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.

Activists Argue For Strict Oil, Gas NSPS To Fill Gaps In Air Toxic Controls

Environmentalists are urging EPA to use its upcoming review of air rules for oil and gas operations to set strict new source performance standards (NSPS) that capture the widest scope of facilities, in order to address a limitation in air toxics law that bars EPA from applying maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rules to smaller oil and gas sources. These activists are concerned that provisions in the Clean Air Act that prohibit EPA from regulating small oil and gas sources...

Climate Legislation To EPA By April?

A member of the Senate trio drafting a compromise climate bill says they are hoping to have detailed legislative language ready by the end of next week so EPA can begin modeling its impact over the Senate’s spring break, which is slated to begin March 29. Whether that time line can be met is not certain, given previous Senate pledges to get such language to EPA prior to international talks in Copenhagen last December. However, backers of the effort say...

Jackson Touts Biofuel (Feed)stocks

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says that the agency's recent regulation implementing the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) is helping boost stock prices in biofuels companies, arguing the positive market response shows that strong environmental regulation can help the ailing economy. The agency's recent RFS helped to provide the certainty industry says is necessary to transition from corn ethanol to advanced forms of biofuels, Jackson told a March 16 meeting of the American Lung Association's board in Washington, DC. “In fact,...

EPA Staff Push Stricter PM2.5 NAAQS Amid Debate Over Annual Measure

EPA air office staff are advocating for a significant tightening of the agency's fine particulate matter (PM2.5) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), though the agency and its science advisers continue to wrangle over whether they should focus their efforts on a stricter annual exposure standard or 24-hour standard. Staff from EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning & Standards (OAQPS) earlier this month released the first external review draft of their policy assessment for an ongoing review of the PM2.5...

California Regulators Move Closer To Tightening GHG-Reporting Threshold

California regulators appear closer to lowering the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions threshold that triggers facility reporting requirements -- from 25,000 metric tons annually to 10,000 tons -- a move that could put pressure on EPA to lower its 25,000-ton reporting threshold to ensure consistency. The threshold is not only critical for thousands of state facilities that would be newly captured in the reporting program, but it is also generally seen as an indicator of which facilities regulators will eventually...

Retreat On Energy/Climate Legislation

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats are likely to put off until next year final passage of energy and climate legislation, according to a Washington Post report that says the president will not push for action on the issue, which has threatened to split Democrats as they face a tough reelection bid this fall. Instead, Democrats and the White House will focus on financial-sector reforms and mitigating a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down restrictions on corporate spending in...

Litigating Ozone Fee Guidance

Environmentalists have followed through on their threat to sue EPA over what they say is a “flatly illegal” guidance giving states significant flexibility in how they implement a Clean Air Act requirement to impose large fines on polluters in areas violating EPA's ozone standard. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) March 5 filed a petition for review with the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit over the guidance. The petition does not offer any substantive arguments...

Next Round Of GHG Vehicle Rules 'Soon'

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the Obama administration will “very soon” announce its plans for a new rulemaking on greenhouse gas (GHG) limits for vehicles beyond model years 2016, the last model year covered by an imminent rule to establish first-time GHG standards for cars. “We are doing that right now,” LaHood said March 15 when asked whether EPA and the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are working on a combined GHG vehicle rule for model years...

Court Suspension Allows EPA To Seek Deal On GHG Reporting Rule

A key appellate court has granted EPA's request to suspend several lawsuits over its contested greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting rule to try and administratively resolve industry and environmentalists' challenges to the rule, though industry warns it may still ask the court for an emergency stay of the rule if it cannot reach a settlement with EPA. The recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia order granting abeyance is one of a number of suspensions sought by EPA...

Industry Seeks Softer EPA Rules In Lieu Of Vacated Air Toxics Exemption

Industry officials will urge EPA to soften its planned approach for regulating air toxics emissions during startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) periods, after the Supreme Court rejected industry's bid to overturn an appellate court ruling striking down a long-standing exemption to EPA air toxics rules during SSM periods. Among industry's long term recommendations is giving sectors longer averaging times -- the periods used for collecting emissions data used to demonstrate compliance with an air rule -- or crafting sector-specific rules...

