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.

Environmentalists threaten suit over missed SO2 deadlines

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Sierra Club are threatening to sue EPA over its failure to ensure that adequate state plans are in place to meet the agency’s air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2), after states and EPA missed a series of deadlines for submission and approval of plans. In a Dec. 20 notice of intent to sue , which EPA posted on its website Jan. 16, the groups gave EPA 60 days’ notice of their threatened...

Judges Mull Citizens’ Right To Intervene In EPA Emergency Air Actions

Federal appellate judges for the first time are weighing citizens’ rights to intervene in EPA enforcement actions brought under the rarely used Clean Air Act section 303 emergency powers, as local residents seek to overturn a district court’s order denying their bid to intervene in proceedings regarding an action against a South Carolina paper mill. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit heard oral argument on the novel issue Jan. 25 in Enrique Lizano...

Final EPA Truck GHG Rule May Include Eased Limits On Largest Vehicles

Industry and other observers are suggesting that EPA’s forthcoming final heavy truck “phase 3” greenhouse gas rule might include concessions to manufacturers that would ease near term stringency for the largest trucks regulated by the rule, with the agency less inclined to provide flexibility for other vehicle classes. The agency may “split the baby” in its final rule, one industry source says, flagging the possibility that the rule’s stringency and timelines could be eased compared to the proposal with respect...

Democrats Plan Another Floor Vote To Confirm Goffman As EPA Air Chief

Senate Democrats appear to be trying again to hold a floor vote to confirm Joe Goffman to be EPA’s air office assistant administrator, after Democratic leaders earlier this month short-circuited a confirmation vote of the long-pending nominee. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Jan. 25 filed a motion to invoke “cloture” on the Goffman nomination, which would formally end debate and clear the way for floor votes sometime next week, depending on the chamber’s schedule for considering other nominees...

EPA Floats New Science Integrity Policy But Punts On Enforcement

EPA has released a long-awaited draft update to its scientific integrity policy, but the proposal would defer any decision on enforceable mechanisms for implementation or even details on how such rules could be developed -- spurring renewed criticism from a watchdog group that has long pushed agencies to make their integrity guidelines binding. The new EPA draft , released Jan. 24, includes several reforms from the current Obama-era policy for protecting the integrity of scientific work, such as expanding its...


EPA Staff Strengthen Advice For ‘Secondary’ NAAQS After CASAC Push

As EPA faces looming deadlines to revise its air quality standards, agency staff is recommending officials adopt tougher “secondary” air standards for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter (PM) than those they floated in an earlier draft policy document, following criticism from agency science advisers seeking stricter limits. In a Jan. 12 final policy assessment (PA), the staff strengthen their earlier suggested pollution limits for the welfare-based secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), which will form...


EPA Moves To Expand Good Neighbor Ozone Rule Ahead Of High Court Suit

EPA is proposing to expand its troubled Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule to another five states, citing new modeling showing their “significant contribution” to ozone problems elsewhere, even as the rule is stayed in more than half of the 23 states now covered and EPA faces Supreme Court argument on the issue next month. In its supplemental proposal quietly released Jan. 23, EPA plans to disapprove state implementation plans (SIPs) for interstate ozone reduction from Arizona, Iowa, Kansas,...


EPA Releases PFAS Air Emissions Test Method Ahead Of Disposal Guide

RALEIGH, NC -- EPA has released a much-anticipated test method to measure volatile, nonpolar fluorinated compounds, such as PFAS, in air emissions, including compounds that are products of incomplete combustion or incomplete destruction, a method that could help implement the pending update to EPA’s PFAS destruction and disposal guidance, which is undergoing White House review. The agency last week quietly posted the new draft test method , known as “Other Test Method 50 (OTM-50): Sampling and Analysis of Volatile Fluorinated...

Steel Sector Pushes Back On ‘Exorbitant’ Cost Of EPA’s Air Toxics Plan

The steel industry is pushing back against EPA’s proposal to tighten air toxics standards for taconite iron ore production, arguing it would impose crippling costs and force steel production overseas, echoing concerns expressed by lawmakers of both parties, even as environmentalists and Minnesota regulators urge EPA to further tighten the proposal. At Jan. 16 meetings with White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and EPA officials, steel sector representatives pressed for a rethink, but officials from the Minnesota Pollution...

