Natural Gas

The following stories are the latest news on the efforts by EPA and the administration to address increased demand for natural gas and the controversies raised by hydraulic fracturing.

Topic Subtitle
The following stories are the latest news on the efforts by EPA and the administration to address increased demand for natural gas and the controversies raised by hydraulic fracturing.

D.C. Circuit Finds High Court ‘Abrogated’ NEPA Indirect GHG Review Ruling

A panel of the D.C. Circuit has held that the circuit’s controversial decision requiring assessment of downstream emissions from certain natural gas projects has been “abrogated” by the recent Supreme Court decision limiting reviews of indirect effects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The panel’s Sept. 30 decision in Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) represents a win for the gas industry that has long chafed at the 2017 ruling from the U.S...

Industry Urges 9th Circuit To Adopt SCOTUS’ NEPA ‘Course Correction’

Industry groups are urging the 9th Circuit to follow the Supreme Court’s recent “course correction” in its landmark ruling restricting challenges under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), seeking to extend the precedent after it was recently embraced by the D.C. Circuit. In an Oct. 6 amicus brief in Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service, et al. , the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) urge the U.S. Court of...

Vehicle Makers Join EPA In Attacking CARB Effort To Reinstate Older Rules

Major car and truck manufacturers are joining EPA in attacking the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) proposed rules to reinstate older vehicle criteria emissions limits, charging the dual-track regulatory plan violates administrative procedures and hikes compliance uncertainty across the market. But environmentalists and officials in Northeastern and other states that have adopted CARB’s stricter vehicle emission rules are strongly supporting the board’s new proposals. The proposed rules “do not provide clarity and instead sow confusion and uncertainty into California’s certification...

With Hill Talks In Limbo, Groups Step Up Efforts To Use AI In NEPA Reviews

Public and private entities are stepping up their efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) to speed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, as Capitol Hill talks on overhauling federal permitting practices remain in limbo in the midst of the ongoing government shutdown. These efforts range from a pilot project at the Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) looming request for proposals on its Permitting Technology Action Plan to speed NEPA reviews,...

Industry, Free Market Groups Craft Broad Target List For State Climate Laws

Industry and free market groups are detailing a broad assortment of state climate laws that they want the Trump administration to challenge in new legal actions, arguing the Justice Department (DOJ) must intervene to assert federal preemption over a host of measures affecting vehicle emissions, climate-related disclosures and cap-and-trade programs. In recent comments submitted to DOJ, the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree Chamber) writes that numerous state and local climate programs “pose substantial burdens on businesses across the...

Washington State Carbon Trading Program Survives High Court Challenge

Washington state’s relatively young greenhouse gas “cap-and-invest” program has survived another major threat to its continued implementation, after the Supreme Court declined to hear a power company’s appeal asserting that the program unconstitutionally burdens interstate commerce. The high court’s decision not to hear the appeal, issued in a brief Oct. 6 order , comes nearly a year after state voters in the November election rejected a ballot initiative that would have repealed the carbon trading program. The justices did not...

Shutdown Raises Questions On Pace Of EPA’s GHG Regulatory Rollbacks

Observers are increasingly asking whether the ongoing federal government shutdown could last long enough to slow EPA’s rollbacks of greenhouse gas regulations, even as some sources are flagging factors that could blunt or eliminate such effects, including leftover funds and the possibility that key staff will be exempted from furloughs. “I can’t speak with any certainty,” one agency source says about divergent rumors about how long the agency can continue operating at relatively normal levels with such leftover funds. The...

Biofuels Groups, Refiners Clash Over RFS Volumes ‘Reallocation’ Proposal

Biofuels groups and refiners are clashing over EPA’s proposal to partially compensate for waivers it issued for small refineries from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates, with biofuel producers insisting on a full “reallocation” of volumes to non-exempt refiners, and refiners opposing any reallocation as unlawful. During an Oct. 1 virtual public hearing on EPA’s supplemental RFS volumes proposal for 2026 and 2027, biofuels groups restated their opposition to EPA’s approval of small refinery exemptions (SREs) in general, and...

Lawsuits Mount Over EPA’s RFS Compliance Waiver Denials For Refiners

Litigation is growing over EPA’s denial of compliance waivers for small refiners from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending requirements, as the agency shifts its rationale for granting or denying waivers and prepares to compensate for such waivers in RFS volumes for 2026 and 2027. Refiners’ lawsuits are being consolidated under REH Company LLC v. EPA in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in line with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in EPA v....

