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.

GAO finds RFS waiver denials not subject to CRA

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found EPA’s June decision to deny 69 requests from small refiners for waivers from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending obligations is not a “rule,” and therefore not eligible for reversal under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). In a Feb. 9 decision , GAO finds that under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), EPA’s denial of the waivers, or small refinery exemptions (SREs), cannot be scrapped using the CRA. The finding, first reported by Politico...

API Flags ‘Numerous’ Concerns About EPA’s Methane Super-Emitter Plan

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is raising multiple concerns about EPA’s supplemental methane emissions plan, charging its approach to alternative monitoring technologies is “impractical” and that the proposed super-emitter response program based on third-party data is legally deficient and should be voluntary. The concerns from the oil and gas sector’s primary trade association surface in a summary of formal comments the group is filing by a Feb. 13 deadline, as multiple groups weigh in on EPA’s supplemental proposed oil and...

Industry Urges EPA To Rethink Lime Kilns Air Plan, Citing ‘Fatal Errors’

As EPA faces a looming court deadline to tighten air toxics standards for lime kilns, lime and cement manufacturers are raising concerns over “fatal errors” in EPA’s plan to strengthen its standards, calling for more time to comment, but also listing what they say are a host of technical errors and unexplained policy reversals that require the agency to withdraw its plan and start over. In comments submitted to EPA ahead of a Feb. 21 deadline for public input, industry...

EPA Defends Scrapping State Ozone Transport Plans, As Litigation Looms

EPA is defending its recent disapproval of 19 states’ plans for curbing emissions of interstate ozone, a decision that paves the way for the agency to impose tougher federal controls under an expanded Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), after many states and industry groups heavily criticized the disapproval and signaled likely litigation ahead. The disapproval rule , quietly issued Jan. 31 and scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Feb. 13, scraps the state implementation plans (SIPs) intended to implement...

SIP Rule

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CASAC schedules meetings on EPA ozone policy plan

EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) special ozone panel has set dates to deliberate on EPA’s forthcoming revised policy assessment (PA) document that will give the agency options to revise federal ozone standards, or leave them unchanged, confirming that some further slippage of EPA’s rulemaking timetable is likely. The ozone panel will hear a briefing from EPA staff on the revised draft PA document March 2, then conduct its public peer review meeting on the document March 29 and...

Observers See Balancing Act For EPA On Methane Fee, Reporting Rules

Industry and environmentalists say EPA must strike a balance on several key issues as it crafts implementing rules for a new oil and gas methane fee and updated emissions reporting standards in response to Capitol Hill directives, with officials facing several decisions as well as technical and logistical challenges. For example, EPA has yet to define what constitutes as an “unreasonable” permitting delay that triggers an exemption for the fee, and the agency will likely weigh the merits of site-level...

Court stays suits over aircraft PM limits

A federal appeals court has granted states’ and environmentalists’ request to stay their lawsuit challenging EPA’s rule setting particulate matter (PM) limits for aircraft, pending the outcome of similar litigation over greenhouse gas standards for the sector. In a brief Feb. 7 per curiam order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted abeyance in the recently filed suit , Center for Biological Diversity, et al v. EPA, et al , until the court rules...

EPA Faces Hard Call On EtO Sterilizer Rule As Industry Sees No Alternatives

EPA is facing some tough choices as it works to regulate ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from commercial sterilizers as medical and other groups warn there are currently no alternatives to the chemical and are urging the agency and the White House to set flexible emissions standards. In comments submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in recent meetings, a number of groups representing sterilizers say EPA must not set overly burdensome or unrealistic standards, warning there...

EPA Acknowledges Truck Rule EJ Shortcomings But Tees Up GHG Rule

EPA is acknowledging that its newly finalized rule limiting nitrogen dioxide (NOx) emissions in the heavy-duty trucking sector has environmental justice (EJ)-related shortcomings but is setting high expectations that many of those will be addressed in its forthcoming phase 3 greenhouse gas rule for the same sector. In a Dec. 14 memo posted to the truck NOx rulemaking docket, EPA acknowledged that the final rule fell short of what was then a draft Science Advisory Board (SAB) report urging the...

