ISSUE: Clean Air Report

Environmentalists Sue EPA For Scrapping Biden ‘Project Accounting’ Plan

Environmentalists are suing EPA over its decision to withdraw a Biden-era proposal to tighten a rule from the first Trump administration that eased new source review (NSR) air permit analysis by allowing industry to count emissions decreases in the first step of NSR and more-easily avoid more in-depth review and possible tougher controls. In their Aug. 18 suit , Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) et al. v. EPA , filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

Democratic, GOP States Battle Over EPA Plan To Scrap Biden MATS Rule

Democratic- and Republican-led states are drawing up legal battle lines regarding EPA’s proposal to scrap the Biden administration’s tightened mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for power plants, detailing arguments that will likely appear in near-certain litigation once the measure is finalized. In comments submitted on the proposal ahead of an Aug. 11 deadline, environmentalists, lawmakers and industry groups offered a range of divergent opinions. The plan would rescind the Biden-era rule that tightened the original 2012 MATS rule, removing...

Trump DOJ Continues NSR Enforcement Against Detroit EES Coke Plant

With support from environmentalists, the Trump administration is continuing what appears to be a vigorous enforcement action over alleged Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) violations against an EES Coke facility in the Detroit, MI, area and its parent, Detroit Edison (DTE), a local utility, ahead of a highly anticipated bench trial. In a just-filed supplemental brief, the department rejected the facility’s new defense that it is not a “major” stationary source under the air law. Senior Judge Gershwin...

Refiners Split Over RFS Plan, But Agree On Push To Drop Import Limits

The refining industry is split over EPA’s proposed increase in biofuel blending targets under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), with large companies that produce their own biofuels supporting larger volumes and smaller refiners resisting them, but the overall sector is unified in claiming that planned import restrictions are harmful. In Aug. 8 comments, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), with a broad membership including small refiners, says the planned RFS volume mandates are unreasonably costly and conflict with the...

EPA Floats Plan To Scrap Biden-Era PM2.5 Air Standards By February

EPA says it intends to release its eagerly anticipated proposal to roll back tougher Biden-era federal air quality standards for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) this fall, with a final rule due in February, as the agency seeks to keep a lawsuit on the issue in abeyance, although environmentalists will likely oppose any further litigation delay. In an Aug. 13 motion to govern proceedings in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. EPA, et al. , EPA seeks a further 45-day abeyance...

Democratic AGs Slam EPA’s Use Of DOE Science Report In GHG Risk Repeal

Adding to mounting criticism, Democratic attorneys general (AGs) and a former EPA research chief are warning that the agency’s use of a draft Department of Energy (DOE) report questioning mainstream climate science as part of its proposal to scrap its GHG endangerment finding raises fundamental legal risks for the agency’s effort. The AGs detail their concerns in an Aug. 6 request for EPA to more than double its 45-day comment period for the proposal, which would scuttle the finding that...

Industry Wary Of EPA’s Proposal To Scrap All Power Plant GHG Authority

Utility and other industry groups are expressing unease or avoiding a direct position on EPA’s primary proposal to remove the agency’s threshold authority to regulate power plants’ greenhouse gases, with most groups focusing their advocacy on supporting the agency’s “alternate” plan that rolls back Biden-era rules but retains the regulatory authority. Industry is “concerned about maintaining EPA’s ultimate authority to do something about climate, rather than determining that there’s just no authority [for the agency] to do anything,” says one...

Environmentalists Say EPA’s MATS Repeal Hinges On Unlawful Cost Issues

Environmentalists are warning EPA that its plan to scrap the tougher Biden-era mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for power plants depends on unlawful cost considerations to find the rule not “necessary,” advancing a new legal interpretation of the law’s technology review mandates to reject “cost-effectiveness” as a factor. In extensive Aug. 11 comments on the Trump EPA proposal to rescind the Biden rule, an alliance of major environmental groups says, “EPA cannot finalize the proposal because to do so...

Environmentalists Outline Legal Case Against EPA’s Utility GHG Rule Repeal

Major environmental groups are detailing their legal case against EPA’s proposal to repeal greenhouse gas standards for power plants, arguing the plan is “fundamentally” at odds with the Clean Air Act’s purpose and that numerous provisions are unlawfully arbitrary including a failure to weigh key emissions implications of the proposal. EPA’s view is “squarely at odds with the statutory text and structure,” says Aug. 7 comments from a half dozen major environmental groups. There, the environmentalists are referring to EPA’s...

Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Coke Ovens Air Rule Compliance Delay

Environmental groups are suing over EPA’s interim final rule (IFR) delaying deadlines for coke plants to comply with tougher Biden-era air toxics regulations, with the litigation echoing a recent suit charging that a similar rule violated procedural requirements in delaying deadlines for the integrated steelmaking sector. In their Aug. 6 suit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), et al. v. EPA , environmental groups challenge EPA’s July...

