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.

Reaction To Rockefeller

EPA says it is still reviewing Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) bill to delay by two years EPA climate rules, but is already noting that the legislation would have less of an impact on the agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions than a pending resolution by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that would block EPA climate regulations. In a March 4 press statement, EPA says “it is important to note” that. Rockefeller's bill, unlike Murkowski's resolution, “does not attempt to overturn...

Senators Pushing Utility Bill Weigh Mercury 'Averaging' To Ease Costs

The two lead sponsors of a bipartisan Senate bill to cut mercury, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from power plants appear open to industry's calls to use an "averaging" approach to reducing mercury emissions, which would avoid imposing the same standard on all facilities and could ease utilities' costs under the bill. Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), the sponsor of the bill, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the lead co-sponsor of the bill, seemed open to the idea...

EPA Vows Simultaneous Issuance Of NAAQS, Implementation Guidelines

EPA is vowing to states that they will issue future implementation guides for new national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) simultaneously with the final standards, a critical shift for states who say EPA's history of years-long delays between final standards and implementation guides has hindered their efforts to meet NAAQS limits. In response to the long-standing state concerns, high-ranking EPA Office of Air & Radiation (OAR) officials last month "committed" that they will "work as hard as they can" to...

EPA Advances Aviation Lead Risk Finding

EPA has sent to the White House for review its long-awaited second response to environmentalists' petition seeking an agency endangerment finding on the risks general aviation aircraft lead emissions pose to human health, part of environmentalists' bid for new EPA rules to limit aircraft emissions. According to the White House Office of Management & Budget's Web site, EPA March 2 sent a pre-rule for review to “further respond” to Friends of the Earth's (FOE) 2006 petition requesting that EPA find...

Senators Warned Combining Multipollutant, Climate Bills May Stall Action

Industry and state officials say pending Senate legislation to cut nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide and mercury from power plants should remain separate from an emerging sector-based climate bill that may include specific power plant greenhouse gas (GHG) limits, because each bill could stall the other in the highly polarized 111th Congress. The only way the two bills are likely to be merged is if they both appear to be moving with the same momentum, one industry source says, noting...

States See Obama EPA Departing From Multipurpose Air Monitoring Goals

State and local air officials say the Obama EPA in revisions to several national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) is shifting toward a narrow approach of using air monitors to determine individual sources' contributions to ambient air pollution levels at the expense of existing goals of using the data for research and other broader efforts. States say the apparent new approach is at odds with a state-EPA negotiated monitoring strategy from 2008 that outlines a variety of purposes for the...

Key Judge Downplays Prospects For Successful Climate Damages Suits

A key appellate judge who last year ruled that states have standing to sue power plants over the climate change damages that result from their emissions is downplaying prospects that the plaintiffs will ultimately succeed in winning monetary damages, though the justice says he hopes the ruling will still keep pressure on policymakers to develop climate emissions rules to preempt future damages cases. Judge Peter Hall, one of two judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit,...

GOP's 'No Cost' Stimulus

Republicans are reviving their push for what they say is a no-cost solution to reviving the economy: rollback or block costly environmental requirements that prevent companies from investing in energy production projects and creating jobs. The GOP push comes as Democrats are eyeing a new round of stimulus funds that Republicans oppose as too costly by adding to an already record-breaking federal deficit. Instead, Republican senators are reviving their “No Cost Stimulus” bill, which would streamline the coastal impact assistance...

EPA Air Advisers Weigh Allowing GHG Trading, Offsets In Facility Permits

EPA's air advisers are weighing recommendations for giving the agency major flexibility in permits to cut stationary source greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including controversial suggestions to allow emissions trading and offsets to qualify toward a facility's compliance with GHG permit limits that EPA will soon impose. The agency's Clean Air Act Advisory Committee (CAAAC) climate work group is scrutinizing a set of recent issue papers outlining novel approaches to GHG permitting, including two papers obtained by Inside EPA that...

EPA Seeks Advice On Policies To Cut Climate 'Forcers' Soot And Ozone

EPA is seeking advice on science and policy steps to reduce short-lived "climate forcers" such as black carbon and ozone, in an effort to find a quick way to address climate change and complement ongoing EPA efforts to address other other greenhouse gases that linger for many years in the atmosphere. While it is unclear exactly which policy options EPA is considering to regulate short-lived climate forcers, advocates and experts in the past have pushed for a range of air...

