ISSUE: EPA Top Stories

NRDC Urges District Court To Force EPA Perchlorate Drinking Water Limit

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is fighting EPA’s efforts to terminate a consent decree requiring establishment of a drinking water limit for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate, arguing in a potentially precedent-setting case that EPA lacks the authority to reverse an Obama-era finding that such a limit is necessary. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the consent decree “both mandate that EPA issue final regulations for perchlorate,” NRDC tells the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of...

IG Highlights Pandemic Response, EJ Integration As Top EPA Challenges

EPA’s Inspector General (IG) is adding the maintenance of agency operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disaster responses, as well the enhancement of environmental justice (EJ) efforts across programs to a growing list of the agency’s top management challenges, criticizing recent Trump administration efforts to cut funding for EJ efforts. “EPA leadership needs to reaffirm its commitment to Executive Order 12898 by ensuring that environmental justice is integrated into every program and regional office across the Agency,” the IG...

Critics Blast CEQ Rule Overhaul As Cutting ‘Heart’ Out Of NEPA’s Purpose

The White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) overhaul of its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing rule eviscerates the “heart” of the bedrock environmental law and seeks to turn it into an efficient project approval tool, according to legal experts critical of the controversial regulation. Jayni Hein of the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI) at New York University says the final rule -- published in the July 16 Federal Register after President Donald Trump personally unveiled it a...

In Blow To Trump Rollbacks, Court Finds ‘Interim’ SCC Not ‘Best’ Science

A federal district judge has found that Trump administration officials arbitrarily relied on their aggressively scaled-back social cost of carbon (SCC) metric to justify a rollback of Obama-era methane standards for oil and gas equipment, a decision that could undermine efforts to scrap a host of climate mitigation policies. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled July 15 that the Trump administration’s metric is “riddled with flaws,” ignores the “best available...

Biden Mixes Climate Plans With Broader Critique Of Trump’s Economy

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is combining his newly detailed climate change proposals with a broader critique of President Donald Trump’s inaction on climate and coronavirus, framing his plans as necessary for economic rebuilding and an antidote to the current administration’s incompetence. Biden’s wide-ranging updates to his climate plan -- unveiled during a July 14 speech in Wilmington, DE -- mix new details with several concepts already road-tested by other Democrats or his campaign, framed around a pledge for at...

EPA Ozone NAAQS Proposal Spurs Fight Between Health Groups, Industry

EPA has formally proposed to keep its national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone unchanged at the levels set in 2015 by the Obama administration, setting the stage for a fight between public health advocates seeking tougher limits and industry groups opposing stricter standards as the agency moves to finalize its rule by the end of the year. Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the proposal July 13, ahead of its forthcoming publication in the Federal Register . The proposal ,...

DOJ Urges Appellate Court To Reverse Stay Of WOTUS Rule In Colorado

The Justice Department (DOJ) is urging an appellate court to overturn a judicial stay of the Trump administration’s narrowed “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) definition in Colorado, arguing the lower court erred in its analysis of Colorado’s likelihood of success on the merits and that the state failed to show it will be irreparably harmed by the rule. “At most, one could speculate that Colorado will have to choose whether to bring one or two additional enforcement actions” as...

In FY21 Report, House Democrats Renew Concerns With EPA’s Agenda

Democratic appropriators in the House are reiterating and amplifying multiple concerns with EPA’s deregulatory efforts and resistance to Hill oversight, pressing the agency for action or information on numerous topics, including water contamination, toxic chemical risk assessment and agency enforcement. The critiques are included in a nonbinding report accompanying the chamber’s fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill for EPA, which would also block the agency from finalizing or implementing several Trump-era air, climate and water rollbacks. While it is far from...

Pipeline Rulings May Mark ‘Turning Point’ Against Fossil Fuel Projects

A prominent mix of complicated environmental law court rulings involving oil and gas pipeline projects, where even industry wins are not always enough to ensure projects can continue, could mark a turning point against the fossil fuel sector as investors becoming increasingly wary of its chances for success, observers say. Among the decisions drawing attention is the Supreme Court’s July 6 ruling to stay a district court’s nationwide injunction of a Clean Water Act (CWA) general permit for the construction...

10th Circuit Ruling May Force Broader EPA Review Of State Air Permits

A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit likely will force EPA to take a broader look at states’ decisions when they craft Clean Air Act permits, partially scaling back the Trump administration’s policy of not “second-guessing” state regulators’ decisions and giving environmentalists more opportunities to challenge such permits. In a unanimous July 2 ruling in Sierra Club v. EPA, et al., a three-judge panel of the court rejects EPA’s rationale for refusing environmentalists’...

