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.

EPA Backs Summer E15 Fuel For Midwest, But Will Weigh Delay Requests

EPA will implement a rule allowing eight Midwestern states to sell 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) this summer when it would otherwise be banned, but it is also weighing a request by Ohio and possibly other states to delay summer sales until next year, as Congress moves toward a possible nationwide authorization of the fuel. Administrator Lee Zeldin on Feb. 21 announced the agency would uphold the current April 28 implementation date for a Biden-era rule that would set E15...

Texas sues EPA over PM plan denial, SO2 nonattainment

Texas is suing EPA over a Biden-era disapproval of the state’s air quality plan for meeting federal particulate matter (PM) limits and its finding that counties in the state failed to meet sulfur dioxide (SO2) limits, in litigation that will challenge Biden EPA policy on waivers for periods of plant startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM). In one suit filed Feb. 20 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the state challenges EPA’s Dec. 20 final rule that...

House Tees Up CRA Vote To Rescind EPA Rule For IRA’s Methane ‘Charge’

House Republicans are teeing up a floor vote on whether to quickly rescind EPA’s implementing regulation for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) methane emissions fee for the oil and gas sector, even as GOP lawmakers are hoping to repeal the underlying statutory basis for the fee in subsequent budget “reconciliation” legislation. House lawmakers this week are also poised to vote on a second Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution targeting an Energy Department (DOE) efficiency rule for gas-fired, tankless water heaters...

Ohio Suit Marks Push To Ease Biden EPA ‘Contingency Measures’ Policy

Ohio is suing EPA to force the agency to ease its Biden-era policy on Clean Air Act “contingency measures” (CMs) that apply when states miss milestones for meeting federal air quality standards, after the agency last year confirmed its view that pre-existing state measures cannot qualify as CMs, while courts remain split on the question. In a Feb. 12 lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Ohio asks the court to review EPA’s...

Rejecting EPA Requests, D.C. Circuit Continues Suits Over GNP, EtO Rules

The D.C. Circuit has denied a pair of EPA requests seeking to pause litigation over key Biden-era air rules that officials are expected to reverse, issuing orders requiring the agency to file a brief in a suit challenging the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) rule while also scheduling arguments in a suit over a contested ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizers rule. In a Feb. 21 order , Judges Florence Pan, J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia -- all Democratic appointees -- deny...

Environmentalists Press Trump EPA To Outline GHG Endangerment Stance

Environmental groups are seeking to draw attention to the Trump administration’s consideration of whether to repeal EPA’s landmark 2009 greenhouse gas finding that forms the legal basis for its climate rules, urging officials to reveal the agency’s internal policy recommendation it made to the White House pursuant to a recent executive order. President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “must publicly release EPA’s endangerment finding recommendation,” Sierra Club says in a Feb. 21 press release. “The American people deserve...

Biofuel Groups, Major Refiners Urge ‘Robust’ RFS As E15 Prospects Rise

An unusual alliance of biofuels groups and a major oil sector association is pressing EPA to adopt “robust” biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2026 and beyond, extending a nascent truce between erstwhile liquid fuels competitors as prospects for year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) appear to rise. In a Feb. 19 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, major biofuels groups are joined by the American Petroleum Institute (API), as well as truck stop...

D.C. Circuit hold MATS suit in abeyance, scraps argument

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has granted EPA’s motion to hold litigation over the Biden EPA’s revised mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) rule in abeyance and cancelled oral argument set for March, while the new leadership at the agency reviews the rule. In a Feb. 20 per curiam order , Judges Patricia Millett, Karen LeCraft Henderson and J. Michelle Childs grant EPA’s unopposed request for abeyance in State of North Dakota, et...

Trump EPA Retains Biden-Era Stance On Venue For RFS Waiver Denials

EPA is sticking to its Biden-era position that its mass denials of renewable fuel standard (RFS) waivers for small refiners constitute “nationally” applicable actions that must be litigated in the District of Columbia Circuit, after the Supreme Court denied the agency’s request to stay litigation pending a review by the Trump administration. In a Feb. 20 brief filed in EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, LLC, et al. , the agency again asserts that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Industry Asks 9th Circuit To Strike EPA Waiver For CARB Small-Engine Rules

Outdoor equipment manufacturers are urging the 9th Circuit to overturn a Biden EPA Clean Air Act preemption waiver issued last month allowing California to enforce its landmark rules requiring most new small off-road engines (SORE) to have zero emissions, after the Trump administration declined to ask Congress to rescind the measure. The Feb. 10 suit filed by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) challenges EPA’s Jan. 6 approval of the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “request for an authorization of...

