ISSUE: Clean Air Report

To Protect Coal Plants, EPA Blocks Colorado Haze Plan In Novel Proposal

EPA is proposing to partially disapprove a Colorado plan to curb regional haze, opposing the state’s plan to force closure of coal plants to reduce air pollution, under a new interpretation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) that could block air plans from other states based on grid reliability or constitutional concerns. In a proposal published July 16 in the Federal Register , EPA faults Colorado’s “long-term strategy” (LTS) for curbing haze under the state implementation plan (SIP) for the...

Texas Claims EPA Backs ‘Dangerous’ Precedent In Interstate Ozone Fight

Texas and allied industry groups say EPA backs a “dangerous new precedent” in its resistance to their bid for an appeals court to rehear its ruling upholding the Biden EPA’s rejection of interstate ozone plans, claiming EPA and the court sidestep Supreme Court precedent on judicial deference to agencies and misinterpret “harmless error.” In a July 11 filing in State of Texas, et al. v. EPA et al. , Texas officials say the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th...

House Republicans’ FY26 Legislation Details EPA Cuts, Policy Restrictions

House Republicans are proposing a $2.1 billion cut to EPA spending in fiscal year 2026, which is about a quarter less than its current budget but higher than the Trump administration’s request, while also floating numerous policy riders that would block or restrict Biden-era air and water policies. The House Appropriations Committee on July 14 released its FY26 bill for EPA, Interior and related agencies ahead of a planned markup July 15. Overall, it details a $2.1 billion reduction to...

House GOP Takes Aim At Biden EPA GHG Regulations In FY26 Legislation

House Republicans are proposing provisions in draft fiscal year 2026 spending legislation for EPA that would block implementation of numerous Biden-era climate rules, alongside a 23 percent cut to the agency’s budget that Democrats say would hinder the government’s response to climate change. The July 14 release of the bill text , prior to a planned July 15 House Appropriations subcommittee markup, offers a preliminary negotiating marker for the House chamber -- with the release of a Senate FY26 plan...

RFS Plan Spurs Debate On Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel, Biogas Measures

Biofuel producers are debating measures in EPA’s proposed renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2026 and 2027 that boosts biodiesel at the expense of “renewable diesel,” though some are still claiming the program retains an unfair advantage for renewable diesel. Meanwhile, renewable natural gas (RNG) producers are separately complaining that EPA unreasonably reduced RFS volumes for their product. In the proposal setting biofuel blending volumes, EPA significantly boosted the volume for biomass-based diesel (BBD), a category that includes both biodiesel, a...

EPA Reportedly Exploring Changes To Truck Emission Control Safeguards

EPA is exploring possible modifications to heavy vehicle emissions control safeguards known as “inducements” -- changes in vehicle performance designed to prod proper servicing of emissions controls, particularly for diesel engines -- that have drawn fire from some vehicle operators, according to industry sources. One industry source suggests the issue has sparked particular interest from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, in a manner similar to his separate statements that EPA is reviewing regulatory incentives for automaker use of passenger vehicle stop-start...

Environmentalists Defend Continuous Monitors At MATS Rollback Hearing

Numerous environmentalists at a public hearing denounced EPA’s plan to scrap a Biden-era rule tightening the mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for power plants, arguing that officials at minimum should retain the rule’s continuous emissions monitoring requirements to track pollution. Numerous groups at the July 10 hearing, including Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the American Lung Association (ALA), American Thoracic Society (ATS), Sierra Club and Physicians for Social Responsibility, among others, urged EPA to drop its proposal. The plan would...

Chamber Pitches Utility GHG Rule Analysis Updates To Boost Repeal Case

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is offering suggestions for how EPA should change its cost-benefit analysis of the agency’s proposal to repeal Biden-era power plant greenhouse gas standards, arguing this would reveal the “true cost” of the rules to help justify the Trump administration’s proposal. During July 8 testimony at EPA’s public hearing on the rule, Heath Knakmuhs, vice president and policy counsel for the Chamber’s Global Energy Institute, urged EPA to finalize a rule “that results in the elimination...

Environmentalists Say EPA Violated Species Act With Secondary NAAQS

Environmentalists charge that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Clean Air Act by claiming the agency’s Biden-era update to “secondary” federal air standards had “no effect” on protected species, and by failing to fully consult other federal agencies, in litigation over the limits that the Trump EPA is defending. In its July 7 opening brief in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) v. EPA , before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, CBD says...

RFS Plan Spurs Worry Over Waivers, Splits Over Reduced Import Credit

EPA’s plan to boost biofuel blending under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), while welcomed by biofuel producers, is also spurring worry about how many compliance waivers the agency will grant to small refiners that remain strongly opposed to the proposal, as well as splits among industry regarding provisions to curb imported fuels. At a virtual public hearing July 8, biofuels groups praised the plan to sustain corn ethanol volumes at the current level and to substantially increase the volume for...