Former FERC Chair Urges Deal With EPA On GHG Rule Reliability Impacts

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Joseph Kelliher is calling on the commission to formalize a working relationship with EPA to ensure that electric system reliability issues will be adequately addressed in the event the agency moves ahead with its pending Clean Air Act rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In an interview with sister publication EnergyWashington , Kelliher said a formal relationship with EPA is vital because he sees momentum building for the agency to address climate change...

EPA Moves To Require TRI Reporting Of Facilities' H2S Releases

EPA is moving to require industrial facilities to report to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) their releases of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) due to its harmful health and ecological effects, a move that could open the door to stricter regulation of the practice under the Clean Air Act and other laws for scores of manufacturing, energy and agricultural facilities. The move is likely to be opposed by industry groups, who have long argued that the substance is not harmful enough to...

California, Other States Threaten To Implement Strict Vehicle GHG Rules

California and eight other states are threatening to implement strict greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for passenger vehicles if the Senate approves controversial legislation to invalidate EPA's finding that GHGs endanger public health and welfare -- a move many agree would blow up a pact reached last year by automakers, the Obama administration and California officials to establish first-time national GHG standards for vehicles in concert with stricter fuel economy standards. In a Feb. 23 letter to Senate Majority Leader...

Utility MACT Could Trump Emissions Trading In EPA CAIR Replacement

EPA's upcoming proposal to replace its remanded clean air interstate rule (CAIR) may allow limited trading of utility emissions credits, but a separate pending maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule for utility air toxics may trump the CAIR replacement by requiring controls that are so stringent they make trading moot, sources say. The MACT could set strict controls on pollution to cut air toxics emissions that would have a co-benefit of cutting sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions so much that it...

Senators Bid To Soften EPA Cement Rules

Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and George Voinovich (R-OH) are backing industry and union calls for EPA to soften its pending air toxics rule for the Portland cement sector, echoing critics' existing concerns that the rule is so strict it would lead to plant closures and job losses. In a Feb. 17 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the senators warn that unless EPA adopts a “reasonable” maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard for the sector, “we anticipate that substantial cement...

EPA Warns Study On Air Act May Overestimate Benefits From PM2.5 Cuts

EPA is warning its air advisers of a flaw in its analysis for a draft report estimating a fivefold increase in the benefits of the Clean Air Act compared to a 1999 version of the report, saying the analysis includes a major statistical anomaly on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions cuts that may exaggerate the air act's overall benefits by 10 to 20 percent. The anomaly, which the agency is vowing to take immediate steps to fix, is in a...

Graham's Energy Bill Sparks Questions Over Impact On Climate Talks

Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) draft legislation to establish a "clean energy" standard with provisions to encourage nuclear power, clean coal and energy efficiency is sparking questions among industry, environmentalists and other groups on whether the measure is strictly a "trial balloon," or a viable supplement to -- or substitute for -- broader climate legislation that includes EPA regulations under a cap-and-trade system. The draft "Clean Energy Act of 2009" circulating around Washington DC, may be "old news," according to one...

EPA Appeals Board Asked To Rein In Air Act Delegated Authorities

Industry is asking EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) to strike a number of provisions in a tribe-issued Clean Air Act permit, in a challenge that could -- depending on the outcome -- clarify the extent to which tribes transitioning to full delegation of the federal air permit program can impose requirements beyond EPA's mandates. Industry in the case is asking the board to strike down permit requirements that exceed federal standards. The Navajo Nation -- the only tribe in the...

EPA Explains NO2 Monitor Changes

EPA's top air official is rejecting reports that White House officials pressured the agency to scale back the number of air monitors required under its recent final nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air standard, saying the final rule retains the same number of monitors as the earlier proposal. Regina McCarthy, head of EPA's Office of Air & Radiation, said recently that the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) did not “interfere” with the monitoring requirements in the agency's final NO2...

EPA Funds New Climate Risk Research

EPA has announced it is awarding $17 million in research grants to 25 universities on assessing climate change impacts on air quality and water resources affecting public health. The newly funded research will offer a broad assessment on the public health impacts of climate change based on its effects to the natural environment, and comes as EPA’s recently issued finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare faces numerous legal challenges . The grants, issued under the Science to...

Pages

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