AUTO EMAIL

PEER Touts Recycling Trade Group’s Rejection Of PFAS-Laden Containers

Environmentalists are touting a recent move by a plastics recycling industry trade group deeming PFAS-containing plastic packaging as unrecyclable under a California labeling law, arguing it is an indirect action that incentivizes the phase-out of PFAS-containing products and packaging amid a slow EPA response on fluorinated containers. In a Nov. 5 press release , Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) noted an October decision by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) to halt the review of new and existing applications...

Environmentalists Renew Push For EPA Record In New Chemicals Litigation

Environmentalists are renewing their push for a federal judge to resolve a dispute with EPA over the release of the administrative record in litigation challenging the agency’s opacity in TSCA new-chemicals reviews, saying EPA has produced no documents despite an August 2024 ruling that said the toxics law creates a public “right to know.” “EPA has not produced any records to the Plaintiffs,” since Judge Loren AliKhan’s August 2024 order and “there has been no change in the status of...

State Water Act Reviews Spark Flashpoint For Permitting Reform Debate

Proponents of legislation streamlining environmental permitting say any bipartisan deal must include language restricting states’ authority to approve energy and other infrastructure projects under section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), though any deal is far from certain and a recent plan from governors was silent on the scope of states’ authority. “I don't think we do a big, giant Clean Water Act revamp, but there's some targeted Clean Water Act things on transmission” and interstate pipelines that should...

1st Circuit Weighs Upholding Class Certification In PFAS Deposition Case

Judges on a 1st Circuit panel appear to support a lower court’s partial certification of a PFAS property damages case, grilling counsel for a plastics manufacturer on his argument that the liability claims are individual, rather than common, across the class while pondering how to address the lawsuit’s damages claims, which were not certified. "We're talking past each other here," Judge Lara Montecalvo told the attorney for Saint-Gobain during a discussion on whether the trespass claim should have been certified...

Democrats’ Election Wins Boost Calls To Embrace ‘Clean, Cheap’ Energy

Democrats’ strong showing in the Nov. 4 off-year elections is prompting clean energy advocates to ramp up their pitch for policymakers to embrace “cheaper and cleaner” power as an electoral boost, amid indications that concerns about inflation and affordability were a major factor in the party’s victories. The scope of the victories -- centered largely in liberal or swing states like California, Virginia and New Jersey but also including key pickups in conservative states like Georgia -- is also prompting...

Teck Seeks En Banc Review In Landmark NRD Cultural Damages Suit

Canadian mining company Teck Cominco Metals is asking a federal appeals court for en banc review of a landmark decision that the company and other industry groups fear opened the door to a significant expansion of Superfund natural resources damages (NRD) connected to the cultural uses of contaminated resources. In a Nov. 3 petition , Teck warns the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that the appellate panel’s September ruling opened a “Pandora’s box” of potential cultural...

Capito Touts ‘Lockdown’ Legislative Language To Drive NEPA Reform Talks

A key Republican senator and other conservatives are pressing Democrats to negotiate a deal to overhaul the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other permitting laws, arguing this would allow them to write “specific lockdown” legislation to block President Trump’s resistance to clean energy projects and support for fossil fuels. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), told the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) Oct. 23 that Congress needs to “write...

Court Grants Industry Bid To Block CARB Enforcement Of Clean Truck Pact

A federal court is granting truck manufacturers’ request for a preliminary injunction on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 2023 Clean Truck Partnership (CTP), agreeing with industry that CARB’s recent state court suit to enforce the deal marked a backdoor means of enforcing emissions rules despite Congress’ repeal of EPA’s preemption waivers. However, the court is rejecting the truck makers’ request for injunctions on several CARB regulations, as well as their First Amendment claim. CARB’s “filing of that lawsuit is...

Auto Workers Deem TSCA New-Chemicals Review Rule Unlawfully Opaque

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is arguing that the Biden-era TSCA framework rule intended to align EPA’s procedures for evaluating risks associated with new-chemical applications is unlawfully opaque, keeping unions and their representatives out of the process, and that EPA failed to respond to unions’ comments on how to address the issue. UAW says in its opening brief in consolidated litigation known as Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) et al. v. EPA that it “joined with other Unions...

Georgia Plaintiffs Seek To Consolidate PFAS Suits Amid Judge’s Doubts

Georgia citizens and environmentalists are urging a federal district court to consolidate their respective PFAS contamination suits against utility and industry defendants, arguing that their cases are largely similar and consolidation would save judicial resources, but the judge has previously signaled her skepticism at such efforts. The pair of suits , pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, test whether the Superfund law or the Clean Water Act (CWA) should govern the cleanup of land...

