Outlook 2016

OUTLOOK 2016

The year ahead for EPA regulatory policies

Inside EPA's Outlook 2016 is a comprehensive special report on legislation, litigation and agency rulemakings in the coming year on major air, water, waste, toxics and other policies.

Or read individual articles below.

States Begin Early ESPS Compliance As D.C. Circuit Stay Ruling Looms

While most states are likely to take advantage of an extended deadline to file plans to comply with EPA's existing power plant greenhouse gas rule, several states are taking steps in the new year to craft their final compliance plans in 2016 – though a pending appellate decision on whether to stay the rule could upend much of the early implementation. Most states are expected to file for a two-year deadline extension, to 2018, that EPA offered in its final...

EPA's GHG Power Plant Rules Take Effect But 'Durability' Up For Debate

EPA's landmark greenhouse gas rules for power plants took effect in late December but legal experts and others are clashing on the rules' long-term “durability” as they face their first court test this year ahead of likely Supreme Court review and, assuming they withstand legal challenge, implementation by a new administration. Critics of the regulation say a new president, especially a Republican, could easily reverse the regulations. For example, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), currently a vice chairman with the...

Utilities Eye Lawsuit, Congress To Revise EPA Ash Rule Closure Mandates

Utilities are looking to either litigation or Congress to force changes to looming coal ash disposal facility closure mandates in EPA's Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) ash rule, hoping to overhaul the rule ahead of an October deadline to take expensive compliance actions or be forced to shutter facilities in April 2017. Briefing is ongoing in consolidated U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit litigation over the rule in the case Utility Solid Waste Activities Group...

Support Growing For Consensus 'Good Samaritan' Mine Cleanup Legislation

The congressional scrutiny of an accidental EPA spill of mine wastewater in 2015 appears to be building interest in what will likely be bipartisan legislation in 2016 to promote "Good Samaritan" cleanups of contaminated abandoned mining sites, attempting to ease voluntary parties' reluctance in taking on such sites for fear of cleanup liability repercussions. Good Samaritan mining legislation is one of the few pieces of Superfund-related legislation that has sparked interest among the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee...

EPA Plans ‘Concrete’ Sustainability Efforts In 2016 Under Voluntary Program

EPA's waste office plans to implement “more concrete actions” on sustainable materials management (SMM) in 2016, according to the office's top official, with the agency planning to place a priority on reuse and recycling in the “built” environment, food management and sustainable packaging. SMM is “a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire lifecycles,” EPA says on its website. In addition to reducing waste and conserving resources, EPA ties SMM to reducing climate impacts as...

Advocates Await Further Details On EPA's Evolving ESA Pesticide Approach

Environmentalists are awaiting EPA's first draft reviews of pesticides' risks to endangered species, now slated for release in the spring after months of delay, saying they will provide a better look into the agency's evolving risk evaluation process, which advocates are already hailing for its transparency. EPA Dec. 11 issued supporting documents for the first three draft biological evaluations that federal officials are conducting under a new process based on National Academy of Sciences advice for assessing risks of pesticides...

Legal Pressure On EPA Pesticides Office Could Prompt Stricter Reviews

After an adverse court ruling last year, EPA's pesticides office is facing legal pressure to ensure its risk reviews are thorough and well-documented, observers say, arguing the pressure may have prompted recent EPA reversals in other cases and could lead to stricter reviews in 2016 under federal pesticide law and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in what one observer calls “a very important moment in the history...

EPA Will Struggle To Finalize RMP Rule In 2016 After Delaying Proposal

With a proposal to update its facility safety rule delayed until early 2016, EPA will struggle to issue a final rule revising its Risk Management Plan (RMP) program before President Obama leaves office, sources say, though advocates will continue calls for EPA to quickly issue a final rule while industry sources differ on whether that is feasible. Obama issued Executive Order (EO) 13650 on strengthening the safety and security of industrial plants Aug. 1, 2013, in response to an explosion,...

