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Rejecting EPA Requests, D.C. Circuit Continues Suits Over GNP, EtO Rules

The D.C. Circuit has denied a pair of EPA requests seeking to pause litigation over key Biden-era air rules that officials are expected to reverse, issuing orders requiring the agency to file a brief in a suit challenging the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) rule while also scheduling arguments in a suit over a contested ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizers rule. In a Feb. 21 order , Judges Florence Pan, J. Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia -- all Democratic appointees -- deny...

Trump EPA Retains Biden-Era Stance On Venue For RFS Waiver Denials

EPA is sticking to its Biden-era position that its mass denials of renewable fuel standard (RFS) waivers for small refiners constitute “nationally” applicable actions that must be litigated in the District of Columbia Circuit, after the Supreme Court denied the agency’s request to stay litigation pending a review by the Trump administration. In a Feb. 20 brief filed in EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, LLC, et al. , the agency again asserts that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Democrats Reject Permitting Talks Due To Trump’s ‘Lawless’ Funding Pause

A top Democratic senator says his party will not engage in efforts to pass broad legislation to streamline environmental and other permitting processes until President Donald Trump reverses course on his sweeping freeze of funding at EPA and other agencies, arguing Trump’s move shows he is unwilling to implement laws as Congress directed. “A word of warning: Democrats will not agree to any permitting reform unless and until the Trump administration ends its lawless disregard for congressional authority and judicial...

New Petitions Set Path For Trump EPA To Revise Biden-Era CWA Rules

The Institute for Energy Research (IER), a group that advocates for free energy markets, is formally petitioning the Trump administration to review and revise three Biden-era Clean Water Act (CWA) rules, setting a path for the agency to revise contested measures governing the law’s reach and states’ ability to certify federal projects. IER submitted the three petitions to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Feb. 18, seeking to “achieve the president’s objective of unlocking American energy potential,” by calling for review...

EPA Fires Hundreds Of Probationary Staff, As Trump Cuts Federal Workforce

Update Appended EPA has begun notifying hundreds of probationary employees -- who have been at the agency or in their positions for less than one or two years -- that they are being terminated, as part of the Trump administration’s widespread firings of such workers across the federal government as it looks to make deep cuts in the federal workforce. Joyce Howell, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents many EPA staff, tells...

As Legal Attacks Mount, States Say EPA Continues To Block IRA, BIL Funds

States are releasing internal EPA documents showing officials are continuing to withhold billions of dollars of infrastructure and climate funding despite multiple federal court orders blocking a wholesale pause of such grants, as legal challenges continue to mount against the Trump administration’s freeze of key funding programs. The documents, released as exhibits in a lawsuit over the funding pause pending in a Rhode Island federal court, show the agency has only released grants under 29 bipartisan infrastructure law (BIL) programs...

EPA Union Chief Calls Trump’s New Workforce EO ‘Death By 1,000 Cuts’

President Donald Trump’s latest executive order (EO) providing a blueprint for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to achieve large-scale reductions of the federal workforce represents the latest assault on EPA’s staff, according to a top EPA union official who describes it as “death by 1,000 cuts.” The Feb. 11 EO , “Implementing the President’s [DOGE] Workforce Optimization Initiative,” aims to dramatically downsize the federal workforce by launching “a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy” that includes widespread “reductions in...

With Railyard ISR Dead, L.A. Region Struggles To Advance New Port Rules

After having its landmark “indirect source rule” (ISR) for railyards essentially wiped from the books after California failed to obtain a federal preemption waiver for the state’s related locomotives regulation, the South Coast air district is now struggling to advance new measures to reduce air pollution from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. “The Rail Yard ISR required U.S. EPA approval of” the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) “Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) and In-Use Locomotive regulations, and then approval...

Judge Orders Release Of IRA, BIL Money As DOJ Swiftly Appeals Decision

A federal judge is again directing the Trump administration to comply with his prior restraining order blocking the administration’s funding freeze including climate and environment funds managed by EPA, though the Justice Department (DOJ) is quickly appealing the decision. The Feb. 10 enforcement order , issued by Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, says officials must “immediately restore” withheld funds including climate- and environment-related funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law...

States Move To Enforce Court Block Of Funding Freeze, Citing Violations

Democratic states are asking a federal judge in Rhode Island to issue a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s unilateral funding freeze and enforce an existing restraining order amid widespread noncompliance, particularly for EPA grants under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Plaintiff states in New York, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. filed Feb. 7 motions for a preliminary injunction and enforcement of the existing temporary restraining order (TRO), arguing the freeze...

