ISSUE: Environmental Policy Alert

EPA Backs Wyoming’s Partial CCR Permit Program, Advancing State Push

EPA is proposing to approve Wyoming’s long-pending application to operate portions of a coal combustion residuals (CCR) permitting program in lieu of the federal program, the second such proposal the agency has issued as it works to advance Administrator Lee Zeldin’s goal of approving more state coal ash programs. EPA on Aug. 28 issued a prepublication version of its proposed approval of the Cowboy State’s application to operate its own CCR permit program in lieu of the federal requirements. “Today’s...

D.C. Circuit Embraces High Court’s NEPA Precedent, Curbing Challenges

The D.C. Circuit has “embraced” the Supreme Court’s precedent for how courts should grant “substantial deference” to agencies’ National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews in a ruling that industry lawyers say will stymie environmentalists’ efforts to file such suits in the favored venue under the landmark environmental law. In its first ruling interpreting the high court’s recent Seven County decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that...

In Surprise, House Poised To Unveil Draft TSCA Reform Bill Ahead Of Senate

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are poised to release a draft TSCA reform bill soon after lawmakers return from their summer recess next week, sources say, a surprise given that many observers expected the Senate to go first on advancing any legislation. “The House was putting pen to paper this month with hopes of having some draft when Congress returns,” an industry source tells Inside TSCA . “Last I heard, they are ahead of the Senate.” Such...

Court Dismisses Ohio Plant’s Suit Over Biden EPA’s CCR Interpretation

A federal court is dismissing an Ohio power plant’s suit challenging the Biden EPA’s interpretation of its 2015 coal combustion residuals (CCR) rule when it denied the facility’s request to extend deadlines to cease receipt of waste and close one of its facilities, marking the second court to find the agency “straightforwardly applied” the rule’s mandates. The decision could complicate efforts by the Trump EPA and industry groups seeking to overhaul the agency’s 2015 CCR rule and some of its...

9th Circuit Grapples With Retroactive Application Of Sackett In Citizen Suit

An appellate panel is grappling with whether a district court properly rejected a defendant’s bid to dismiss a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit post-verdict for lack of subject matter jurisdiction as a result of the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, appearing to test defendants’ ability to apply the high court’s precedent retroactively. A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard Aug. 11 arguments in the suit Inland Empire Waterkeeper, et al., v....

Split 4th Circuit Finds Exposure Claims Satisfy Standing In Monitoring Suit

A split 4th Circuit panel has held that plaintiffs in a class action suit seeking medical monitoring for ethylene oxide (EtO) exposures in West Virginia satisfied Article III injury and standing when citing past exposures, a loss for industry defendants and their supporters who argued that any injuries from such exposures are too speculative. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued an Aug. 18 opinion in the suit Lee Ann Sommerville v. Union Carbide Corp. , reversing...

Sierra Club Suit Says CRA Repeal Of Air Toxics Rule Invalidates 2015 Finding

Sierra Club is seeking to renew litigation over EPA’s landmark 2015 finding that the agency met a statutory requirement to regulate emissions of seven “persistent and bioaccumulative” air toxics, claiming that lawmakers’ repeal of a Biden-era rule barring reclassification of some industry plants to less-regulated status invalidates the 2015 finding. A successful legal challenge to this finding could put pressure on EPA to toughen air toxics rules or again show how it has met the Clean Air Act’s obligation to...

2023 TRI Analysis Shows Facilities Treated More PFAS Waste, Cut Releases

Facilities managed more PFAS waste in 2023 compared to previous years, according to EPA’s new analysis of 2023 data reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), but more of that waste was treated than before, resulting in a reduction in releases through air, water, land and other media compared to 2022. But the data for 2024 is expected to show an increase in volumes of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) waste as 2023 was the last reporting year when facilities...

Environmentalists Fight EPA’s State-By-State Bid To Adopt New Haze Policy

Environmentalists claim EPA’s approvals of state plans to reduce regional haze unlawfully alter national policy established by current rules, and that such approvals relying on new agency policy have “nationwide scope or effect” under recent Supreme Court precedent, directing litigation over the approvals to the District of Columbia Circuit. In Aug. 18 comments on EPA’s proposed approval of Indiana’s state implementation plan (SIP) for regional haze, seven groups including National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Sierra Club and others say that...

Reversing Precedent, Court Rejects Internet Law Defense For Defeat Devices

In a reversal of precedent, a federal appeals court has ruled that a manufacturer of devices used to deactivate vehicle emissions controls required by the Clean Air Act (CAA) is not entitled to immunity under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which shields Internet content providers from liability for third-party content. In an Aug. 20 ruling in United States v. EZ Lynk, et al. , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed a lower court’s...