EPA Plans Broader Development, Use Of CompTox Approaches In 2016

EPA's National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT) and agency partners are embarking on a series of projects in 2016 intended to further the use of computational and other 21st century toxicology approaches by EPA's regulatory offices, both in developing the nascent tools and guidelines for their use as alternative testing methods. EPA created NCCT after receiving support from the National Academy of Sciences for such technologies in its 2007 report, “Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and a...

TSCA Reform Conference Talks To Decide Scope Of EPA's New Authorities

Upcoming conference talks to reconcile Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bills approved by the House and Senate will decide the scope of EPA's new chemical regulatory and oversight authorities, observers say, with some GOP lawmakers who are critical of the agency seen as hesitant to grant EPA any new rulemaking power. “Clearly there are going to be people who don't want to see EPA get more authority,” an industry source says. As a result, the many Democratic and Republican...

Electric Utilities Confident Of Meeting Multiple EPA Air Rule Requirements

Electric utility industry sources say that they are confident of crafting a compliance strategy for meeting multiple EPA air and climate regulatory requirements, a significant contrast from prior years where the industry warned of a “train wreck” of agency utility sector rules that could shutter power plants and damage grid reliability. EPA has said that despite legal challenges to its regulations -- including a still-pending suits over its mercury and air toxics standards (MATS) for power plants and litigation over...

States, Advocates Seek Comprehensive EPA Interstate Air Pollution Policy

Eastern states and environmental groups are urging EPA to craft a comprehensive policy to reduce interstate transport of air pollution, saying the agency's proposed update to its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) will not be enough to cut emissions and help states attain EPA's 2008 ozone standard and stricter 2015 standard. EPA has said that existing and pending federal air rules, combined with state and industry efforts to cut ozone-forming emissions, will bring most areas of the country into attainment...

Refiners See Long-Sought RIN Credit Certainty With EPA's Multi-Year RFS

Refining sector sources say EPA's issuance of a multi-year renewable fuel standard (RFS) covering 2014 through 2016 will allow the industry for the first time in years to properly plan their purchases of renewable identification number (RIN) compliance credits and avoid unnecessary expense they faced in previous RFS years. In its multi-year RFS, the agency met a Clean Air Act goal to set the fuel blending targets for the coming year by Nov. 30 of the preceding year. The final...

Oil & Gas Methane Rule Seen As Win For EPA After Regulatory Missteps

EPA's pending first-time rule to set limits on the oil and gas sector's methane emissions is seen as a major win for the agency after a number of missteps in trying to regulate the industry, sources say, including its much-criticized efforts to tighten oversight of the industry and to assess hydraulic fracturing's potential impacts on water quality. Many of the initiatives EPA undertook in the oil and gas sector “took a much slower pace or disappeared” as the administration began...

EPA, States Push For Novel Water Trading As Advocates Seek Legal Test

EPA and states in the Chesapeake Bay area and other regions subject to strict Clean Water Act (CWA) controls on nutrients are hoping to build support for water quality trading regimes in 2016, including first-time interstate trades, but environmentalists critical of the practice are seeking a test case that would let them challenge it in court. EPA and states are touting trading programs as the solution to stringent watershed-level nutrient reduction goals because they allow industrial dischargers such as wastewater...

Supreme Court's 2016 Term Could Set Precedents On Major CWA Policies

The Supreme Court's 2016 term could see rulings setting new precedents on major EPA Clean Water Act (CWA) policies, including whether the agency's determinations that waters are “jurisdictional” under the CWA law can be litigated and the legal scope of federal total maximum daily load (TMDL) waterbody cleanup plans. Justices have already agreed to hear litigation over the jurisdictional determination (JD) issue and briefing in that case is set to begin soon. Meanwhile, agriculture and home building industry groups are...

6th Circuit's CWA Ruling Might Clarify Jurisdiction For Water Rule Cases

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit's pending ruling on whether it has authority to hear consolidated suits over EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule might clarify the scope of when appellate rather than district courts should hear suits over other CWA rules dealing with the law's reach, according to sources. The court's decision could have “potential implications for the reviewability of future rulemakings” under the water law, the attorney says, because it could involve a precedential...

CWA 'Waters' