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.

Judge Raises Concern Over EPA’s Termination Of $20 Billion GHGRF Grants

A major grant recipient of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF) is urging a federal court to require the agency to disburse funding under its award, and the judge hearing the case appears sympathetic to its request, even as EPA lawyers are arguing the litigation is moot after officials terminated $20 billion in awards for multiple groups. “There are still rules that even the government has to follow, last I checked, and the government can’t just . . . terminate...

NASEM Slams Texas’ EtO Assessment, Complicating EPA Rule Rollbacks

A long-anticipated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is strongly criticizing Texas’ alternative assessment of health risks posed by the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO) that found risks far lower than EPA’s own evaluation, in a development likely to complicate potential rollbacks of agency rules. “The report finds that the lack of application of systematic review methods, the exclusion of critical epidemiological data, the limitations in the modeling approach and use of unpublished validation data all...

After Freezing Funds, Trump EPA Cancels ‘Green Bank’ Grant Agreements

EPA has canceled grant agreements for recipients of most of the agency’s multi-billion dollar Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF), following weeks of Trump EPA criticisms of the program and pressure on a private bank to freeze GHGRF accounts that it was managing on behalf of the agency. In a March 11 press release , the agency says it has “identified material deficiencies which pose an unacceptable risk to the lawful execution of these grants.” The release adds that canceling the...

EPA Seeks GNP Remand To Rethink States, Industries Included In Rule

EPA is seeking a voluntary remand of its Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule, so it can rethink key issues including which states and industries are covered, and how the agency defines “significant contribution” of states to their neighbor’s ozone pollution, in a move that would avoid a tricky defense of the measure in court next month. The agency says in a March 10 motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in...

Sierra Club sues EPA over perc dry cleaners air rule

Sierra Club is suing EPA over its Biden-era review of air toxics standards for dry cleaners using perchloroethylene (PCE, or perc), in which the agency opted to retain existing limits because its phaseout of perc under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is tougher, though the TSCA rule faces a possible reversal in the courts. In its suit filed March 7 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sierra Club does not list reasons for...

Lawsuits Targeting California ZEV Rule Waiver Add To Air Act Venue Fights

Lawsuits challenging the Biden EPA’s preemption waiver for California’s latest zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales requirements are highlighting a third policy area -- beyond interstate ozone controls and renewable fuels requirements -- in which EPA and other parties are grappling with the proper venue for challenges to various Clean Air Act policies. Multiple oil-sector groups, including American Petroleum Institute (API) and a coalition led by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), last week filed 11th-hour legal challenges over the ZEV...

EPA Eyes April For Multi-Year RFS Volume Plan, Delays 2024 Compliance

EPA is aiming to propose new biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) in April or May that would aim to set volumes for 2026 and likely one or two more years, biofuels industry sources say, even as officials are delaying compliance for the 2024 implementation year to account for an expected revision of those requirements. By law, EPA should have finalized RFS volumes by last November, but it has yet to even propose them, as the politically...

Motion To Dismiss

March 7 Final Rule


DOJ, GOP praise EPA for dropping ‘radical’ Denka suit

Trump administration officials, GOP lawmakers and others are praising EPA’s decision to drop a novel air enforcement suit against Louisiana chemical manufacturer Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), the country’s sole producer of the synthetic rubber component neoprene, hailing the development as a win against “radical” Biden-era policies. EPA last week moved to dismiss the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, in United States of America v. Denka Performance Elastomer LLC et al . EPA brought...

Push For Year-Round E15 Faces Uncertainty Amid Broader Budget Battle

A legislative push by biofuels supporters and some oil sector groups to authorize year-round 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) is facing renewed uncertainty as prospects for the measure to pass as part of a stopgap spending measure fade, scotching hopes of a quick passage through Congress and sending supporters looking for other legislative vehicles. Backers of bipartisan, bicameral bills seeking year-round E15 had earlier pinned their hopes on attaching the legislation to a larger, must-pass bill, such as a continuing...

