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.

California Fights Industry Bid To Quickly Block Landmark Warehouse Rule

Attorneys representing the state of California, South Coast air district and environmentalists are opposing motions by the trucking and airline industries seeking to block the district’s landmark warehouse “indirect source rule” (ISR) that requires operators to limit pollution from the facilities. In a recently filed consolidated opposition brief , California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and attorneys representing the South Coast air district argued that the industry groups have not been able to prove their claims that the rule is...

Parties Debate If New CARB GHG Plan Moots Challenge To 2017 Version

Parties in a long-pending lawsuit challenging the California air board’s 2017 greenhouse gas “scoping plan” are preparing additional briefs about whether the case is now moot because the board in December adopted a 2022 update to the plan, which could affect a hearing on the merits of the case currently scheduled for March 2. “There are some exceptions to the mootness doctrine for issues of public interest -- there’s a number of arguments we may raise,” says an attorney representing...

EPA’s Counsel Adds To EJ Legal Tools To Address Cumulative Impacts

EPA’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) has released a long-awaited document providing the first-ever collection of examples of environmental and other legal authorities that regulators can use to identify and address cumulative impacts in permitting, regulatory and grant-funding decisions. The Jan. 11 addendum supplements the agency’s high-profile “Legal Tools To Advance Environmental Justice,” which was released last spring, and is another key step toward including consideration of cumulative impacts on overburdened communities in decision making. The document addresses cumulative impacts...

OECA Plans New Enforcement Priorities, Drops Defeat Device, HAP Focus

EPA’s enforcement office is proposing new priorities for fiscal years 2024-2027 focusing on climate mitigation and addressing PFAS contamination, while also planning to drop older initiatives aimed at stopping after-market defeat devices and reducing hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from waste facilities. In a notice slated for publication in the Federal Register Jan. 12, EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) also asks for comment on whether to launch new initiatives aimed at addressing coal ash and lead contamination...

Oil Sector Complains NEPA Climate Guide Unfairly Aids Renewable Energy

Oil and gas sector groups are criticizing just-released White House guidance for how agencies should address climate change issues in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews and are urging Congress to “correct” the measure because it unfairly disadvantages oil and gas projects compared with renewable energy. American Petroleum Institute (API) CEO Mike Sommers told reporters during the group’s annual “State of American Energy” event Jan. 11 that he is “very concerned” about the Jan. 9 guidance, arguing it would expand...

New RFS Battle Lines Emerge In Fights Over Proposed ‘Set’ Rule’s ‘eRINs’

EPA’s proposal to grant first-time compliance credits for electricity used in transportation under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) is drawing new battle lines in the contentious program, setting up novel divisions and unusual alliances over which entities should win the credits, and whether EPA should award them in the first place. At the first day of a two-day public hearing on the proposed RFS ‘set’ rule Jan. 10, groups including refiners, biofuels advocates, automakers, fuel retailers and environmentalists staked out...

Environmentalists Urge Steps To Further Strengthen EPA’s Methane Rule

Environmentalists are urging EPA to further strengthen its proposed oil and gas methane standards with provisions to further limit gas flaring, clamp down on emissions from storage tanks, and create a “clear pathway” for groups to participate in the agency’s proposed third-party monitoring of “super-emitters.” The advocates are also rebutting calls by industry and some other groups to extend the Feb. 13 comment deadline on the plan, arguing EPA must issue a final rule by this August. “We need to...

EPA’s Civil Rights Probe Of Colorado Air Permits Could Set Precedent

EPA’s recently announced civil rights inquiry to determine whether Colorado operates two key air permitting programs in a nondiscriminatory manner could set a strong precedent for how the agency reviews at least 10 other state programs given Colorado’s support for the inquiry and its work to strengthen its civil rights and environmental justice efforts, sources say. This is an “opportunity to raise the bar and to work with a cooperative state and hopefully set the stage for broader accountability” from...

Despite Burden, California Backs EPA’s PM Plan But Seeks Tougher Rules

Despite the daunting compliance challenge California is expected to face from EPA’s plan to strengthen fine particle (PM2.5) limits, state officials are welcoming the agency’s proposal and even asking for stronger standards, though they are also pressing for stronger state and federal controls on mobile sources such as trucks and ships. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) in a Jan. 6 statement says EPA should consider going even further than Administrator Michael Regan has proposed so far, by tightening the...

EPA halts Permian Basin ozone nonattainment finding

EPA has halted a planned ozone “nonattainment” designation for major oil and gas-producing areas in the Permian Basin region of western Texas, a move that would have required new pollution controls, pleasing industry groups but angering environmentalists who blame drilling-related emissions for locally high ozone levels. EPA omitted the previously planned designation from its recently-updated Unified Agenda of regulations because the nonattainment designation is no longer considered an “active” rulemaking, according to Bloomberg . “If EPA decides to advance...

Environmentalists Win Novel Permit Deal After Georgia Rejects Rights Fears

Environmentalists and a wood pellet company have inked a novel settlement requiring protective conditions in an air permit issued by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) after the state declined to impose such conditions to address potential adverse discriminatory effects of the facility to be located in a majority-minority area. While the environmentalists have subsequently filed a civil rights petition with EPA alleging the state is violating the rights law, the fact that they reached a direct settlement without the...

EPA Weighs Changes To Drum Reconditioners’ RCRA Waiver After Damages

EPA is launching a new rulemaking to consider possible changes to its waste rules for scores of drum reconditioning facilities after a recent agency report found that millions of gallons of hazardous waste residue in the drums resulted in extensive “damage” but were not regulated under an exemption for “empty” containers. Should the agency end the industry’s exemption from Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements for hazardous waste residues, it could also result in strict new air rules for...

ICCT Flags Fuel-Saving Steps Ahead Of EPA’s ‘Phase 3’ Truck GHG Rule

As EPA gears up to issue new greenhouse gas rules for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, a clean transportation group is touting significant fuel efficiency improvements achievable in internal combustion vehicles even as the group also encourages a “fast transition” to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). “There remains significant potential to improve the efficiency and GHG emissions performance of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) beyond 2027, and this potential should also be considered when setting the stringency of the [phase 3] standards,” the...

OMB reviewing mercury air rule ‘appropriate’ finding

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is now reviewing the Biden EPA’s final determination reinstating the Obama-era finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” (A&N) to regulate air toxics from power plants under the Clean Air Act, as the agency seeks to shore-up its mercury and air toxics rule (MATS) for the sector. EPA sent the final version for review Dec. 29, according to OMB’s website. OMB review typically takes up to 90 days, but can be...

California Faces Heaviest Burden Attaining EPA’s Tighter PM NAAQS

EPA’s proposal to toughen national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) would likely pose the heaviest compliance burden on California and a few hot spots in the Mountain West, which would struggle to attain the standards, with most of the rest of the country already meeting the new limits, according to EPA’s analysis. EPA’s Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) released alongside the agency’s Jan. 6 proposed rule shows that under several regulatory scenarios analyzed, California is likely...

CEQ Issues ‘Interim’ NEPA Climate Guide Without GHG Significance Level

The White House has released “interim” guidance for how agencies should assess climate change effects in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, requiring reviews of projects’ direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and the use the social cost of carbon (SCC) while declining to set a GHG “significance” threshold to determine the rigor of reviews. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released the guidance Jan. 6 ahead of publication in the Jan. 9 Federal Register , when it takes immediate...


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