Trump Critics Step Up Opposition To Buyout Plan As Judge Halts Program

Congressional, environmental and labor critics are escalating their opposition to the Trump administration’s effort to entice thousands of civil servants at EPA and other agencies into resigning after a federal judge temporarily blocked implementation of the program, which opponents call illegal, destructive and potentially disingenuous. During a Feb. 6 hearing, Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts temporarily stayed the Trump administration’s implementation of the buyout plan until Feb. 10, when he...

Senators Warn Trump Spending Freeze Undercuts New EPA Funding Bills

With backing from Senate environment committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Democratic senators are warning that authorizing new funding for EPA’s brownfields program and a new recycling program is moot if the Trump administration continues to seek to block officials from distributing the funds. During a Feb. 5 business meeting, Democratic senators protested the panel’s plan to approve bills increasing authorized funding levels for EPA’s brownfields grant program and creating a pilot program and data collection effort meant to improve...

Zeldin’s 5 ‘Pillars’ Put EPA On Formal Path To Implement Trump’s Agenda

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is outlining the five “pillars” that will drive his work, including clean air and water, energy “dominance,” permitting reform, bolstering infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) and bringing back auto jobs, measures that are aimed at putting the agency on a path to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda. Zeldin Feb. 4 announced the pillars as part of the “Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative” that aims to achieve EPA’s mission “while energizing the greatness of the American...

East Palestine Cleanup ‘Highest Priority’ For EPA, Zeldin Says In First Visit

EPA’s ongoing cleanup of pollution stemming from the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, OH will be the agency’s “highest priority,” Administrator Lee Zeldin says, underscoring the second Trump administration’s expected priority focus on emergency incidents as well as its shifting approach to environmental justice. With Vice President JD Vance at his side, Zeldin told a Feb. 3 press conference in the village during his first official trip since his swearing in that the Trump administration and EPA are “in...

Trump Funding Freeze Drives Confusion Among EPA Employees, Contractors

The Trump administration’s recent actions seeking to freeze funding at EPA and other agencies are driving confusion among EPA employees, contractors and grantees, with experts warning that the freeze or other funding restraints could continue despite court rulings blocking them. While a federal judge in Rhode Island Jan. 31 blocked the Trump administration’s funding freeze, Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environmental justice at the nonprofit Lawyers for Good Government, told a Jan. 31 media briefing hosted by...

States Float Order Broadly Blocking Ongoing Trump Funding Freeze

A New York-led coalition of states is urging a federal court to broadly block the Trump administration from continuing to implement its controversial freeze of multiple EPA and other federal funds, a move that if approved would halt funding prohibitions in several executive orders (EOs) despite White House efforts to retain them. In a Jan. 30 motion in State of New York, et al. v. Donald Trump , the states asked a federal judge in Rhode Island to impose a...

Utilities Provide Roadmap For Trump EPA Rollback Of Coal Ash, GHG Rules

A coalition of 10 power utilities is urging the Trump EPA to immediately review and rescind Biden-era regulations governing the sector’s air, water and waste pollution, arguing the rules are unlawful, overly expansive, and impose significant burdens that will increase electricity rates and threaten reliability. The utilities outline their arguments in a Jan. 15 letter to Lee Zeldin, who was confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 29 as President Donald Trump’s EPA administrator. They flag issues that require “swift and...

Judge Halts OMB Funding Freeze But Tees Up Fight Over Budget Powers

A federal judge has paused White House efforts to freeze a wide array of EPA and other federal funds to review their consistency with Trump priorities, temporarily deferring widespread confusion over the fate of clean energy, water infrastructure and other funding while also making clear administration efforts to test Congress’ budgetary powers. In a Jan. 28 order from the bench, Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a request from the National Council...

EPA Pauses Air Modeling Rule Amid Uncertainty Over Secondary NAAQS

EPA is extending the effective date of its November “guideline” that provides states with new methods for modeling air quality, moving the date from Jan. 28 to March 21 in response to President Donald Trump’s regulatory “freeze order” amid doubts over the status of EPA’s revised “secondary” air standards rule that may also be subject to a similar pause. In a notice scheduled for publication in the Jan. 28 Federal Register , EPA announces the extension in the effective date...

EPA Seeks To Pause High Court California Waiver, Air Act Venue Suits

The Trump EPA is asking the Supreme Court to pause cases over Biden-era preemption waivers for California vehicle rules and Clean Air Act venue provisions implicated by agency denials of renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers, with the agency stating it will review and potentially reverse both policies. The Jan. 24 requests are among the first in a likely wave of similar asks to pause litigation in various courts as the Trump administration weighs major policy shifts. In a Jan...

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