EPA details questions for primary NOx NAAQS review

EPA is outlining questions it wants answered in its forthcoming review of “primary” health-based national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for nitrogen oxides (NOx), as the agency updates its scientific assessment and policy recommendations for curbing the pollutant. In its Integrated Review Plan (IRP) “volume 2” document released March 18, EPA poses a series of questions that it will seek to answer in its forthcoming integrated science assessment (ISA) for NOx, which will then inform a policy assessment (PA) document...

Stellantis Inks Deal With CARB On ZEV, GHG Rules After Failed Challenge

Automaker Stellantis -- which manufactures Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles -- is committing to support and comply with California’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales requirements through the end of the decade, even if the state’s authority to enforce such rules is set aside in court or by a future administration. The company’s March 19 agreement with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which also addresses the company’s compliance with the state’s greenhouse gas emissions standards through 2026, comes after it failed...

EPA Rejects Oil Industry Bid For Waiver Of RFS Cellulosic Fuel Mandate

EPA has rejected the refining sector’s petition for a partial waiver from implementation of renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates for cellulosic biofuels, finding that the oil industry has failed to make a convincing case that a lack of RFS credits will result in “severe economic harm” that would justify a waiver. In a March 15 letter , EPA Administrator Michael Regan denies the petition for a partial waiver that would effectively reduce the 2023 cellulosic biofuel blending requirements,...

California Cuts $46 Million Deal With Cummins Over Emission Violations

California regulators have won a $46 million settlement with engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. over claims that the company violated engine emissions control and certification requirements, adding to the $2 billion settlement the company reached recently with EPA and California over separate emission-cheating claims. The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “rigorous, state-of-the-art enforcement efforts ensure that air quality laws are followed. And if issues are uncovered, collaboration and action from manufacturers such as Cummins make it possible to quickly implement needed...

EPA Finalizes Tougher Air Emissions Rule For Iron And Steel Plants

Despite resistance from industry groups and bipartisan lawmakers, EPA has finalized its rule toughening air toxics requirements for 10 integrated iron and steel plants, adding new air toxics limits for previously unregulated equipment and pollutants and mandating fenceline monitoring while providing some concessions to ease compliance burdens. In the final rule signed by Administrator Michael Regan March 11 but released by the agency March 18, EPA seeks to add limits for previously unregulated emissions points and to set new limits...

Final Rule

Fact Sheet


EPA poised to propose tougher ‘secondary’ NAAQS

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed review of EPA’s draft plan that could propose a tightening of “secondary” welfare-based air limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), clearing the way for EPA to release the plan by its April target date. OMB completed its interagency review March 15, according to its website. EPA is facing an April 9 consent decree deadline agreed in litigation brought by environmentalists to propose...

EPA’s Sterilizer EtO Rule Bucks Environmentalists’ Calls For Stiffer Mandates

EPA’s final air rule limiting ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers sets stringent emissions limits, but also rejects calls from environmentalists and Democratic states for regulation of off-site warehouses and for fenceline air monitoring, and extends the compliance timeline far beyond what was proposed. In the final rule unveiled March 14, EPA said it would not regulate EtO releases at warehouses because they are not part of the source category. In addition, it said it would not require fenceline...

White House Completes Review Of EPA’s Phase 3 Truck GHG Standards

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has finished inter-agency review of EPA’s draft final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks, paving the way for officials to publicly release the final rule potentially in the coming days. OMB completed review of the measure March 15, just one day after the office finished reviewing EPA’s separate multi-pollutant emissions regulation for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which is expected to be released at an event in Washington, D.C., on...

GOP senators join House push to scrap PM NAAQS

At least 46 Republican senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are seeking to scrap EPA’s recently-tightened national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), signing on to a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that mirrors a recently introduced House measure. The Senate CRA resolution , sponsored by McConnell and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), would nullify the rule that reduced the annual health-based NAAQS from 12 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) down to 9 mg/m3,...

EPA Adopts Tougher Air Rules For Gasoline Storage, Distribution Facilities

EPA has finalized tougher air standards for thousands of bulk gasoline storage and distribution facilities largely as proposed, tightening emissions limits for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tanks, but also easing the rule somewhat in response to industry criticism over small facilities’ ability to comply. In a final rule announced March 14, following its signature by EPA Administrator Michael Regan Feb. 29, EPA imposes tougher national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for both...

Denka Hints At Suit On Chloroprene Rules As Enforcement Case Pauses

Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the sole domestic manufacturer of neoprene, is warning White House officials that EPA’s imminent emissions rule for chloroprene, a key synthetic rubber component, is unlawful, signaling a new suit that could shift the company’s litigation focus as the agency decides whether to continue its landmark enforcement action against the Louisiana facility. In a presentation to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and EPA officials March 7, Bracewell attorneys representing Denka raised a series of...

EPA poised to unveil light-duty vehicle emissions rule March 20

EPA is planning to unveil its final multi-pollutant emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles on March 20, according to several sources familiar with the process, a move that will conclude a high-profile rulemaking expected to encourage broader deployment of electric vehicles. The final standards addressing passenger vehicles and some heavier pickups also will be released before EPA’s forthcoming final “phase 3” greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles, these sources add, even though the two proposed rules were initially announced...

EPA Sets Tough Limits For EtO Sterilizers But Eases Compliance Options

EPA has released its long-awaited final rule setting tougher limits on emissions of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) from commercial sterilizers, tightening existing limits, setting new limits, eliminating exemptions for facility startup and shutdown -- but also offering a two-year compliance extension, and finalizing “site-wide” flexible compliance options. The rule will tighten standards for “on the books” sources such as sterilization chamber vents and aeration room vents, and add new limits for unregulated emissions, such as building leaks and chamber...

New Data Adds Pressure On EPA To Strengthen Landfill Methane Rules

Correction Appended Environmentalists are stepping up their calls for EPA to update its new source performance standards (NSPS) to reduce methane and related emissions from landfills, citing a new study showing solid waste landfills have become the largest industrial source of the potent greenhouse gas in 45 states in 2022. According to new analysis by Industrious Labs, a group that advocates for decarbonizing the industrial sector, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills were the largest industrial source of methane in...

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