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.

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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 Guide Aims To Help States Craft Haze Reports, Amid Fresh Plan Denials

EPA last month quietly issued guidance aimed at helping states craft mandatory reports on their progress toward reducing regional haze, even as the agency continues to disapprove more states’ haze plans as it struggles to implement the program’s delayed second phase, and eyes an easier and further delayed path for a third phase. In a July guidance document , EPA sets out to clarify requirements for states’ mandatory mid-term progress reports on meeting their haze reduction targets, which are required...

States, Industry Amplify Calls For High Court Review Of California Waiver

Several Republican-led states, industry and conservative groups are joining calls for the Supreme Court to overturn EPA’s federal preemption waiver for California’s model year 2017-2025 vehicle greenhouse gas standards, after an appellate court rejected a legal challenge spearheaded by states and liquid fuels groups. The amicus filings filed this week at the high court seek to overturn the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s April 9 ruling in State of Ohio et al. v. EPA that...

Sierra Club Fights Texas’ Deference Claim On EPA’s ‘Contingency’ Measures

Sierra Club is fighting Texas’ use of recent Supreme Court precedent to attack EPA’s interpretation of permissible “contingency measures” (CMs) to meet federal air limits, saying the state’s argument contradicts earlier statements and is precluded, but industry says the high court’s ruling curbing agency deference “cements the illegality” of EPA’s view. At issue in State of Texas v. EPA , pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, under...

EPA Faces High-Profile Test Over Challenging Denka Deadline Extension

EPA is facing a high-profile test over whether it should appeal a landmark ruling staying the compliance deadline the agency set for Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) to meet strict new chloroprene emission limits or let stand a potentially precedential ruling that the agency has argued falls outside of the court’s jurisdiction. At issue is the unpublished July 31 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that granted an emergency stay of the agency’s 90-day deadline for...

New EPA Criteria Seek To Help Standardize ‘Clean’ Steel, Concrete Claims

EPA is releasing new criteria to implement its construction product “labeling” program that seeks to help federal purchasers and others identify and buy low-carbon products such as steel and concrete, a move that Biden officials hope will spur a broader uptake of such products. “By clearly labeling what ‘buy clean’ means for products like concrete, glass and steel, EPA will help accelerate demand for these materials and continue to build the clean energy economy,” EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office...

EPA, Environmentalists Agree To 2028 Deadline For Next NOx NAAQS Review

EPA and environmentalists have reached an agreement that will require the agency to take final action to update its years-old nitrogen oxides (NOx) national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) by Nov. 10, 2028, with a series of earlier deadlines for lead-up action. In a notice slated for publication in the Aug. 8 Federal Register , EPA says the proposed decree would also require the agency to issue a final Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) -- containing air quality criteria and the...

EPA Publishes TSCA 1-BP Rule, Reopening Fight Over Fenceline Measures

EPA is formally publishing its proposed TSCA risk-management rule for 1-bromopropane (1-BP), opening a window for comments on its planned limits on workplace uses of the solvent as well as its decision not to seek cuts to facilities’ emissions after officials were “unable to determine” whether such releases pose risk to fenceline communities. The 1-BP proposal will appear in the Aug. 8 Federal Register , beginning a 45-day public comment period that will close on Sept. 22. EPA first announced...

Group Cites Justices’ Standing Ruling In Bid To Preserve Enforcement Suit

A Utah-based environmental group is citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision addressing third-party standing in an anti-abortion case in a bid to convince a federal court to reinstate dismissed portions of its wide-ranging citizen suit against local Harley-Davidson dealers. In a filing last month, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE) urged a federal district court in the Beehive State to reinstate dismissed portions of its citizen suit against the dealers, citing the high court’s June 13 ruling in Food...

