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.

NASEM Urges Mitigation For Indoor PM But Sees Limited EPA Oversight

A new report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) finds a range of harmful health effects from exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) indoors that should be mitigated, with a significant contribution by outdoor sources, but also highlights EPA’s lack of regulatory authority over indoor air quality. Sponsored by EPA, the Jan. 19 report , “Health Risks of Indoor Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Solutions,” identifies a similar raft of adverse health effects...

Chemical Sector Makes Final Case Against EtO Risk Value In Air Rule Suit

Chemical industry critics of EPA’s 2016 risk value for ethylene oxide (EtO) are making their closing arguments in litigation seeking to overturn the agency’s first-time use of the value in its rule limiting air toxics from the miscellaneous organic chemical manufacturing (MON) sector, ahead of February oral arguments. In their final reply brief filed Jan. 16 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Huntsman Petrochemical LLC, et al. v. EPA , chemical manufacturers say...

Automakers Object To CARB GHG Limits As ‘Backstop’ For Federal Volatility

Automakers are raising substantial concerns about the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) preliminary proposal to amend its clean car regulations for model years 2026-35, including greenhouse gas standards for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and efforts to partially align the rules with EPA’s pending national standards. Environmental and public-health groups, in contrast, are strongly supporting the plan that they say would serve as a critical backstop against the possibility of future volatility in federal standards. “CARB has adopted a [zero-emission...

Attacking Limits On Discretion, GOP States File Suit Over EPA’s 111 Rule

Over two dozen Republican-led states are filing suit over EPA’s updated implementing rules for section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, a provision the agency has used for multiple high-profile climate rules, with the states arguing the rule unlawfully limits states’ leeway to impose eased requirements for certain facilities. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) led 24 other states in filing a Jan. 17 complaint urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate...

Industry Makes Case For EPA To Set 3-Year Implementation For PM Limits

The wood products industry is pressing EPA to delay implementation of any tougher limits it may soon finalize for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), making the legal case for a three-year delay of the rule’s effective date, echoing similar calls from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and the United Steelworkers union in seeking a delay of any tighter limits. At a Jan. 8 meeting with White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials, representatives of the lumber industry including the...

EPA Agrees To July 1 Deadline For Action On L.A. SIP ‘Contingency’ Rules

EPA has agreed with California regulators and environmentalists to take “final action” by July 1 on proposed Los Angeles regional air district “contingency measures” (CMs), decisions that could provide new guidance on how the agency believes states must craft such measures to ensure state implementation plans (SIPs) attain air quality standards. EPA agreed to the deadline in a proposed consent decree that seeks to resolve consolidated cases -- South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) v. Michael S. Regan...

States, industry intervene in haze plans case

A federal district court has granted motions by North Dakota and electric utility PacifiCorp to intervene in litigation brought by environmentalists seeking to force EPA action to ensure that state plans are in place to implement the agency’s stalled regional haze program. In Sierra Club, et al. v. EPA , environmental groups are asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to set a hard deadline for EPA to act on the state implementation plans (SIPs) of 34...

EPA Floats Methane Fee Proposal, Including Key Exemption Parameters

EPA has released long-awaited proposed implementing rules for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) methane fee, outlining how to calculate payments by oil and gas facilities, when such payments must be made to the Treasury, and when and how officials would grant several exemptions to the fee required by Congress. Notably, the proposed rule signed Jan. 12 indicates that a crucial exemption would not take effect until EPA has approved all states’ compliance plans for the agency’s just-finalized existing source methane...


11th Circuit Rejects RFS Waiver Case, Finding EPA Rule ‘National’ In Scope

Another regional appeals court has dismissed on venue grounds a small refiner’s petition to reverse EPA’s rejection of a request for a renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waiver, finding the denial to be a “nationally applicable” action that will now be litigated along with other such cases in the District of Columbia Circuit. In its Jan. 11 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit dismisses the waiver challenge brought by the Hunt Refining Co., finding that venue...

