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.

States Grapple With Wildfire Smoke As EPA Faulted Over ‘Events’ Waiver

State air regulators are wrestling with how to use EPA’s “exceptional events” waiver policy to excuse high pollution readings driven by increasingly prevalent wildfires, amid renewed criticism of the waiver rule from environmentalists and others who are concerned the policy provides a “loophole” for unhealthy air. One state source says that the increasingly pressing issue is being addressed by state groups, such as the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, representing state and local regulators across the country, which is...

EPA sends waste combustors air plan for OMB review

EPA is moving closer to proposing what is likely to be tougher emissions standards for large municipal waste combustors (MWCs), sending its plan for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review amid competing pressures from environmentalists to swiftly tighten the limits, and from industry to move more slowly. The agency sent its proposal to OMB Oct. 16, according to OMB’s website. Under a proposed consent decree with environmentalists in East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice v. EPA ,...

Metal Finishers Say CARB Deleting Key Exemption In Chrome-6 Phaseout

A metal finishing industry group is charging that California air board officials are deleting a key exemption in the board’s recently adopted rules to phase out uses of hexavalent chromium (chrome-6) at metal-plating operations, as part of 11th-hour modifications before the rules are finalized by the state’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL). “We have technology that can have zero emissions in enclosed plating tanks. The issue we see is there was an exemption in the rule and now it is...

EPA Urged To Delay EtO Air Rules Until NASEM Reviews Texas’ Risk Value

Republican lawmakers and industry representatives are stepping up their criticism of EPA’s conservative assessment of ethylene oxide’s (EtO) health risks -- the basis for several major air rules -- and suggesting the agency should delay those policies until federal science advisors complete their review of a competing EtO assessment by Texas regulators. But delaying the rules may be difficult as some are already final -- though they also face industry court challenges -- while other pending rules are subject to...

EPA Grants CARB Waiver For Vessel At-Berth Rules To Cut Port Pollution

EPA is granting California a waiver from Clean Air Act preemption to allow the state air board to implement and enforce tougher 2020 rules to cut emissions from at-berth ocean-going vessels (OGVs), which supporters believe will significantly cut port pollution by requiring OGVs to use shore power rather than their dirtier auxiliary engines. “This means people living downwind of ports will get some relief from the pollution coming from ships that are docked,” says one environmentalist of the EPA action...

EPA Finds Leaded Aviation Fuel Endangers Health But Omits Rule Timetable

EPA’s just-issued finding that lead in aviation fuel used by piston-engine aircraft endangers public health and welfare triggers an obligation to regulate aircraft emissions, but the agency is declining to set a timetable for new rules despite pressure from Democrats and environmentalists to move swiftly. The finding , which EPA released Oct. 18, confirms EPA’s view that lead emissions from aircraft using leaded fuel “cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and...

EPA objects to Pittsburgh coke plant permit targeted by environmentalists

EPA is formally objecting to local regulators' air permit for a Pittsburgh-area coke plant, saying it fails to ensure sufficient monitoring of emissions, a month after environmentalists sued the agency over its failure to respond to their petition seeking such an objection -- and after it separately proposed fenceline air toxics monitoring mandates for the sector. EPA in a notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Oct. 18 partially grants environmentalists’ petition for an agency objection to the...

EPA Finds 11 States’ Ozone Plans Missing, Starting Clock For Sanctions

EPA is issuing formal findings that 11 states have failed to submit air quality plans to meet federal ozone limits required by the Clean Air Act, triggering a two-year deadline for the agency to issue its own rules for the affected regions, partially in response to a recent lawsuit filed by environmental groups seeking to force that action. In a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication Oct. 18, EPA says it is making final determinations that Arizona, California, Connecticut,...

Truckers File Constitutional Lawsuit To Block California’s ZEV Fleet Rules

The California Trucking Association (CTA) is suing the state’s air board in federal court to block the board’s landmark regulation requiring truck fleets to purchase increasing numbers of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), charging the rule violates the Constitution’s “dormant” Commerce Clause and is preempted by several federal laws. “Instead of providing an assurance of clear and compliant regulations, the California Air Resources Board (‘CARB’) has promulgated the Advanced Clean Fleets (‘ACF’) regulation, which expands California's regulatory authority well beyond its borders...