GOP Senators Offer CRA Resolution Targeting EPA’s Truck NOx Rule

More than 30 Republican senators are signaling their opposition to EPA’s recent rule to strengthen nitrogen oxides (NOx) standards for heavy-duty trucks, proposing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would rescind the rule though the measure currently is far short of the support required to ultimately be enacted. The proposed resolution of disapproval , introduced Feb. 9, is being spearheaded by Sen. Deb. Fischer (R-NE) and joined by 33 GOP colleagues. It targets EPA’s December rule that strengthened federal...

State Officials Seek EPA Vehicle Rules Stronger Than Biden’s EV Goals

Environmental officials from almost a dozen states are pressing the Biden EPA to write air emissions rules for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles that assume more electrification than the administration’s current targets, arguing that public funding and market trends will likely spur at least that level of electric vehicle (EV) deployment. The call in a recent letter to President Joe Biden lends new weight to recent claims from a clean transportation group that the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) EV tax...

L.A. Officials Fear Difficulty, Costs In Meeting EPA’s Proposed PM Standard

Despite California officials’ support for EPA’s proposed fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), Los Angeles regional air regulators are expressing initial fears about the difficulty and costs of trying to attain the more stringent standard, telling governing board members that “control options will be limited and expensive.” “It’s a big challenge for us just to meet the current” annual PM2.5 NAAQS of 12 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3), so it will be “very, very difficult for...

EPA Deal To Update Landfill ‘Factors’ Could Hike Emissions Estimates

EPA has reached an agreement with environmentalists setting a date for the agency to revise “emission factors” used to estimate air pollution from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, possibly increasing estimated emissions of the facilities’ conventional air pollutants and greenhouse gases, with likely regulatory consequences. In a Federal Register notice slated for publication Feb. 9, EPA announces a proposed consent decree that would require it to issue draft emission factors -- or to determine that such an update is...

Truckers, Airlines Rebut California Defense Of Landmark Warehouse Rule

Attorneys representing the California trucking industry and national airlines are pushing back on state and local efforts to defend South Coast air district officials’ landmark warehouse “indirect source rule” (ISR) that requires operators to limit pollution from their facilities, hoping to convince a federal court to block the regulation. In a Jan. 13 reply brief in support of its motion for summary judgment, the California Trucking Association (CTA) reiterated its charges that the rule, which targets mobile source emissions, is...

GOP Bills Target Various EPA Requirements For ‘Critical’ Energy Projects

House Republicans are touting numerous bills that would scale back EPA requirements for “critical” energy facilities and refineries, arguing the move would boost a variety of energy sources though Democrats say the measures attack “critical environmental programs” and clean energy programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The measures, floated during a Feb. 7 joint hearing by two House Energy & Commerce Committee panels, seek to counter what GOP lawmakers brand as the Biden administration’s “rush to green” agenda without...

Democrats renew calls for EPA, DOE on crypto-mining emissions

Democratic lawmakers are renewing calls for EPA and the Department of Energy (DOE) to track the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of cryptocurrency mining operations, saying the agencies should use their recently disclosed powers to encourage emissions reductions from the practice. In a Feb. 6 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Katie...

In Precedent, 10th Circuit Requires Cumulative GHG Review Of Oil & Gas

An appellate court covering several major energy-producing states has issued a first-of-its-kind ruling requiring officials to weigh the cumulative greenhouse gas effects of approving oil and gas drilling in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews and to use a GHG budget, setting a precedent that environmentalists say is long overdue. Kyle Tisdel of the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) explains that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit’s Feb. 1 decision in Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment,...

OMB Eyes EPA’s Planned MATS Update, Key To Tougher Coal-Power Rules

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has begun formal inter-agency review of EPA’s proposed revisions to emissions limits under the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants, a key step in the agency’s bid to propose a potentially tougher rule this spring, alongside other new requirements for coal-fired power plants. EPA sent the plan for review Feb. 6, according to OMB’s website. OMB review typically takes up to 90 days, but can be faster or...

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