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.

Kentucky Says EPA ‘Moved Goal Posts’ In Disapproving Interstate Air Plan

Kentucky is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to vacate EPA’s disapproval of its interstate ozone plan, marking another appellate court to hear merits arguments from states seeking to permanently block the agency from imposing federal ‘Good Neighbor’ requirements to limit states’ emissions. In its Oct. 10 opening merits brief in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. EPA , Kentucky charges that EPA without explanation changed its basis for approving such plans and wrongly relied on air quality...

TCEQ Seeks NAS Review Of EtO Assessment, In Challenge To IRIS Values

At the request of Texas’ regulators, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is launching a panel to review the state’s risk assessment of ethylene oxide (EtO), a review that could challenge EPA’s conservative assessment, which serves as the basis for several major air rules, including the controversial plan to regulate sterilizer emissions. NASEM Oct. 10 announced that it is seeking to solicit nominations for experts to review the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) 2020 EtO Carcinogenic...

House GOP Pushes To Ensure EPA Works With FDA On EtO Sterilizer Plan

Key House Republicans are urging the White House to ensure that EPA coordinates with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as officials craft a set of rules for ethylene oxide (EtO) at sterilization facilities, arguing the agency did not consider FDA supply chain data before proposing the rule, opening the door to medical device shortages. In a Sept. 28 letter to Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council (NEC), and Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy...

EPA taps new SAB chair, members

EPA Administrator Micheal Regan has appointed a Howard University engineering professor as the next chair of the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), as well as several new members to critical advisory positions on the board, its subcommittees and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). EPA announced Oct. 10 that Regan has tapped Kimberly Jones, associate provost for faculty affairs and an environmental engineering professor at Howard University, an historically black college or university (HBCU) in Washington, D.C., as the...

EJ Groups Doubt Railyard MOU Will Allow SCAQMD To Force Pollution Cuts

Environmental and equity groups are raising concerns that a proposed memorandum of understanding (MOU) the Los Angeles regional air district is preparing to negotiate with the rail sector to cut pollution at railyards faces significant enforcement challenges and forfeits maximum emission reductions that could be achieved through an indirect source rule (ISR). “Any policy must have enforcement mechanisms built into it. Merely taking the railroads to court for noncompliance with the MOU is not sufficient, nor will it deliver timely...

States Ask Appeals Court To Restart Case Over Trump Ozone Standards

New York and more than a dozen states, together with New York City and Washington, D.C., are asking a federal appeals court to restart their case seeking to overturn the Trump EPA’s 2020 rule retaining Obama-era national ozone limits, after EPA decided to drop its reconsideration of the rule in favor of a new and time-consuming statutory review of the standards. In their joint Oct. 6 motion filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,...

EPA Floats Tougher Air Rule For Gas Distributors Amid Competing Pressures

EPA is moving closer to unveiling its final rule toughening emissions standards for nearly 10,000 bulk gasoline distribution facilities amid competing pressures from industry groups, lawmakers and others who have warned that the rule’s compliance costs are a possible cause of fuel price inflation while environmentalists are pushing to toughen the rule’s standards. EPA sent the rule for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review Oct. 5, a process that typically takes up to 90 days, but can...

EPA’s New Use-Limits, Management Plans Boost Broader HFC Phasedown

EPA is advancing two additional rules to restrict climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), including a final rule speeding a shift to less-damaging alternatives in a suite of specific end uses, as well as proposed mandates to limit HFC leaks in appliances and encourage reclamation and reuse of the chemicals. “This final rule supports our transition away from HFCs and positions our nation to be competitive on the global stage, while the proposed emissions reduction and reclamation program will help ensure we achieve...

Final Rule Setting HFC End-Use Restrictions

Fact Sheet On End-Use Restrictions

Proposed HFC Management Rule

Fact Sheet On HFC Management Rule


Environmentalists Petition EPA To Set NO2, SO2 NAAQS’ ‘Increments’

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and allied groups are petitioning EPA to set “increments,” the maximum allowable increases in pollution, for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) under the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for those pollutants, years after the group claims EPA should have done so. In their Oct. 4 petition for rulemaking, CBD, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Sierra Club say that EPA must establish the required increments with respect to EPA’s 1-hour...