D.C. Circuit Denies Requests To Stay MATS Update Pending Court Review

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is rejecting calls from Republican states and coal-sector groups to stay EPA’s revised Mercury & Air Toxics (MATS) rule for power plants, the fourth time the court has rejected such a request since the Supreme Court stayed EPA’s interstate ozone rule late last month. In an Aug. 6 order , in litigation known as State of North Dakota, et al. v. EPA, et al. , a three-judge panel concluded...

EPA Seeks Partial Remand Of GNP To Respond To Supreme Court Stay

EPA is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to grant a voluntary partial remand of its multi-state ozone-transport Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) so that it can address the issue of how the rule is “severable” if it is not in effect in all 23 states to which it applies, a major deficiency identified by the Supreme Court when it stayed the rule. EPA details its request in an Aug. 5 motion in State of Utah, et...

Groups Clash Over CARB Options For Tightening GHG Cap & Trade Program

Environmentalists and industry groups are clashing over how California’s air board should tighten greenhouse gas emission-allowance allocations through 2030 and beyond under the state’s cap-and-trade program, with the industries preferring a smoother, longer phasedown rather than sharper cuts early in the period that the environmentalists favor. For example, the California Council for Environmental & Economic Balance (CCEEB), a group whose members include companies in the agriculture, aerospace, energy, entertainment, utility and railroad sectors, as well as a variety of labor...

SCAQMD Defends Legality Of Newly Adopted Railyard Indirect Source Rule

South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) officials are defending their newly adopted “indirect source rule” (ISR) to reduce pollution caused by freight railyards, pushing back on charges from the industry that the rule is preempted by the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) and Clean Air Act (CAA). “The rule does not target rail operations but is part of a suite of measures affecting goods movement sources which jointly can be considered a rule of general applicability,” writes...


EPA Eases Controversial Cancer Risk Factor In Final IRIS Cr6 Assessment

After more than a decade of development, EPA has finalized a new Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of hexavalent chromium (Cr6) that is expected to spur new drinking water rules for the ubiquitous contaminant -- but with a more lenient cancer risk estimate than its drafts, potentially easing any regulatory limits. The final IRIS assessment , which EPA’s research office released late on Aug. 1, marks the culmination of a years-long effort to re-evaluate risks posed by Cr6 in...

SACC Issues Split Review Of Draft TSCA Formaldehyde Risk Evaluation

EPA’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) has published a divided -- and often critical -- review of the draft TSCA evaluation of formaldehyde that calls for some significant changes to its risk calculations while stressing that the several agency offices reviewing the ubiquitous chemical should be working in concert. The final SACC peer review report for the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) formaldehyde evaluation was posted to EPA’s website on Aug. 2, less than three months after the panel...

Environmentalists Begin Applying Loper Bright Against Agencies’ Suits

Despite their public criticisms of the decision, environmentalists are beginning to cite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning the longstanding Chevron deference doctrine, arguing that EPA and other agencies should not be entitled to deference in cases addressing clean water permits, air quality compliance and others. But EPA is pushing back, arguing in some cases that while it may not be entitled to deference, its approaches are “the best” interpretations and courts should therefore support them. At issue is...

Court Stays Air Toxics Deadline As It Weighs Denka’s Novel Extension Bid

Over EPA’s objections, a federal appellate court has granted a request from Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE) for an emergency stay of the agency’s 90-day deadline for the company to meet strict new chloroprene emission limits at its neoprene plant while it weighs a novel two-year deadline extension granted by Louisiana. In a July 31 unpublished order , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit unanimously granted the company’s request to stay the 90-day compliance...

Automakers Oppose CARB Plan For ICE-Only Fleet Average In GHG Rules

Auto industry groups and individual auto manufacturers are opposing the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) plan to strengthen light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas standards by creating an internal combustion engine (ICE)-only fleet average starting in model year 2030, while urging the board to better align its standards with EPA’s national rules. “We encourage CARB to focus on total fleet averages -- which is all that matters to address climate change from vehicle emissions -- rather than regulating internal combustion products in...

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