Environmentalists Urge D.C. Circuit To Quickly Scrap Methane-Delay Rule

Environmental groups are pressing the D.C. Circuit to quickly scrap EPA’s interim final rule (IFR) delaying oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules, filing a motion for summary vacatur that argues the interim measure flouts core Clean Air Act procedural requirements. “EPA’s action substantially delays compliance dates under a final Clean Air Act rule the agency issued in 2024, which provides critical protections against some of the nation’s largest sources of air pollution,” the groups say in...

Critics Blast ‘Egregious’ EPA Proposal To Reverse GHG Risk Finding

Critics of EPA’s proposal to undo its landmark greenhouse gas endangerment finding are offering a barrage of concerns about the plan’s harms and outlining the myriad ways in which they say it violates the law and court rulings -- previewing more detailed comments that groups are developing on the high-profile rulemaking. “In my nearly 50 years of working in this field, through administrations of both parties, this proposal is the most egregious violation of science, law, and EPA’s mission I’ve...

Sen. Ricketts Proposes CERCLA PFAS Liability Protections In FY26 NDAA

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) is proposing an amendment to fiscal year 2026 defense authorization legislation that would carve out Superfund liability protections for fire suppression, wastewater and other entities in response to requirements designating two PFAS as “hazardous substances,” marking an early test of legislative support for such measures. Ricketts’ amendment , filed July 31 before senators broke for their summer recess, also proposes a new definition for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that would narrow the current definition contained...

EPA Again Delays TCE Rule From Taking Effect While Litigation Continues

EPA is extending once again the compliance deadlines for TSCA restrictions on certain critical uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) to preserve the status quo while waiting for a federal appeals court to respond to competing requests over how consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TCE risk management rule should proceed. In a pre-publication Federal Register notice , EPA says it is postponing by an additional 90 days -- until Nov. 17 -- “the conditions imposed on each of the...

ELG Ruling Could Delay Revisions Amid EPA Cuts, Former Official Says

A former EPA official says that the recent 9th Circuit ruling finding the agency unlawfully failed to revise effluent limits for seven industrial categories will require review of additional data in biennial program plans, a move that requires additional time and resources and could face additional delays due to Trump administration budget cuts. Betsy Southerland, who led EPA’s office that oversees the effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) program, told Inside EPA in an interview that if the ruling stands, “EPA...

EPA Looks Beyond Biden-Era ELG, CCR Rules For Potential Revisions

EPA is looking beyond Biden-era rules governing coal-fired power plants’ effluent limitations and coal combustion residual (CCR) disposal at legacy sites for potential revision, signaling in recent legal filings as well as regulatory docket entries that it may revisit aspects of previous Trump and Obama-era rulemakings. EPA is currently in the midst of taking actions to extend compliance deadlines associated with the Biden administration’s 2024 rules strengthening effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for the steam electric generating category and setting requirements...

Draft MAHA Plan Sidesteps PFAS Advice, Seeks To Ease Pesticide Policy

A draft strategy from the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission appears to sidestep calls for addressing PFAS while proposing to ease EPA policies governing pesticides and farm operations, a move that is sparking criticism from environmentalists who say it marks a turnabout from the panel’s initial report. The draft strategy , required by President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the panel, follows a May MAHA assessment that identified four potential drivers behind an increase in childhood chronic...

Latest Trump EO Exempts Commercial Space Flight From NEPA Review

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order exempting commercial space operations from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, the latest in a series of such actions scaling back the universe of activities subject to NEPA. The Aug. 13 order , “Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry,” directs the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) and the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to “eliminate or expedite” DOT’s environmental reviews for “the granting of launch and reentry...

Trump DOJ Joins Suits To Invalidate California Truck Emissions Agreement

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is joining two industry lawsuits seeking to invalidate the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 2023 deal with truck manufacturers to reduce emissions, providing additional arguments about why the state cannot enforce standards that DOJ says have been preempted by the federal government. “Agreement, contract, partnership, mandate -- whatever California wants to call it, this unlawful action attempts to undermine federal law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division...

CEQ Submits Final NEPA Rule Recission To OMB For Interagency Review

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is taking its final procedural step to formally repeal its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing rules, sending a draft final repeal rule to the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for interagency review. Once finalized, the measure will almost certainly draw litigation from states, environmentalists and other critics, who have already charged that CEQ’s interim final rule (IRF) repealing the regulations is unlawful and will lead to confusion and inconsistency. CEQ...

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