Divisions Over EPA’s PM Plan Raise Questions Over D.C. Circuit Deference

Legal experts say unprecedented divisions between EPA, its own staff, scientific advisers and advocacy groups make it likely the agency will face a lawsuit if it finalizes its plan to retain the suite of particulate matter (PM) air limits and that the fate of the rule could depend on how much deference a key federal appeals court gives EPA. “How much deference does EPA get when it ignores the recommendation of the overwhelming weight of mainstream science?” asks attorney Seth...

Region 2 Staff Fear EPA Reopening Plan, Faulting Wheeler’s Justification

EPA Region 2 employees in New York and New Jersey are raising major concerns about the Trump administration’s plan to “reopen” the agency’s Manhattan office, fearing COVID-19 risks, and are pushing back on EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s justification that reopening is vital to return the agency to normal operations. One Region 2 source stresses that the agency never closed because of the virus, because staff have worked diligently from their homes during the pandemic. A number of Region 2 attorneys...

EPA Floats Ambitious OAR Agenda, Hinting At Trump Second Term Plans

Correction Appended EPA is floating an ambitious agenda for its Office of Air & Radiation (OAR) in its just-updated schedule of pending rules that includes steps to ease industry permitting and potentially remove some toxic substances from regulation, hinting at OAR’s plans for future years if President Donald Trump wins his reelection bid in November. In the updated Spring Unified Agenda of pending rules, EPA also suggests it might reconsider the stringency of later-year greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty...

District Court Judge Backs EPA On One-Time Air Toxics Rule Risk Reviews

A federal district court judge is backing EPA’s long-standing position that it need only conduct “residual” health risk reviews for its existing air toxics regulations once, rejecting environmentalists’ claim that the reviews must occur every eight years alongside related Clean Air Act-mandated reviews of air toxic control technologies. The June 26 opinion by Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, et al. v. Wheeler could potentially help...

EPA, Union Officials Escalate Fight Over COVID-19 Office Reopening Plans

EPA and its largest employee union are elevating a public fight over the agency’s plans to reopen after coronavirus-caused work-from-home orders, with union officials arguing the agency is not sharing plans for how it will safely reopen while the agency is blaming the union for failed communications with its members. Additionally, employees are raising the alarm that they may be forced to undertake risky commuting to get to an unsafe office only to be effectively required to “telecommute” from their...

Legal Experts Weigh High Court’s ‘Textual’ Focus For EPA Rollback Cases

Legal experts are debating how the Supreme Court’s sharp focus on the text of laws in recent landmark rulings might affect pending litigation over Trump administration rollbacks of environmental rules, with some observers saying the “textual” approach might assist states and others who are suing to undo the deregulatory actions. Among the cases that could ultimately head to the high court and be affected by the textual approach are suits filed by California, other states and environmentalists against EPA for...

Despite Reopening, EPA Union Urges Staffers Against Returning To Offices

As EPA headquarters and several regional offices begin the first phase of reopening, the agency’s largest employee union is urging staff to continue working from home due to concerns about unsafe working conditions as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The agency’s phase 1 plan, under which the headquarters office officially opened June 23, calls for career staff to continue telecommuting but does encourage political leadership to return to their respective offices. “We do expect members of EPA’s political leadership team to...

EPA Plans To ‘Terminate’ COVID-19 Enforcement Flexibility Policy ‘Soon’

Correction Appended EPA in the near future will “terminate” its controversial policy granting industry broad discretion from meeting compliance obligations under environmental regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic, says a top agency enforcement official who adds that EPA might still offer similar discretion for future unforeseen circumstances. Speaking on a conference call hosted by the conservative non-profit Federalist Society June 22, John Irving, EPA deputy assistant administrator with the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), said, “We will...

Judge Blocks WOTUS Rule In Colorado While Legal Challenges Increase

Correction Appended A federal judge in Colorado has blocked the Trump administration’s narrowed definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS) from being implemented in that state, hours after another federal judge rejected a nationwide halt to the rule and while legal challenges to the WOTUS policy increase from environmentalists and other EPA critics. Judge William Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued the stay of the rule late in the day June 19,...

Supreme Court DACA Decision Could Set Strict Test For EPA Rollbacks

The Supreme Court’s decision preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program could make it harder for EPA to defend repeals of its past policies including the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks and potential future reversals of rules enacted since 2017, observers say. In its June 18 decision in Department of Homeland Security (DHS), et al., v. Regents of the University of California, et al. , a 5-4 majority of the high court says DHS failed to consider crucial...

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