NEPA Experts See More Legal Risks In Latest CEQ Guidance, Template

Legal experts say the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) updated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidance and implementing template, which are intended to provide clarity for agencies seeking to expedite and simplify permitting, instead raise more legal risks and may not provide the clarity agencies need. The Sept. 29 guidance and template replace similar CEQ documents issued in February and build upon 2023 and 2025 NEPA congressional amendments including a new fee that allows project developers to speed...

Environmentalists Press EPA To Disclose AI Use In Vehicle, GHG Rollbacks

Environmentalists are pressing for a “detailed disclosure” by EPA of any use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its rulemaking to undo its greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle standards, arguing that failure to do so violates procedural requirements and removes safeguards against error. Their call, as part of broader comments to the agency on its GHG repeal proposal, signals concern with a general EPA statement on the use of AI in rulemakings that the agency quietly posted to its...

Despite Shutdown, Trump’s Expedited Permitting Agenda Moves Forward

The Trump administration’s agenda for streamlined environmental and other permitting requirements for energy and infrastructure projects is moving forward despite a partial governmental shutdown that threatens to halt all but critical operations until the White House and congressional Democrats reach an agreement on federal funding. The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), the congressionally authorized agency charged with expediting permitting, announced Oct. 2 that its members had met Oct. 1 and identified adequate funding from the Environmental Improvement Fund to...

Groups Say EPA Ignores Trillions In Harm From Ending Vehicle GHG Limits

Environmental and other groups are floating new analyses claiming that EPA’s proposed repeal of Biden-era vehicle greenhouse gas standards for vehicles ignores trillions of dollars of harms the plan would cause, part of an effort to make the case that EPA is acting arbitrarily in moving to scuttle its vehicle GHG program. The analyses are included in broader comments to the agency that claim EPA’s draft cost-benefit analysis for its plan is flawed for reasons including that it ignores the...

Industry, Environmentalists Clash Over California Drilling-Setback Rules

Industry and environmental groups are clashing over California’s proposed rule requiring 3,200-foot setbacks between new or reworked oil and gas production operations and “sensitive receptors,” with industry saying the rules will hinder the state’s new push to increase oil production and environmentalists objecting to new compliance exemptions. “[I]t is imperative that the State act rapidly to mitigate for future refinery closures and stabilize crude oil pipelines that deliver domestic crude to the refineries. Implementation of the proposed First Implementation Regulations...

CCS Sector Fears End Of EPA’s GHG Reporting Rule Could Harm Permitting

The carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector is pushing back against EPA’s proposal to scuttle greenhouse gas reporting requirements, warning that including CCS-related reporting in its plan would undercut current and planned investments in such efforts and potentially also delay permitting of underground injection wells by EPA or states. During an Oct. 1 public hearing, critics also warned that EPA’s proposed repeal of its GHG reporting rule for nearly all sectors could force industry into other disparate reporting regimes, with...

Gas Firms Say Court Ignores EPCA Precedent In Appeal Over L.A. Boiler Rule

Natural gas firms are urging the 9th Circuit to reverse a lower court ruling that upheld a zero-emission boiler rule in the Los Angeles region, arguing the district court ignored the appellate court’s 2024 ruling that Berkeley, CA’s ban on natural gas hookups to new homes and buildings was preempted by the Energy Policy & Conservation Act (EPCA). “This case presents essentially the same question of federal preemption this Court resolved last year” in California Restaurant Association (CRA) v. City...

Judge Seeks Post-Trial Briefs Before Ruling On Parent Firm’s NSR Liability

A federal judge in Michigan has ordered lawyers for parties in a major new source review (NSR) case to submit post-trial briefs before he rules on key issues, including whether utility DTE is liable for the conduct of its subsidiary EES Coke, which the court already found to have violated NSR requirements, as well as the size of any penalty. In a Sept. 29 order, Judge Gershwin Drain of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan directed...

Judges Grapple With Biofuels Groups’ Suit Over ‘Retroactive’ RFS Waivers

D.C. Circuit judges are grappling with whether a challenge by biofuels groups over a 2020 renewable fuel standard (RFS) rule is moot, as the producers seek to force EPA to compensate for blending volumes lost to refinery waivers for past years, but the agency claims their case cannot proceed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held Sept. 30 arguments in the case, Clean Fuels Alliance America v. EPA , despite a last-minute bid by biofuels...

EEI Warns EPA About Adverse Effects Of Reversing GHG Risk Finding

Investor-owned utilities are cautioning EPA about the potential fallout from removing the greenhouse gas endangerment finding and linked vehicle emissions standards -- arguing federal GHG standards play an important role in displacing federal common law suits and providing the regulatory certainty required to build new gas plants. The power sector is not regulated directly by EPA’s proposed rule, which seeks to rescind the agency’s threshold risk finding and repeal vehicle GHG standards. EPA is separately promulgating a rule that would...

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