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 Proposes To Double Enforcement Priorities, Raising Doubts On Focus

EPA is proposing to double the number of categories it will prioritize for enforcement over the next few years, raising questions about whether the proposed list is so broad that it will dilute the agency's focus on key needs at a time when the enforcement program has seen a diminution of its enforcement results. An environmentalist call the list a "hodgepodge," while raising concerns that Clean Water Act enforcement at power plants is not on the list. The fact that...

Industry Faces Hurdles In Challenging EPA SSM Vacatur Interpretation

Industry associations launching a barrage of new and creative challenges to EPA's strict interpretation of a 2008 appeals court ruling vacating the agency's regulatory exemption for air toxics limits during periods of startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) may struggle to prove their latest efforts are judicially reviewable, say sources. Both aluminum and plywood manufacturers are seeking to challenge long-standing EPA air toxics rules specific to their industries in the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...

States Say New EPA Mobile Emissions Model Brings Major Data Challenge

The much-anticipated release of EPA's new model for calculating emissions of both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) from mobile sources, dubbed MOVES2010, will impose significant challenges in obtaining adequate data to run the new system, state regulators say. The Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) 2010, unveiled Dec. 23, represents a significant advance over its predecessor, MOBILE6.2, EPA says. It will for the first time estimate emissions on a range of scales, from the national level down to emissions from...

Soot Screening

EPA has sent for White House review a final rule detailing implementation requirements for the fine particulate matter (PM2.5), or soot, standard, a move that will show the Obama EPA's response to a number of controversial Bush administration policies on the issue. The agency Dec. 28 sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a final rule under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) air permitting program to set so-called PM2.5 increments -- a measurement that helps...

Advisers Retreat From Call To Classify Children As At-Risk In CO Review

EPA's top scientific advisers are stepping back from their earlier plans to urge the agency to consider children as a specially vulnerable subpopulation when exposed to carbon monoxide (CO) after agreeing to water down language in a draft letter to EPA commenting on a key document to support the CO ambient air quality review, due to a lack of scientific evidence of harm. The change comes as top EPA officials are seeking to expand protections for children exposed to pollution...

Industry Files Legal Challenges To GHG Endangerment, Reporting Rules

Industry has filed numerous petitions and lawsuits against the Obama EPA's recent climate change initiatives, including the agency's finding that greenhouse gases (GHGs) endanger human health and its rules requiring industry to report GHG emissions. The legal challenges open up a new front in industry's fight against the administration's climate policies. A coalition of agriculture, mining and energy groups Dec. 23 filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking review of EPA's...

EPA Push For 'Upset' Emission Compliance Orders Sparks Industry Outcry

EPA is pushing industry to enter compliance orders that impose limits on "upset" emissions during startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) periods after a federal court vacated an exemption from permitted emission limits during SSM events, sparking outcry from industry officials who say EPA is pressuring them into the legal agreements. Industry groups are pursuing a number of legal challenges to the agency's nascent effort to create case-by-case decrees with companies to address emissions during SSM events, which are no longer...

Louisiana Activists Unveil Initiative With Refiners To Cut 'Upset' Emissions

Louisiana environmentalists are working with some refineries and EPA Region VI officials in a new initiative aimed at reducing "upset" emissions from the facilities, including during startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) events, pushing the use of technologies to cut SSM periods and other accidents to reduce upset emissions. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and other groups announced the Refinery Efficiency Initiative Dec. 4, which they hope will reduce accidents and associated upset emissions at all 17 refineries in the state. "A...

Activists Say EPA Particulate Matter Assessment Justifies Tough Limits

EPA's Dec. 17 final Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) in support of its ongoing review of the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) makes the case for much more stringent regulation of PM, clean air advocates argue. Activists say the document shows clear negative health effects, primarily cardiovascular and respiratory problems, from PM levels far below the limit in the current PM NAAQS, which was finalized in 2006. An initial reading of the ISA by the American...

EPA Ship Air Rule Retreats From Broad Exemptions Due To Treaty Fears

EPA's just-issued final ship emissions rule steps back from an expected blanket exemption for all steamships due to the agency's fears that the waiver could violate an international ship air pollution treaty, but is providing industry some smaller concessions that provide key flexibilities in how ship operators must comply with the rule. The agency's final rule issued Dec. 22 requires the phase-in of marine fuels for category 3 engines -- those at or above 30 liters per cylinder -- with...