EPA publishes tough proposal for waste combustors’ emissions

EPA Jan. 23 published its plan to tighten air emissions limits for large municipal waste combustors (MWCs) in the Federal Register , setting a deadline for public comment on the proposal, which environmentalists and community activists have long sought, but which the waste-to-energy sector and municipal governments are resisting. The plan, unveiled Jan. 11 , seeks to tighten new source performance standards (NSPS) for new plants and emissions guidelines (EGs) for existing plants, and to update the definition of “new...

EJ Lawyer Warns EPA ‘Colluded’ To Draft Weak ‘Contingency Measures’ Rule

An attorney representing California environmental justice (EJ) groups is charging that EPA “colluded” with state and local air regulators to draft an illegally weak Clean Air Act (CAA) policy and draft guidance for “contingency measures” (CMs) that local agencies must implement when they are failing to make sufficient progress on attaining air quality standards, laying out a potential future lawsuit against the agency. “Following the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s 2021 rejection of EPA’s first attempt to weaken the contingency...

5th Circuit Rejects Calls To Rehear Ruling Scrapping RFS Waiver Denials

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has rejected biofuel producers’ petitions for rehearing of a key ruling that scrapped EPA’s denials of renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers for small refineries based on the Gulf Coast, setting the stage for a potential circuit split with the D.C. Circuit that is weighing a similar case. In a Jan. 22 order , the court denies requests for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc of its split Nov. 22...

Louisiana appeals court reinstates Formosa plant’s permits

A Louisiana state appeals court has reinstated 15 controversial air permits for Formosa Plastics to build a massive petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, an environmental justice (EJ) community, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked the permits, which were also the subject of an EPA civil rights investigation the agency abruptly closed. In a Jan. 19 decision , the Louisiana Court of Appeal First Circuit held in RISE St. James, et al. v. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality...

Suit Targets EPA’s ‘Exceptional Events’ Waiver As Officials Vow Greater Use

The Sierra Club is asking a federal appellate court to reverse EPA’s redesignation of Detroit into attainment for ozone, a challenge to the agency’s implementation of its “exceptional events” policy -- just as the Biden administration is stepping up its use of the policy to ease states’ attainment of imminent new particulate matter (PM) standards. In a Jan. 9 opening brief , the group urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to reverse EPA’s 2023 decision to...

Industry Expects Suits Over EPA’s Title V Plan Due To ‘Scant’ Authority

Industry attorneys are expecting EPA to face lawsuits over its plan for reviewing Title V operating permits because they believe the agency has “scant legal authority” to object to permits on the grounds of insufficient opportunity for public comment and judicial review of underlying requirements. In a Jan. 17 “client alert” article , attorneys with law firm Beveridge and Diamond also warn that such suits will likely create years-long uncertainties. “Stakeholders will likely oppose and challenge the final rule, leaving...

Industry Backing For EPA Auto Rule May Hinge On Easing Early Standards

Industry and other observers are suggesting that EPA is trying to win automaker support for its multi-pollutant standards for model year 2027-and-later vehicles, which would likely require reduced stringency in the early years of the program, in response to industry claims that the agency’s vehicle electrification projections are too optimistic. The appraisal comes as White House regulatory officials began formal review of the draft final rule Jan. 18, though EPA is remaining mum about the substance of the policy. At...

Lime Producers Seek To Ease EPA’s Air Toxics Plan Ahead Of Release

As EPA prepares to release a supplemental plan governing air toxics releases from lime manufacturing facilities, producers and their congressional supporters are urging officials not to repropose substantially tighter limits for the sector that they say are unnecessary, would not be cost-effective and would increase greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, representatives from the industry, a major supplier of material for construction, agricultural and other projects, are asking EPA to consider weaker “health-based” standards in place of technology-driven limits at the nation’s...

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