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States Urge EPA To Retain Flexible WOTUS Definitions, Fearing Challenges

As EPA prepares to hold listening sessions for its upcoming rulemaking to revise the Biden-era “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, state officials are urging the agency to retain flexible definitions of key regulatory terms, fearing that such an approach could limit states’ abilities to regulate across different conditions and approaches. “We encourage the Agencies to reach out to state governors and Tribal leaders to invite them or their designees to participate in a future workshop or workshops focused...

Judge Orders EPA To Unfreeze Climate, EJ Grants Slated For Termination

A federal judge is again ordering EPA to release all frozen funds it administers under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), allowing the agency to move forward with terminating grant awards on an “individualized basis” but saying recipients must be able to contest the agency’s decision. “EPA needs to comply and go through the process: terminate the grants that they think they can lawfully terminate and that don’t put forth their values,” Judge Mary McElroy said in an April 25 bench...

EPA Vows To Terminate Nearly Half Of Active Inflation Reduction Act Grants

EPA is telling a federal court it has terminated or intends to terminate nearly half of all active Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) grants it administers, targeting climate and environmental justice (EJ) projects in particular, citing a perceived loophole in a recent court order that allows it to freeze grants on an “individualized basis.” In an April 24 status report submitted in Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, et al. v. USDA, et al. , Daniel Coogan, an official in EPA’s Office of...

DOJ Seeks Large Court Bonds For EPA Plaintiffs But Judges, So Far, Decline

Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers are aggressively pushing courts to require plaintiffs challenging EPA actions to shell out enormous sums of money to obtain preliminary injunctions in a bid to raise barriers to litigation -- though judges have so far denied those requests. In one recent case, DOJ lawyers have asked courts to impose bonds equivalent to the billions of dollars in EPA grants plaintiffs are seeking to unfreeze. In another funding freeze suit, DOJ asked the court to impose...

CEQ’s Draft NEPA Template Allows Agencies To Exclude Public Comment

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has crafted a draft template to guide EPA and other agencies as they replace their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules with voluntary “procedures,” with the draft giving agencies the option of precluding public comments on reviews, according to a copy obtained by Inside EPA . One environmentalist says such an approach will “gut the public’s role in agency decision-making.” The April 8 document , directs agencies preparing an environmental impact statement...

Trump Administration Plans First Fast-Track CWA Permit For Line 5 Pipeline

The Trump administration is signaling plans to grant its first fast-track Clean Water Act (CWA) permit to a controversial Michigan oil pipeline project after finding that the project meets the terms for “emergency” status and expedited permitting under the president’s day one executive order (EO) declaring a national energy emergency. The Army Corps of Engineers issued an April 15 public notice announcing its plan to review Enbridge Energy’s request for a CWA section 404 permit for its Line 5 Tunnel...

CEQ Directs All Agencies To Revoke NEPA Rules, Issue Guidance Instead

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has told federal agencies to rescind their binding rules for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and replace them with nonbinding guidance, walking back its earlier request that agencies reissue rules consistent with Trump-era 2020 CEQ NEPA rules by next February. Several sources tell Inside EPA that the CEQ has issued such a directive, and one source says it was given during a phone call earlier this month where CEQ...

Trump EOs Launch ‘Frontal Assault’ On APA In Push To Roll Back Rules

Two of President Donald Trump’s recent deregulatory actions requiring EPA and other agencies to roll back rules include directives to bypass the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA’s) notice-and-comment mandates, a move that critics are vowing to challenge because they are a “frontal assault” on the bedrock requirement. “The Trump administration knows eliminating important environmental protections is not popular, so they are seeking to avoid being transparent and responsive to the American public on rules that directly affect them,” the Southern Environmental...

Presidential MATS Order May Exempt Dozens Of Coal Plants In 12 States

President Donald Trump’s executive order granting coal-fired power plants an emergency compliance waiver from the Biden EPA’s tougher mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) appears likely to exempt at least 27 plants in 12 states where the agency anticipated significant compliance costs, though the waivers might apply even more widely. In the April 8 order , Trump exempts certain unnamed plants from compliance with the updated MATS rule for two years, effectively extending the rule’s compliance deadline of July 8,...

Senate Superfund Reform Effort Splits Over Procedural Delays, Funding Cuts

Members of the Senate environment committee are expressing broad bipartisan interest in addressing major delays in Superfund cleanups, though lawmakers differ on whether to prioritize streamlining pre-cleanup procedural requirements or addressing staffing and funding issues amid the Trump administration’s cuts to EPA. At an April 9 hearing, Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said the Superfund law “prioritizes process over results,” vowing to “identify efficiencies to accelerate cleanups.” She said the current statute benefits “lawyers who profit from endless litigation,” not...

