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.

EPA Gold MACT Targets Mercury

EPA has unveiled its proposal to set a first-time maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard for gold ore processing and production facilities, limiting the scope of the rule to cutting mercury emissions from the facilities -- the sixth largest source of mercury in the United States. The proposal to establish a national emissions standard for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for facilities that process gold mine ore would reduce mercury from these facilities by 73 percent from 2007 levels by setting...

Electronics Industry Urges EPA To Lift Suspension Of Energy Star Certifications

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has joined with major retailer organizations in urgently requesting that EPA reverse its decision to suspend online certification of Energy Star products while it addresses concerns about fraud and abuse of the program, a request that industry is also making to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House. The push is the latest development in a high-stakes controversy over the Energy Star program, including congressional charges of mismanagement, which could reshape federal policies...

Setback For GHG Rules

Environmentalists were dealt a legal blow in their efforts to force states to adopt greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations in the absence of a federal policy. A New Mexico judge on April 13 blocked the state’s Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) from considering regulating GHGs so the court can review a lawsuit brought by industry and state lawmakers challenging the board’s authority to issue regulations. Specifically, Judge William Shoobridge agreed with the plaintiffs that the board does not have the authority to...

EPA's Imminent Mining MACT

EPA is preparing to unveil its first-time proposed national emissions standard for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) from facilities that process gold mine ore. The NESHAP would establish a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard for the industry. An agency spokeswoman said EPA will meet its April 15 deadline -- established in a consent decree with environmentalists -- to sign the proposal, and will announce details of the proposed rule the following day. The gold mine MACT is one of a...

Fight Over EPA Refinery Emissions Plan Could Influence Risk Rule Review

Industry and environmentalists are sparring over whether EPA's draft method to estimate refineries' emissions overestimates or underestimates the volume of air toxics released, a dispute that could influence broader agency efforts to revise a Bush-era rule to address remaining risk from the sector's air pollution and improve the accuracy of air toxics reporting across multiple industries. Accurate information on the sector's emissions is important for the Obama EPA's reconsideration of a Bush-era rule to address the residual risk from emissions...

Suit Over EPA Plan For SO2 Cuts Could Hinder Authority To Limit Flares

Pending industry litigation over an EPA plan to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in Montana could hinder the agency's ability to mandate limits on flaring -- the combusting of excess emissions -- in other states because industry is challenging EPA's imposition of limits on flaring at four facilities, among other aspects of the plan. Briefing begins in June in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case Montana Sulphur & Chemical Company (MSCC) v. EPA . The suit...

Nixing NOx NAAQS

Refiners and utilities are challenging EPA's recently completed nitrogen dioxide (NO2) standard, filing April 12 petitions with EPA and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit while arguing the standard is unjustified and could lead to unreasonably stringent permit limits. The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG) say in their administrative petition for reconsideration that EPA should immediately stay and then reconsider the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for NO2, due to...

EPA Staff Split Over Best Method For Defining Multipollutant Air Regulation

Correction Appended EPA staff are split over the best method for defining a "multipollutant approach" to regulating emissions between one approach of focusing on emission sources and another that focuses on pollutant mixtures that produce adverse health outcomes, a crucial debate as EPA attempts to shift toward regulating emissions on a multipollutant basis. Regina McCarthy, head of EPA's Office of Air & Radiation (OAR), is a long-time proponent of multipollutant regulation, under which the agency develops rules that target several...

GHG BACT In 2010

EPA air office chief Regina McCarthy is promising a “reasoned process” to develop guidance for states on best available control technology (BACT) requirements for greenhouse gases by the end of this year. McCarthy made the remarks at an April 13 Johns Hopkins University forum on EPA’s climate change agenda in response to a reporter’s question about industry fears -- based on conversations with EPA staff -- that the upcoming guidance could require power plants to require fuel switching from coal...

EPA Air Advisers Cite Difficulties In Defending Tougher PM NAAQS

Key EPA air advisers say the agency may struggle to defend its upcoming proposal to tighten the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) because it would maintain the current process for measuring pollutants rather than targeting the most harmful types of air particles. But some advisers say the lack of so-called speciation data makes it difficult to determine which new "indicator" to adopt. Several members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's (CASAC) PM panel said...