5th Circuit Backs EPA’s SO2 ‘Nonattainment’ Findings In Texas Counties

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has upheld EPA’s contested designation of two Texas counties as “nonattainment” for sulfur dioxide (SO2), backing the agency’s discretion to rely on Sierra Club air modeling and to interpret its own guidelines on modeling over objections from Texas and electric utility Luminant. In its Jan. 11 ruling in State of Texas, et al v. EPA , the court upholds the agency’s nonattainment findings for Rusk and Panola...

EPA Seeks To Dramatically Tighten Air Limits For Large Waste Combustors

Seeking to better protect the health of nearby communities, EPA is proposing a steep tightening of emissions standards for large municipal waste combustors (MWCs), toughening limits for harmful pollutants in a reappraisal long sought by environmentalists and required by a federal appeals court. In a proposal unveiled Jan. 11, EPA 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 source” to apply to plants...


EPA Draws Fire Over Barring SEPs In Oil & Gas Decrees Due To IRA Funds

EPA has determined that it cannot authorize supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in oil and gas industry consent decrees because of related appropriations it received from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to incentivize methane emissions cuts from the sector. But the decision is being met with criticism from both the industry and environmentalists even as GOP lawmakers seek to block SEPs and closely scrutinize EPA actions. EPA’s “overly conservative bureaucratic interpretation . . . disqualifies a huge industrial sector from the...

Officials Detail Record-Breaking Deal With Cummins Over ‘Brazen’ Violations

EPA and Justice Department (DOJ) officials are hailing their record-breaking settlement with engine maker Cummins over emissions cheating as showing renewed vigor in enforcement, unveiling details of the $2 billion dollar deal that will require widespread truck recalls and retrofits to locomotives to mitigate unlawful excess pollution. EPA and DOJ, along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Jan. 10 outlined the sheer scale of Cummins’ alleged transgressions , settled in a proposed...

EPA Aims To Avoid Overstating Methane Releases, Goffman Assures Hill

EPA’s top air official is offering assurances to lawmakers from oil and gas states that the agency is aware of concerns that its proposed Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule updates for the sector could overestimate reported emissions, and thus new fees on companies, and that the agency is striving to ensure that a final rule would not do so. “We certainly don’t want to end up with a final reporting rule that would inflate data and therefore inflate liability for companies,”...

4th Circuit Blocks EPA’s Denial Of West Virginia SIP, Another Blow To GNP

A divided appellate court has granted West Virginia’s motion to stay EPA’s disapproval of the state’s interstate ozone plan pending merits argument, and rejected the agency’s efforts to move litigation to the District of Columbia Circuit, dealing another blow to the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) program ahead of Supreme Court arguments on the issue. In its 2-1 opinion issued Jan. 10, a split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit finds that a stay of EPA’s...

CARB, Other States Urge EPA To Approve Waiver For New ZEV Standards

Air regulators in California and other states, as well as environmental and public-health advocates, are pressing EPA to quickly approve the Golden State’s request for a Clean Air Act (CAA) preemption waiver to enforce its latest set of vehicle standards, including a requirement that all new light-duty sales be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) starting in 2035. But representatives of petroleum refiners, new car dealers and some labor groups argued during a Jan. 10 public hearing against issuing the waiver for several...

Biofuels Groups Seek Rehearing Of Key Venue Ruling In RFS Waivers Case

Biofuels groups are seeking rehearing of a key ruling that vacated EPA’s disapproval of small Gulf Coast refiners’ waivers from renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance mandates, in a suit with significant ramifications for agency efforts to steer lawsuits over “nationally applicable” issues to the District of Columbia Circuit, and not regional courts. Growth Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) Jan. 8 filed four separate petitions with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit seeking both panel and...

Schumer Withdraws Motion For Floor Vote On Goffman For EPA Air Post

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has withdrawn a cloture motion filed in December in preparation for a possible Senate vote on the nomination of Joe Goffman to be EPA air office assistant administrator, in what appears to signal continued deadlock on the long-pending pick. The Jan. 10 move raises the possibility that the top slot in EPA’s air office could remain vacant, even as Goffman’s status as principal deputy assistant administrator has still allowed him to play a central...

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