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.

Ruling Could Enable EPA To Retain ‘Defenses’ In Multiple Air Toxics Rules

The recent D.C. Circuit ruling upholding “affirmative defenses” for plant malfunctions from civil liability in Clean Air Act (CAA) Title V permits may enable the agency to reverse or modify its practice of removing such measures from multiple air toxics regulations, sources say. In its Sept. 5 ruling in SSM Litigation Group v. EPA, et al. , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a Biden-era rule that required the removal...

EPA said to plan partial RFS volume ‘reallocation’

EPA is reportedly considering only a partial reallocation of previously waived renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending obligations from small, exempt refiners to larger, non-exempt plants, a move that if finalized would likely antagonize biofuel groups seeking to ensure all waived volumes are reallocated. According to a Sept. 10 report by Reuters citing anonymous sources, EPA may only reallocate half of the waived volume for 2023, 2024 and beyond, under a supplemental proposal that will flesh out how EPA...

Backers Acknowledge Chemical Recycling Technology Needs Improvement

In a rare public debate with environmentalists, supporters of controversial chemical recycling processes conceded the most prominent of the technologies -- which the plastics industry has touted as a solution to the growing plastic pollution crisis -- must be improved to become more viable for large-scale recycling. In an Aug. 27 webinar held by the Environmental Law Institute, titled “Chemical Recycling: More Pollution? Or a Sustainability Solution for Plastic?”, chemical industry representatives and pro-chemical recycling researchers expressed optimism that the...

Disbanded DOE Climate Group Poses New Challenges For EPA, Critics Say

Trump administration critics say EPA appears to face a new challenge in addressing criticism of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) report downplaying climate risks -- after DOE disbanded the working group that developed it -- underscoring the possibility EPA could de-emphasize science arguments in a final rule to undo its climate risk finding. It appears that Energy Secretary Chris Wright “is leaving [EPA Administrator] Lee Zeldin holding the bag,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior attorney David Doniger tells Inside...

GOP Senators Push Bill To Ease EPA ‘Events’ Waivers For Prescribed Burns

Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) are pushing a draft bill to enable “prescribed” burning of forests to more easily qualify for Clean Air Act “exceptional events” waivers, a measure that Democrats say they may be able to back if supporters fix certain “loopholes” in the current draft. During a Sept. 10 EPW legislative hearing, Republican senators strongly supported the “Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act,” (WEPA), a draft measure that would allow state air regulators to...

EPA Moves To Ease NSR Permitting With New ‘Construction’ Definition

EPA is moving forward to ease new source review (NSR) preconstruction permitting, agreeing with Arizona air officials’ decision that a semiconductor manufacturer does not need a permit to build initial stages of a planned facility, under a narrower definition of “begin actual construction” that appears likely to form the basis for a regulation next year. For now, the agency is implementing the policy on a case-by-case basis, starting with its approval of a semi-conductor facility in Maricopa County, AZ. But...

DOJ Urges Court To Reject DTE’s NSR Appeal To 6th Circuit Ahead Of Trial

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of EPA is strongly urging a federal court to reject Michigan utility DTE’s request to certify a potentially precedent-setting interlocutory appeal over a Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) liability determination against its subsidiary EES Coke ahead of a planned Sept. 15 NSR trial against the utility. In a Sept 5 filing in United States v. EES Coke Battery, et al. , DOJ urged Judge Gershwin Drain in the U.S. District Court...

Climate Policy Fades From ECOS’ Agenda Despite Continuing Priority

SANTA FE, NM -- Climate policy appears to have faded as a headline discussion item from state environmental regulators’ agenda in the face of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to shrink climate-related rules and eliminate grants, even though some states continue to identify the issue as a priority. “With respect to grants, work plans, we’ve all had to remove certain words from our documents we provide, and ‘climate’ has been one of those words,” said James Kenney, New Mexico’s environment...