EPA Faces Major Decisions On Air Toxics Program Amid Broad Rule Agenda

EPA is working through a series of broad policy issues in its air toxics program, including requirements for re-classified sources, newly listed pollutants and others, even as officials face pressure to meet court deadlines to complete emissions rules for a host of sectors, which are keenly sought by environmentalists worried about dangerous pollution. In one recent major change, EPA unveiled a proposal Sept. 22 that generally retains a Trump-era policy that allows “major” sources of air toxics to limit their...

EPA agrees to deadlines for secondary lead smelters air review

EPA has reached a proposed deal with environmental groups setting deadlines for the agency to review and if necessary strengthen its air toxics regulations governing secondary lead smelters, in a bid to settle litigation brought by the groups to force a review that was due in 2020. In an Oct. 4 Federal Register notice , EPA opens public comment through November 3 on the proposed consent decree negotiated with environmentalists. The deal would require EPA to issue a proposed...

To Prevent Tougher Air Toxics Rule, Steel Sector Questions Fundamentals

Seeking to forestall EPA’s proposal to strengthen air toxics standards for integrated steel manufacturers, the industry is challenging the agency’s longtime understanding of key tenets of the air toxics program, such as whether actual or potential emissions may be counted toward minimum performance standards, and when EPA must consider costs. In Sept. 29 joint comments , the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and U.S. Steel Corp. criticize EPA’s proposed revision of air toxics standards for integrated iron and steel...

EPA Urged To Tighten GHG Reporting For Sale Of Oil & Gas Facilities

Environmental groups are pressing EPA to strengthen proposed updates to oil and gas methane reporting mandates concerning facility ownership changes, to ensure that methane emissions do not escape reporting requirements as companies look to limit their obligations under an upcoming statutory methane fee. This call, however, comes as oil and gas groups are pressing the agency to minimize reporting burdens on new owners of facilities for emissions that occurred prior to an ownership change. The dueling views highlight the economic...

DOD, California Air District Clash With EPA Over NSR Air Plan Disapproval

EPA is facing a lawsuit from a California air district and a major defense contractor over the agency’s disapproval of the district’s air quality plan, warning EPA that its action could stymie sensitive projects important to national security -- an issue that the Defense Department (DOD) has also raised. In a lawsuit filed July 28 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Antelope Valley Air Quality Management (AVAQMD) District is suing EPA to overturn the agency’s July...

Sierra Club sues EPA over 13 states’ missing ozone plans

Weeks after EPA shelved plans to toughen its federal ozone limits, Sierra Club is suing over the agency’s failure to find that 13 states have not supplied required state implementation plan (SIP) modifications for attaining current limits, a step the agency is required to take that triggers a two-year clock to impose its own plans instead. In its suit filed Sept. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Sierra Club says EPA neglected to issue the...

EPA Proposes Tighter VOC Limits For Thousands Of Fuel Storage Tanks

EPA is proposing to tighten limits for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from more than 9,000 tanks storing petroleum and other organic liquids, in a plan that revises limits for new, reconstructed and modified tanks, and includes additional monitoring, maintenance, and startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) provisions. In the proposal scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Oct. 4, EPA is proposing to modify the new source performance standards (NSPS) for the sector. The plan introduces new vapor pressure...

Industry Groups Sue EPA Over Partial Stay Of Good Neighbor Air Rule

Power, pulp and paper, natural gas, mining and other industry groups are suing EPA over the agency’s July 31 rule partially staying the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone regulation, in litigation that will likely press for a stay of the entire GNP pending resolution of numerous lawsuits. In a series of suits recently filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that are now consolidated under National Mining Association (NMA) v. EPA , industry...

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