Activists Ramp Up Efforts To Retain Carbon Limits In Senate Climate Bill

Environmentalists are ramping up appeals to Senate lawmakers to ensure pending energy and climate legislation includes mandatory limits on carbon emissions, warning that they could oppose an "energy only" bill that does not have such limits, or has limits but makes too many concessions to energy development that boosts pollution and sullies sensitive wilderness areas. Some environmentalists express cautious optimism that the pending measure -- being crafted by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) --...

Murkowski Resolution 'On Hold'

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is waiting to see how legislation introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) -- which would delay EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation by two years -- plays out before bringing up for a vote her own resolution that seeks to block EPA GHG regulations by overturning the agency's finding that GHGs endanger public health, The Hill reports . According to the article, Murkowski told reporters today, “At this point in time we are kind of on hold,”...

9th Circuit Ruling May Raise Bar For Challenges To EPA Title V Air Permits

A key appellate court has rejected a suit challenging EPA's denial of a petition to reject a Title V air permit for an Alaska oil and gas processing facility by finding the petitioner failed to "demonstrate" the permit was flawed, a novel ruling that may significantly raise the bar for environmentalists' challenges to Title V air permits, sources say. "To some extent, all petitions are affected" by the ruling "in that the standard is not clear" for what courts will...

EPA Sends GHG Vehicle Rule To OMB

EPA is on track to meet its goal of issuing first-time greenhouse gas (GHG) rules for automobiles by next month, sending its final regulation to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for review prior to its publication in the Federal Register . OMB March 9 received the final regulation, which is a landmark joint rulemaking with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). EPA will issue GHG limits to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from motor vehicles,...

Climate Bill's Possible Energy Focus Worries Activists Over Safeguards

Environmentalists are raising major concerns that upcoming Senate climate legislation could favor an expansion of domestic energy production, including offshore drilling and nuclear power, at the expense of key environmental safeguards they want to see in any climate or energy bill, including measures for addressing the impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or mitigating the environmental effects of energy products. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) are crafting a bipartisan climate compromise measure which could...

EPA Review Of Vermont TMDL May Highlight Climate Change Concerns

EPA says it plans to reconsider a controversial phosphorus pollution limit that it approved for Lake Champlain in Vermont in 2002, marking a possible reversal in a landmark case that could force regulators to consider the role of climate change when setting pollution limits for impaired waters. EPA March 8 requested an extension of time to file briefs in Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) v. EPA and Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) because it is reconsidering its 2002 approval of...

State, Local Agencies Resist EPA Proposal To Scrap 24-Hour SO2 NAAQS

State and local air officials are supporting EPA's plans to scrap the existing 24-hour sulfur dioxide (SO2) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), but are urging the agency to set a tighter 24-hour limit to protect against short-term exposure in order to complement EPA's proposed strict, first-time 1-hour standard for the pollutant. EPA is proposing to scrap both its annual and 24-hour SO2 NAAQS established in 1971 in favor of a 1-hour standard that the agency says will be more...

EPA Braces For Push To Require 'Uncertainty' Analysis In Cost-Benefit Reviews

EPA officials are preparing for a long-awaited Institute Of Medicine (IOM) report that is expected to criticize the agency's apparent hesitation to adopt the use of "quantitative uncertainty analysis" as a tool for calculating the costs and benefits of regulations, a delay that may cause the agency to overstate the benefits of its proposed rules, sources say. An agency source says EPA has formed a work group to look at the findings of the IOM report, "Public Health Decision-Making Under...

Industry Seeks To Stall EPA's Methanol Risk Study Pending Toxicology Review

The Methanol Institute (MI) is seeking to delay EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) from reviewing the agency's assessment of the risks posed by methanol, a transportation fuel additive, until after the National Toxicology Program (NTP) reviews a controversial Italian laboratory that has produced data EPA is relying on for its draft finding that the fuel is a "likely carcinogen." At the same time, the industry group is also urging NTP to narrow its planned review of the European Ramazzini Foundation...

Supreme Court Rejects Industry Bid To Restore Air Toxics Rule Exemption

The Supreme Court has rejected industry's bid to overturn an appellate court ruling that struck down a long-standing exemption to EPA air toxics rules during periods of startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) at power plants and other industrial facilities, clearing the way for the agency to impose stricter sector-by-sector emissions limits. In a win for environmentalists and the Obama administration, the high court announced March 8 that it has rejected without comment review for the case American Chemistry Council, et...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.