Environmentalists’ Suit Tests EPA’s New Haze Policy Easing State Approvals

Environmental groups are suing over the Trump EPA’s new national policy that allows the agency to more easily approve states’ plans for curbing regional haze, targeting the agency’s approval of West Virginia’s plan that relies on a non-statutory metric in a way that environmentalists claim unlawfully overrides Clean Air Act requirements. National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice in their Sept. 4 suit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit challenge the agency’s July 7...

Court stays EPA rule downgrading Wisconsin’s ozone status

A federal appeals court has granted Wisconsin’s motion to stay a Biden-era EPA rule that downgraded the ozone “nonattainment” status of three areas of the state from “moderate” to “serious,” indicating a good chance of success on the merits of the case and adding to similar stays imposed over the reclassification of areas in other states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in a Sept. 5 order without explanation stayed EPA’s Dec. 17 final rule finding that...

DOE Dissolves Climate Skeptic Group, Spurring Doubts Over Report’s Fate

The Energy Department’s (DOE) decision to dissolve a working group that developed its controversial report questioning mainstream climate science is raising questions about the report’s fate, and its role in supporting EPA’s planned repeal of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding, amid heavy criticism from the scientific community. Even so, the report’s authors and administration officials are pledging to respond to such critiques, while arguing that environmentalists erred in advancing a lawsuit alleging procedural flaws with the working group. According to...

D.C. Circuit Revives EPA Emergency ‘Affirmative Defense’ Pollution Rule

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit has reinstated EPA’s 30-year-old policy that had provided industry with an affirmative defense against enforcement actions in the event of an unavoidable emergency, finding that the Biden-era measure that sought to rescind the policy was arbitrary and capricious. “EPA rescinded a [30]-year-old affirmative defense on the ground that it was unlawful under the Clean Air Act,” the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in the Sept...

EPA sends RFS ‘reallocation’ rule for OMB review

EPA has sent its supplemental proposed rule on “reallocation” of waived renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending volumes for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, as the agency works to finalize RFS volume obligations for refiners and associated waiver-related decisions by the end of the year. The agency sent the proposal for OMB review August 29, according to OMB’s website. OMB review typically takes up to 90 days, but can be faster or slower, according to the...

EPA Moves To Disband Longstanding Clean Air Act Advisory Committee

EPA is moving to disband its Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC) that has provided advice on implementing the statute for over three decades, citing the move as a result of a broader review of the agency’s advisory panels as well as “efficiency and cost saving” considerations. The agency notified the three dozen members of the panel, established in 1990 to provide independent advice on issues associated with implementation of the 1990 air act amendments, in a Sept. 4 email...

D.C. Circuit Delays PM2.5 NAAQS Lawsuit, Buying EPA More Time For Repeal

The D.C. Circuit has granted EPA’s request for a further 45-day pause in litigation over the agency’s tougher 2024 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), buying more time for EPA to issue its proposal to scrap the Biden rule. In a Sept. 4 order in the consolidated suit Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit grants EPA’s abeyance request, over the...

EPA Outlines Broad Slate Of Air Rules To Scrap, Replace Biden Measures

EPA is outlining an ambitious slate of upcoming rulemakings to quickly scrap and replace Biden-era air rules that now includes an imminent rollback of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards, a two-step plan to replace stayed interstate ozone regulations and moves to ease air permitting, as well as a host of air toxics rule rollbacks. The newly released Unified Agenda of upcoming rulemakings released Sept. 4 indicates that the reconsideration of the tougher Biden PM2.5 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS)...

EPA Reg Agenda Sets Ambitious Goals For Rolling Back Climate Rules

The latest federal regulatory agenda is underscoring EPA’s plans to quickly adopt rules that scale back or entirely scuttle numerous climate programs, including the agency’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG rules that the new agenda suggests could be finalized well before the end of the year. The Spring agenda, delayed for months as the Trump administration developed its priorities, sets a goal of finalizing the agency’s high-profile GHG endangerment finding repeal and vehicle GHG rules by September...

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