EPA Continues CCR Enforcement Amid Trump Shifts, Former Official Says

EPA is continuing to enforce violations of its 2015 coal combustion residuals (CCR) regulations despite broad concerns regarding a Trump administration retreat, a former enforcement official says, but the types of violations the agency is enforcing appear likely to shift given ongoing and future changes to the agency’s regulatory landscape. “I actually don’t think enforcement is retreating on coal ash,” Lynne Davies, former chief of the Waste Enforcement Branch in EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) now at...

Michigan Airport Makes Second Bid To Move PFAS Suit To Federal Court

A Michigan airport is again urging a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling and allow Michigan’s landmark enforcement case seeking cleanup from a commercial airport for PFAS releases to go forward in federal rather than state court, an issue the Supreme Court is also weighing in a separate suit. The Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority (GFIAA) late last month asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to consider whether it meets requirements under...

EPA’s Repeal Proposal Sparks Fears Of Costly GHG Reporting ‘Patchwork’

Technology and other groups are warning that EPA’s proposal to gut its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) could raise costs to businesses due to the likely need to implement ramped up voluntary or state-based reporting programs, while also jeopardizing the competitiveness of U.S. exports. The concerns surface in formal comments to the agency filed by a Nov. 3 deadline, including warnings that scuttling GHG reporting mandates could spur a proliferation of state reporting programs and hamper data availability critical to...

Biofuels Groups Seek Full ‘Reallocation’ Of Waived RFS Refiner Volumes

Biofuels groups are pressing EPA for a full “reallocation” of waived renewable fuel standard (RFS) blending volumes when it finalizes its RFS requirements for 2026 and 2027, rebuffing the agency’s proposal to reallocate only half of the volumes waived for small refiners and asserting that anything less than full reallocation is unlawful. In comments on EPA’s supplemental RFS proposal for 2026 and 2027 submitted ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline, biofuels groups were adamant that EPA must reassign all waived...

Despite Partisan Rancor, Optimism Abounds For NEPA Permitting Deal

Key lawmakers, state officials and industry lobbyists are expressing renewed optimism that a bipartisan deal on long-sought permit streamlining under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other laws is still possible, a major reversal from many recent assessments which doubted prospects for a deal amid partisan divisions. A major development this week was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, saying he expects to release a plan for bipartisan NEPA legislation...

Soap Makers’ Group Presses Senators To Address New Chemical SNURs

Cleaning product manufacturers are calling on key members of the Senate environment committee to make “targeted changes to TSCA” to address what they describe as onerous restrictions EPA places on new chemicals, which their trade group argues limits their marketability. The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) in an Oct. 23 letter submitted to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee and its chemical safety subcommittee raises longstanding industry complaints about the slow pace of...

EPA, Agencies Grapple With Questions Over Low PFAS Levels In Soil

EPA is wrestling with how to address low concentrations of PFAS in soil at sites wanting to further develop, as other federal departments and state regulatory agencies are starting to focus on determining background levels of the ubiquitous class of chemicals in soil. In a speech to state waste managers last week, Steven Cook, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s waste office, raised questions about how regulators should deal with low concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in soil,...

Environmentalists Claim EPA ‘Guidance’ On NSR ‘Construction’ Is Unlawful

Environmental groups are asserting that EPA’s recent “guidance” enabling some construction to begin before an industrial air pollution source obtains a new source review (NSR) permit is neither real guidance nor lawful, and that it would expose companies relying on such a policy to legal challenges. In an Oct. 30 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, first reported by E&E News , Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Sierra Club say: “EPA does not have authority to allow any...

1st Circuit To Hear Class Certification Case; Attorneys Will Highlight TSCA Issues

The 1st Circuit will hear arguments over whether a lower court incorrectly certified a liability class where citizens alleged potentially thousands of properties were contaminated by PFAS air depositions from a New Hampshire textiles plant. And EPA’s TSCA reporting rule for industry on PFAS uses will be part of a discussion at an annual law seminar on TSCA. Oral Argument The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit will hold oral argument Nov. 4 in Kevin Brown, et al....

3M Loses Bid To Appeal Ruling Remanding Texas’ PFAS Suit To State Court

The 5th Circuit has rejected a request from 3M for permission to appeal a district court decision that remanded to state court Texas’ suit alleging the company misrepresented the safety of its PFAS-containing products, denying 3M the opportunity to argue that the case falls under federal jurisdiction by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Oct. 28 ordered that 3M’s motion for leave to appeal the ruling from the...

Pages

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