EPA Seeks To Pause Suit Over Precedent-Setting EtO Sterilizer Air Rule

The Trump EPA is asking a federal appellate court to pause potentially precedent-setting litigation over the agency’s Biden-era rule tightening air toxics limits for ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizers as they weigh future policy, a request that will likely end litigation on the key question of whether EPA can update such rules because of changes in perceived risk. Before the Trump administration took office, EPA in a Jan. 8 brief , filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District...

Industry, GOP Lawmakers Pressure EPA To Scrap IRIS Risk Program

Scores of industry groups are urging the Trump EPA to “disband” the agency’s integrated risk information system (IRIS) hazard assessment program and to prohibit use of the program’s risk values in any regulatory work, as House and Senate Republican lawmakers reintroduce legislation to bar use of IRIS in regulation. In a Jan. 27 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin prior to his Senate confirmation, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) led a coalition of over 80 industry groups in urging Zeldin...

Wisconsin sues EPA over worsened ozone status

Wisconsin is suing EPA over its December rule to downgrade the ozone “nonattainment” status for parts of the state and other areas in neighboring states, in a rare example of a Democratic state challenging a Biden-era EPA decision. In its suit filed Feb. 14, Wisconsin sues EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit over its Dec. 17 finding that areas in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio failed to attain the 2015 ozone national ambient air...

EPA Opens Path To Quick Hill Repeal Of California Vehicle Rule Waivers

EPA in an unprecedented move is opening a path for Congress to quickly rescind multiple Biden-era Clean Air Act preemption waivers for California’s vehicle emission programs, even as waiver supporters assert that any such move would tee up litigation over whether they are beyond the scope of the Congressional Review Act (CRA). EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Feb. 14 announced that the agency is formally submitting the waivers to Congress, with the Trump EPA asserting the waivers are “rules” subject...

Trump EPA Seeks Stay Of Suit Challenging CARB ZEV Rule Waiver

EPA attorneys are asking the 9th Circuit to stay for 120 days an industry lawsuit challenging the Clean Air Act preemption waiver that the Biden EPA granted for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate regulations, saying the Trump administration’s policy review “may obviate the need for judicial resolution.” Filed Feb. 11 in American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce v. EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, EPA’s unopposed motion notes...

D.C. Circuit Denies EPA Call To Stay HFC Case With Key Constitutional Claim

The D.C. Circuit is denying the Trump EPA’s request to pause litigation over an agency rule to implement a phasedown of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), after several industry groups argued that the court should offer clarity on a key constitutional challenge to the underlying HFC control law. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the EPA request in a brief Feb. 13 order in IGas Holdings, et al. v. EPA, et al....

GOP lawmaker floats disapproval of EPA petroleum tanks rule

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) is floating a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution for the Biden EPA’s rule tightening air emissions limits on gasoline and other volatile liquid storage tanks that is already being litigated by industry, as part of a raft of such resolutions Clyde has introduced targeting EPA and other regulations. The resolution filed Feb. 12 would scrap EPA’s Oct. 15 new source performance standards (NSPS) rule for volatile organic liquid storage vessels, including petroleum tanks, which imposes...

EPA Backs Small Refiner’s Bid To Stay RFS Biofuel Blending Obligation

EPA will not oppose a small refiner’s motion to stay its renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending obligation for 2023 pending the resolution of the company’s suit against a Biden-era decision denying it a waiver from RFS mandates, a potentially precedent-setting move that could spur other refiners to seek similar relief. Refiner Wynnewood on Jan. 29 sued EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, contesting the agency’s denial of small refinery waiver from its 2023 RFS...

Downwind States Fight GNP Case Pause, Warning Of Missed Air Standards

Democratic-led “downwind” states supporting EPA’s stayed Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule are resisting EPA’s bid to pause litigation over the measure, warning this will result in missed deadlines to attain federal air quality standards. The sparring in the GNP litigation also comes as EPA seeks to pause an unrelated industry challenge to its tougher air toxics rule for lime kilns, one of multiple court cases the agency is seeking to pause so that newly installed Trump officials can...

Groups Detail Arguments To Block EPA Delay Of Valley PM Attainment Date

Several environmental and equity groups are detailing arguments to the 9th Circuit to block EPA’s approval of a one-year deadline extension for California’s San Joaquin Valley area to attain a 1997 annual fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard. “The Court does not defer to EPA's interpretation when the Rule's plain language, structure, and history unambiguously prohibit the one-year extension,” states a Feb. 7 opening brief by the groups in Little Manila Rising, et al. v. EPA, et al . in the...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.