Trump Issues Series Of Orders To ‘Reinvigorate’ Coal Sector, Ease Hurdles

President Donald Trump is seeking to “reinvigorate” the coal sector -- issuing a series of orders directing EPA and other officials to take multiple sweeping actions to extend the life of aging plants, expedite permits, and provide financial support for new mining, though environmentalists are blasting the move as propping up a “dirty” and uneconomic fuel. “From now on, we’ll ensure that our nation’s critically needed coal plants . . . remain online and fully operational -- they’re always going...

To Enable Air Waivers, EPA Rescinds International Emissions Guidance

EPA has rescinded its guidance on when states can discount air pollution from foreign countries to avoid being “bumped up” to worsened “nonattainment” with federal air standards, in a move that clears the way for Western states, including some that have Democratic leaders, to avoid such bump-ups, and resulting pollution control mandates. “Americans should not be harmed by other countries that do not have the same environmental standards we have in the United States,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, announcing...

Tariffs Introduce Uncertainty As E15 Supporters Seek Summer Waiver

President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on imports, and resulting retaliation by trading partners, are raising uncertainty over markets for corn ethanol and other biofuels, as ethanol supporters in Congress seek an emergency summer authorization for 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) that could help to absorb some surplus ethanol if exports fall. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) led a bipartisan group of 17 senators in an April 3 letter asking Trump to allow EPA to issue an emergency waiver to...

Some Fuels Groups Agree On RFS Volumes, Sparing Trump EPA From Battle

Major oil companies and biofuels organizations have reached agreement on requested levels of biofuel blending under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2026 and 2027, as liquid fuels groups seek to forge a united front on the divisive issue, though differences of view and unresolved areas remain, sources say. The novel alliance of major refiners and biofuels groups has been in evidence for some time, as liquid fuels producers looked to counter Biden administration support for electric vehicles. Under the...

Researchers Craft Novel Method For Assessing Cumulative Health Risks

Johns Hopkins researchers have established a first-of-its-kind, peer-reviewed method to measure the cumulative health risks from air pollution emitted by industrial facilities, a method that could provide a means for states and others to assess such risk in the face of the Biden EPA’s struggle to craft such a method and opposition from the Trump administration to their use. The findings were accepted March 24 for publication in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal. The new approach considers the...

Trump Ends Collective Bargaining At EPA, Dissolves Biden-Era Agreements

President Donald Trump is moving to end collective bargaining at EPA and other agencies while dissolving Biden-era agreements that had sought to protect agency personnel and some policies, moves that union sources say would remove a key check on the administration’s power to pursue sweeping personnel and policy changes at the agency. Trump issued a March 27 executive order (EO), “Exclusions From Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs,” that ends union involvement at any agency deemed to have a national security function...

EPA Offers Industry Waivers For Host Of Air Toxics Rules, Sparking Criticism

EPA’s call for companies to seek presidential waivers from nine Biden-era air toxics rules that could run for the duration of President Donald Trump’s term is spurring alarm among environmentalists who charge the plan is unlawful because many facilities have already installed the required controls and compliance with the rules poses no security risk. In a post to its website , which was first reported by the New York Times , EPA says, “To advance President Trump’s Executive Orders and...

Democrats Question Adequacy Of EPA’s OGC Nominee Amid Criminal Probe

Senate Democrats are questioning Sean Donahue’s qualifications and ethics to serve as the Trump EPA’s general counsel, though the nominee has support from key Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), suggesting his nomination will almost certainly advance. During a March 26 committee hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the committee’s ranking Democrat, raised repeated concerns about Donahue’s limited experience, especially as he warned of alleged “misconduct” within the Trump administration’s ongoing criminal investigation into Biden EPA awards...

Zeldin Defends Plan To Shutter ORD, Touting Chemical, Water Offices’ Needs

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is defending the agency’s proposed plan to “eliminate" the Office of Research and Development (ORD), saying that while he has made no decision, the proposal seeks to move researchers to offices with significant backlogs, particularly the agency’s chemical and water offices. “As I stand here today, I’ve made no decision on anything . . . but I will tell you that we are absolutely going through a process to figure out what makes the most amount...

Capito Expects ‘Most’ Funds To Be Unfrozen But Warns Of ‘Belt Tightening’

Senate environment committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) says she expects “most” EPA funds that the Trump administration has frozen for review will soon be unfrozen, particularly those under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), though she is warning of “belt tightening” due to the large national debt. “I’m trying to preach patience here,” she told state environmental commissioners meeting in Arlington, VA. “I think. . . most of this is going to become unfrozen and back to the states,” she...

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