States Ask Supreme Court To Stay ‘Good Neighbor’ Interstate Ozone Rule

Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia are petitioning the Supreme Court to halt EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule, arguing that it is not only unlawful on the merits but has become unworkable in light of multiple court stays, which have prompted the agency to voluntarily pause implementation of the policy in some but not all states. In their Oct. 16 application to the high court for Ohio, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the states ask for...

Railroads Warn CARB Locomotive Rules Could Undercut Maintenance In Suit

The nation’s largest railroad companies are asserting they could be forced to sideline infrastructure maintenance in order to slash greenhouse gas and conventional emissions from locomotives as required by the California air board’s landmark rule, among other arguments they are raising in an amended complaint for their constitutional challenge to the policy. “The railroads must prepare for the substantial deposits they will have to make in their Spending Accounts by July 1, 2026, which will require diverting funds from existing...

State Air Regulators Seek ‘Clear’ EPA Enforcement Guidance For GHGs, PFAS

The National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) that represents air regulators in 35 states is asking EPA to provide “clear” direction on how enforcement should work for the agencies’ current or future regulations governing greenhouse gases and possibly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- two top priorities for the Biden administration. In a Sept. 29 letter to EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), NACAA warns that the enforcement office’s recently finalized National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECIs)...

ENRD Touts ‘Progress’ On EJ Enforcement Strategy In First-Time Report

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) is highlighting a host of actions it took to implement its environmental justice (EJ) enforcement strategy since launching the push last year in a first-time “progress report,” highlighting major court actions as well as how it is coordinating with EPA’s EJ office to prioritize those issues. “One year later, we are pleased to share the progress the Department has made in advancing environmental justice under the Strategy, through the efforts...

Despite Mass Denials, EPA Insists Refineries Can Still Win RFS Waivers

EPA is arguing that despite its mass denials of all recent petitions from small refineries for renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers, refiners can still in theory secure such waivers, one of several arguments the agency is advancing to defeat litigation targeting the waiver denials. In a redacted Oct. 11 brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit case Sinclair Wyoming Refining, LLC, v. EPA , the agency rejects assertions that its current policy...

EPA extends comment deadline on air reporting plan

EPA is extending the public comment period for its August proposal that would enlarge the scope and nationwide consistency of air toxics reporting requirements and broadly bolster data that feeds into the agency’s national emissions inventory (NEI) which in turn plays a key role in developing new limits on such pollution. In an Oct. 12 Federal Register notice , EPA extends the deadline for input on its pending proposal from Oct. 18 until Nov. 17 -- almost four months...

EPA Floats Approving L.A. Warehouse Air Rule, Potentially Upending Lawsuit

EPA is proposing to approve the regional Los Angeles air district’s landmark warehouse indirect source rule (ISR) as part of California’s state implementation plan (SIP) to attain federal air standards -- an action that could short-circuit litigation by truckers and airlines that say the rule violates preemption provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and other laws. “This is a huge blow to the industry challenging the regulation,” says Adrian Martinez, an attorney with Earthjustice, which recently sued to compel...

Uhlmann Touts Novel Climate Enforcement Priority, Outlines Authorities

EPA’s enforcement chief is touting the agency’s recently announced plan to incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation throughout the agency’s enforcement actions, noting that officials will prioritize investigations at facilities that face the highest climate change risks and will use myriad civil and criminal authorities to enforce EPA’s rules. “To meet the urgency of this moment, EPA’s enforcement and compliance programs will prioritize enforcement and compliance actions to mitigate climate change, and will include climate adaptation and resilience in case conclusions...

Environmentalists, Industry Spar Over EPA Coke Ovens Air Toxics Plan

Environmentalists and industry are taking opposing positions concerning EPA’s proposal to tighten air toxics limits for coke ovens, with environmental groups criticizing the rule’s lack of ambition even as they support its fenceline air monitoring mandate, while industry is charging the monitoring requirement is impractical and unnecessary. EPA took public comment through Oct. 2 on its proposal published Aug. 16 to tighten standards for coke ovens, which would impose stricter emissions limits and regulate hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) not addressed...

D.C. Circuit Seeks To Speed Litigation Over EPA’s Good Neighbor Rule

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is requiring state and industry groups challenging EPA’s Good Neighbor interstate ozone rule to quickly provide proposed briefing formats and address other procedural matters while again rejecting an industry request to stay the rule. In an Oct. 11 per curiam order , a three-judge panel gave the parties in the consolidated litigation, State of Utah v. EPA, et al., 30 days to “submit proposed formats for the...

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