EPA Plan To Scuttle GHG Finding Could End Preemption Of State Auto Rules

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s reported call to scrap the agency’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding is prompting warnings that such a move could free California or other states from needing federal preemption waivers for vehicle GHG standards, according to sources tracking the issue. At a minimum, the scenario highlights additional uncertainty and potential unintended consequences for industry -- beyond a revival of federal climate nuisance cases that waned due to EPA’s regulatory authority -- from a move the Trump administration would...

10th Circuit Says ‘Reasonable Progress’ Need Not Ensure NAAQS Attainment

The 10th Circuit is rejecting environmentalists’ challenge to EPA’s approval of Colorado’s plan to meet federal ozone standards, finding that “reasonable progress” requirements in such plans need not guarantee attainment of the federal limits, in a decision that could delay imposition of strict air requirements in other states. In its March 4 ruling in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and 350 Colorado v. EPA , a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit finds...

NASEM Poised To Release Report On Texas’ Alternative EtO Assessment

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is poised to release a keenly anticipated report on Texas officials’ assessment of ethylene oxide (EtO) health risks, amid litigation over stringent EPA air rules that rely on a more-conservative 2016 EPA risk evaluation that GOP lawmakers and industry strongly oppose. NASEM says it plans to release its report about the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) alternative assessment of EtO on March 12. TCEQ’s evaluation finds cancer risks from EtO...

EPA Inks Deal With Rubber Maker To Dismiss Novel Air Enforcement Suit

EPA is moving to dismiss a landmark Biden-era Clean Air Act enforcement suit against synthetic rubber manufacturer Denka Performance Elastomer (DPE), a case that relied on rarely used authority to try and force reductions from the firm’s Louisiana plant that it claimed posed an urgent threat to nearby environmental justice (EJ) communities. “EPA and DPE reached an agreement for EPA to dismiss the agency’s ‘imminent and substantial endangerment’ case against our company, marking a long-overdue and appropriate end to a...

GAO Says EPA's California Vehicle Program Approvals Not Subject To CRA

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is informing Congress of its legal opinion that three recent Biden EPA federal preemption waivers for California vehicle emissions programs are not “rules” subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA) as the Trump EPA claims, a move that could block pending calls to repeal them using that law. GAO’s March 6 letter also raises procedural questions about how the Trump EPA attempted to notify Congress about two of the three waivers, suggesting this could further...

CBD threatens suit over EPA failure to ‘bump up’ ozone nonattainment

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is threatening EPA with a lawsuit over the agency’s alleged failure to determine whether parts of the country now in “moderate” nonattainment with federal ozone standards met the limits on time, and to “bump up” those that failed to attain to a more severe “nonattainment” status. In a Feb. 4 letter to the agency, recently posted to EPA’s website, CBD and the Center for Environmental Health give 60 days’ notice of their intent to...

CRA Repeal Of Tires Rule Raises Doubts Over Other Air Toxics Regulations

A Republican push to rescind an EPA air toxics rule for rubber tire production is raising questions about the fate of other air rules that rely on Biden-era legal interpretations, amid uncertainty over the reach of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) bar on agencies’ abilities to adopt rules that are “substantially the same” as disapproved rules. In the case of the tire rule, sources say that because EPA was using the tire rule to regulate previously unregulated hazardous air pollutants...

Trump EPA Picks Suggest Agency May Downplay Benefits Of U.S. GHG Cuts

Nominees for two top EPA posts are suggesting that an expected agency reconsideration of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding could rely heavily on downplaying the benefits of domestic GHG controls given global emissions, even as the viability of any bid to reopen the finding in the courts and public opinion remains highly uncertain. These suggestions, outlined during a March 5 Senate environment panel nomination hearing, come amid continuing public warnings from environmentalists and industry that scuttling EPA’s 2009 GHG risk...

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