EPA Touts NSR Mitigation Settlement

Correction Appended The Obama administration is touting a “very favorable” proposed settlement with Duke Energy to resolve violations of EPA's new source review program (NSR), highlighting that the agreement includes $6.25 million in novel mandates to mitigate past harm from the violations. The settlement , filed in federal court in Indianapolis and announced Dec. 22, resolves part of a lawsuit originally filed in 1999 in which EPA alleged that Cinergy, now Duke Energy Corporation, violated the Clean Air Act NSR...

Draft EPA Study Predicts Fivefold Boost In Benefits Of Clean Air Act Rules

EPA's draft review of the costs and benefits of Clean Air Act programs predicts five times more benefits in 2010 of reduced mortality and sickness rates, among other benefits, compared to findings in a 1999 version of the review, which agency staff are attributing to stricter emission controls, new air rules, better data and improved pollution modeling. The findings could provide a key defense for EPA against industry and others' attacks on the benefits of air act rulemakings by making...

EPA Cites Regulatory Workload In Postponing Revised Ozone Standard

EPA is delaying by 16 days issuance of its proposed revision of the Bush-era ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), citing a major regulatory workload within the executive branch as the reason for postponing release of the proposal in which the Obama EPA is widely expected to tighten the existing ozone standard. The agency was slated to propose revisions to the standard Dec. 21 but will now take an additional 16 days to sign the notice of proposed rulemaking,...

Northeast States Eye NSPS For Oil, Gas Power Plants As National Model

Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states are considering broadly adopting stand-alone performance standards for oil- and gas-fired power plants that would supersede new source performance standards (NSPS) EPA sets for the power sector, and then recommend that EPA carve out oil and gas-fired power plants in a new national NSPS. This approach would more quickly and effectively cut air emissions from these sources than could be achieved with overarching standards for all power plants, state sources say. The Ozone Transport Commission (OTC),...

Contractor Finds Few EPA Policies Weigh Genetically Susceptible Groups

BALTIMORE -- EPA has sought a review of the extent to which its policies and programs consider those with increased sensitivity to environmentally harmful exposures due to their genetic background but a contractor review shows the agency does not have clear plans on how to consider such genetically susceptible groups. "There is no clear [agency] blueprint as to how to analyze data to incorporate genetic susceptibility," Sue Greco, a consultant with Abt Associates, who reviewed EPA's policies and plans with...

EPA Vows Key Steps To Address OIG Concerns Over Vapor Intrusion Plan

EPA is vowing to issue by next year final toxicity values for two contaminants associated with vapor intrusion, and complete a long-stalled guidance by 2012 for evaluating and mitigating vapor intrusion risks in order to address Office of Inspector General (OIG) concerns that the lack of such guidance hampers EPA's work to reduce indoor air risks. The agency outlines its plan to issue final toxicity values for trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) in 2010 and to issue final guidance on...

EPA NAAQS Enforcement Shows New Administration's Hard Line On States

EPA's finding that three states failed to submit timely state implementation plans (SIPs) for how they will comply with the agency's national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) is an indication of a new hard line from the Obama administration on state NAAQS enforcement in contrast to the Bush EPA, state sources say. The final findings -- issued late last month -- start a sanctions clock that could lead to a loss of highway funding for the...

Industry Fails In Bid For Clean Air Act To Preempt Strict State Engine Rules

A federal appeals court has handed industry a broad setback in its efforts to preempt states from setting stringent off-road engine standards, issuing a recent ruling that rejects an industry petition that asked EPA to clarify that the Clean Air Act blocks states from imposing certain emission-related regulations on various categories of engines and vehicles. Instead, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Dec. 11 that industry's effort was time-barred under the air law because...

DOJ Explains Rationale For High Bar On Title V Compliance Schedules

A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official is articulating for the first time the Obama administration's position on when Title V Clean Air Act operating permits must include compliance schedules to correct alleged air act violations, saying the administration will only support such inclusion when environmentalist challengers can unambiguously "demonstrate" the violations are occurring at the facility. The administration's rationale sets a high bar for environmentalists seeking to challenge the adequacy of pollution controls at industrial facilities via petitions to...

EPA Rebuffs State Calls To Stop Using Air Grants To Fund Regional Efforts

EPA appears to be rebuffing state calls to stop diverting to regional headquarters offices grants allocated for state monitoring and other air efforts, arguing that the practice saves states money because the regions can achieve greater efficiencies and countering states' arguments that it is an improper use of state grants for federal responsibilities. In a Nov. 24 letter to the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), EPA's air chief Gina McCarthy acknowledges that regional agency offices do retain some Clean...

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