Biomass Sector, Lawmakers Urge EPA To Preserve RFS Electricity Credits

Biomass producers, with support from lawmakers from both parties, are pressing EPA to retain the possibility of earning renewable fuel standard (RFS) credits for biomass electricity used in transportation, arguing that the Trump administration’s aversion to electric vehicles (EVs) should not disadvantage other sectors. EPA in its proposal setting RFS biofuel blending volumes for 2026 and 2027 categorically rules out any future issuance of the credits, known as electric renewable identification numbers (eRINs), regardless of which entities would benefit from...

Court Rejects Environmentalists’ Suit Seeking Farms’ Emissions Reporting

A federal district court is rejecting environmentalists’ lawsuit seeking to force EPA to issue air emissions reporting mandates for animal feeding operations (AFOs), backing the agency’s view that a 2018 law barring such reporting under the Superfund law also bars reporting under community right-to-know legislation for emergency pollution releases. The Aug. 7 ruling by Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump-appointed judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, deals a blow to environmental and community groups that for...

EPA’s Science Justification For Scrapping Climate Risk Finding Draws Fire

The Trump EPA’s science-related claims that seek to justify its plan to scuttle the 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding are drawing heavy criticism from experts who say they selectively cite data, misrepresent prior studies and dismiss overwhelming evidence of climate change harms. While EPA’s primary justification for undoing the finding focuses on alleged legal deficiencies, the agency also floats an alternative basis claiming the Obama administration’s review of the science was suspect -- with much of those claims premised on...

DTE Seeks Dismissal From EPA NSR Suit Targeting Corporate Subsidiary

Detroit Edison (DTE) is asking a federal district court judge to dismiss it as a defendant from an EPA Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) case being pursued against its corporate subsidiary EES Coke in Michigan, in a case that tests the agency’s ability to target corporate parents in enforcement actions. Senior Judge Gershwin Drain of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held an Aug. 4 hearing in the case, United States v. EES Coke...

National Academies Launch Climate Science Review, Amid EPA GHG Plan

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) is launching a review of whether greenhouse gas emissions are “reasonably anticipated to endanger public health and welfare in the U.S.,” offering the scientific community’s latest response to the Trump EPA’s proposal to scrap its GHG risk finding. “It is critical that federal policymaking is informed by the best available scientific evidence,” National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt says in an Aug. 7 statement detailing the review . “Decades of...

Bonta Fights Industry Bid To Stay EPA Waiver For CARB Small-Engine Rule

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and two environmental groups are urging the 9th Circuit to reject the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s (OPEI) request for a stay of a Biden EPA Clean Air Act preemption waiver allowing the state to enforce its rules setting zero-emissions mandates for most new small off-road engines (SORE). “OPEI cites no authority suggesting this Court may stay final agency action simply because someone has asked the agency to reconsider,” Bonta argues in an Aug. 4...

EPA Plan To Drop Stricter NSR ‘Accounting’ Faces Environmentalists’ Suit

Environmental groups are pledging to sue over EPA’s decision to scrap a Biden-era proposal to tighten the agency’s project emissions accounting (PEA) rule that eased air permitting requirements, asking a federal court to pause an existing suit over the issue while they prepare fresh litigation. In an unopposed Aug. 1 motion to govern proceedings in Environmental Defense Fund, et al. v. EPA, et al. , environmentalists ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a...

Environmentalists Seize On Gas Price Scenarios To Attack GHG Rule Repeal

Environmentalists are amplifying claims that EPA’s sweeping proposal to repeal its vehicle greenhouse gas standards will spur a sharp increase in gasoline and diesel prices due to greater fuel demand, seizing on what they view as a politically potent attack on the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda at EPA. “If EPA pulls these policies back, then Americans will lose out on cars and SUVs that get better gas mileage or, in the case of [electric vehicles (EVs)], get...

EPA Haze Policy Draws Legal Threats In Fights Over Texas, Oklahoma Plans

EPA is facing mounting legal threats from environmentalists and East Coast states over its policy for approving states’ regional haze plans to show “reasonable” progress toward meeting visibility goals, as the agency relies on the new approach to approve plans from Texas, Oklahoma and other states. Industry groups, however, are defending the agency’s approach. In comments on the agency’s proposal to withdraw a Biden-era partial disapproval of plans for Texas and Oklahoma, and to instead approve the Texas and Oklahoma...

EPA’s GHG Plans Invite High Court To Scuttle Massachusetts, Experts Say

EPA is inviting the Supreme Court to revisit a nearly 20-year-old decision paving the way for the agency’s greenhouse gas standards, experts say, as the Trump administration’s two proposals to scuttle GHG regulatory authority appear designed as a challenge to that decision to foreclose virtually any future standards. These experts say key elements of EPA’s recent proposal to rescind its 2009 GHG endangerment finding either ignore or conflict with language in the high court’s 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA...

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