Cement Industry Pushes EPA To Set MACT Based On Material 'Variability'

Correction Appended The cement industry is asking EPA to include raw material variability in its upcoming maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard to reduce air toxics from the sector, in recognition that mercury levels in limestone used to make cement can vary widely -- a controversial approach that is sure to draw opposition from environmentalists who have fought for years to force EPA to set a MACT for the sector requiring stringent mercury cuts. With EPA's final rule due in...

Industry Revives Bid For Controversial Compliance Option In Boiler MACT

A large industry coalition is asking EPA and the White House to revive a controversial risk-based compliance option in its upcoming maximum achievable control technology (MACT) proposal to cut air toxics from boilers, even though the Department of Justice (DOJ) has in the past indicated it no longer wants to defend the approach in court. Industry groups, including the petroleum, automaker and paper sectors, in recent meetings with EPA and White House officials are pushing for the risk-based "off-ramp" and...

Court Ruling Could Bolster Industry In Expanding 'Routine' NSR Exemption

A federal district court has broadened the test for when "routine" facility upgrades are exempted from triggering Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) pollution control requirements, bolstering long-standing industry arguments for how courts should define the term while posing a test for environmentalists opposed to the approach. Judge Thomas Varlan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled March 31 in National Parks Conservation, et al. v. TVA to broaden the test for when a...

California Asks Court To Dismiss Industry Challenge To Clean-Fuel Rule

California is asking a federal court to throw out two industry lawsuits against the state's low carbon fuel standard (LCFS), arguing that the Clean Air Act's waiver provision allowing the state to regulate cars and fuels blocks industry's claims that the standard is preempted by federal law and prohibited by Congress' authority to regulate commerce. "The LCFS is the most recent in a long line of federally permitted actions taken by California to further protect its environment by reducing the...

GHG Tailoring Timetable

EPA may issue by the end of April its final “tailoring rule” that aims to limit the application of Clean Air Act greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting requirements for stationary sources to the largest GHG emitters, according to agency air chief Regina McCarthy. McCarthy told attendees of an energy policy forum April 6 in Washington, DC, “We expect that rule to be done very shortly, hopefully by the end of the month.” McCarthy said it is possible the timeline for issuing...

Industry Sues Over GHG Permit Plan

Several industry groups have filed suit in federal court challenging EPA's recent plan to require regulators to set greenhouse gas (GHG) limits for new facilities but to delay the permit requirements until Jan 2, 2011, the date that EPA's just-issued vehicle GHG rules go into effect. As reported by Greenwire , several industry groups -- including the Coalition for Responsible Regulation, National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and several resource extraction companies -- filed a petition April 2 asking the U.S...

Appellate Judges Skeptical Of Industry Suit Over Strict EPA Lead NAAQS

Federal appellate judges appeared highly skeptical of an industry challenge to EPA's lead national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) at April 6 oral arguments, questioning industry's claim that the agency exceeded its authority by crafting the standard to protect vulnerable populations and suggesting EPA has authority for the standard it set. All three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel hearing the challenge to the lead NAAQS appeared to doubt industry's claim that...

EPA Seeks Finance Advisers' Help To Tout Efficiency's Economic Benefits

EPA's air chief is asking the agency's finance advisers for recommendations on how to fund energy efficiency projects and assess their economic benefits, a request that could help EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's ongoing effort to frame environmental regulations as good for the economy because they drive technological innovation. Regina McCarthy, head of the Office of Air & Radiation, made the request at a March 16 meeting of the agency's Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) in Washington, DC. If the board...

Relaxing Agencies' Conformity Rules

EPA has finalized a rule relaxing its requirements for federal agencies to demonstrate that their actions will comply with state air quality plans, but has decided not to provide a controversial exemption for construction emissions sought by the aviation industry. The final rule , slated to be published in the Federal Register April 5, revises the agency’s General Conformity program, which requires federal agencies to demonstrate how their actions conform with states’ air quality blueprints, called state implementation plans (SIPs)...

EPA Versus Business?

An industry attorney says that EPA’s recent proposal to revoke an 11th-hour Bush EPA new source review (NSR) “aggregation” rule indicates that the agency “does not trust business” and wants to use NSR to “coerce” industry to reduce emissions regardless of expense. Seth Jaffe of Foley Hoag wrote in an April 2 blog post that EPA’s proposal to scrap the NSR aggregation rule -- which changed the way facilities combine projects to determine whether they trigger NSR -- reflects what...

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