In West Virginia Haze Rule, EPA Defends New Policy, Legal Venue Choice

In its final approval of West Virginia’s regional haze plan, EPA is defending its authority to rely on a relaxed policy for states that critics say is unlawful, as well as its determination that approval of the plan is a purely local matter that must be litigated in a regional appellate court, in an early test of recent Supreme Court rulings on the venue issue. The final rule published in the Federal Register July 7 confirms a proposed policy...

EPA Extends Deadlines For Coke Ovens To Meet Biden Air Toxics Limits

EPA is continuing to delay air toxics compliance requirements for steel-sector facilities, punting deadlines for coke ovens used in steelmaking to 2027 under industry pressure, after recently issuing a similar delay for integrated iron and steel plants, even as the agency is weighing major rollbacks of the rules. In an interim final rule scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 8, EPA pushes back deadlines from July 7, 2025, and Jan. 6, 2026, to July 5, 2027...

RFS Rule Triggers ‘10 for 1’ Deregulatory Order, In Apparent First For EPA

EPA’s proposed rule setting biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2026 and 2027 may be the first EPA regulation to trigger President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring agencies to scrap 10 regulations for every one they issue, likely because the RFS has net costs rather than savings, one analyst says. According to regulatory tracking by the free-market American Action Forum (AAF), the RFS volumes rule, known as Set 2, appears to be the first Trump-era EPA...

Environmentalists Signal New Fight On EPA ‘Contingency Measures’ Policy

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and allied groups are criticizing EPA’s approval of a Colorado air quality plan that excludes certain “contingency measures” (CMs) for attaining ozone limits that the state says are infeasible, foreshadowing a possible legal challenge to EPA’s national policy on the contentious issue. In June 24 joint comments , CBD, Colorado Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility criticize EPA’s proposed approval of a Colorado State Implementation Plan (SIP) for ozone that they say...

EPA Extends Iron And Steel Air Rule Deadlines Pending Reconsideration

EPA is extending compliance deadlines for multiple aspects of its air toxics rule for integrated iron and steel works as it reconsiders a suite of such Biden-era rules for the sector, citing plants’ expected inabilities to meet the tougher standards as it rethinks and likely rolls back the new requirements. In an interim final rule slated for publication in the Federal Register July 3, EPA extends “certain compliance deadlines in the 2024 rule to April 3, 2027, in light...

EPA Delays Compliance Deadlines For Aerosol Coatings Emissions Rule

EPA is extending for 18 months the compliance date for the agency’s recent rule harmonizing federal air emissions limits with those used by California for aerosol coatings, after complaints from manufacturers that they need more time to comply, and that the Biden EPA unreasonably set a six-month compliance timeline. In an interim final rule published in the Federal Register July 2, EPA extends the compliance deadline from July 17, 2025, to January 17, 2027. The January 17 rule brings...

EPA Sends Combined GHG Finding, Vehicle Rule Rollbacks To OMB

EPA has sent to the White House for final review a proposed rule walking back the landmark GHG endangerment finding and vehicle emissions standards -- confirming expectations that the agency would combine its endangerment finding reconsideration with a vehicle rule repeal even as the regulation’s exact scope remains unclear. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the proposal, titled “Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Reconsideration Rule,” on June 30. EPA’s planned rollback of the greenhouse gas endangerment...

High Court Hands Biofuels Groups Additional Win On RFS Waivers Venue

The Supreme Court has upheld biofuels’ groups’ arguments that refiners’ challenges to renewable fuel standard (RFS) waivers belong in the D.C. Circuit, vacating and remanding a regional court’s ruling in litigation brought over Gulf Coast refineries’ waiver denials in line with its recent ruling on the issue. In a June 30 order , the high court grants certiorari in Growth Energy and Renewable Fuels Association v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, et al. , and further vacates and remands the finding of...

Supreme Court Denies Industry Petitions To Reverse Citizen Suit Cases

The Supreme Court is denying industry groups’ petitions to review and reverse two separate suits examining the scope of citizen suit enforcement under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act (CWA), a move that environmentalists are applauding as allowing plaintiffs to continue to pursue enforcement actions amid the Trump rollbacks. The high court in a June 30 order list denied certiorari in the suits Port of Tacoma, et al. v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and ExxonMobil Corp., et...

Amid FY26 Cuts, EPA Seeks Small Boost To Support Air Rule Rollbacks

Even as EPA is planning dramatic spending cuts for fiscal year 2026, officials are proposing a modest boost to certain core functions in the air office to support an ambitious deregulatory agenda that will require staff to write numerous rules either promised by the Trump administration or required by statute, EPA budget documents show. In its just-released budget justification document for FY26, EPA outlines its priorities for the coming fiscal year and its proposed funding levels. “In FY 2026, EPA...

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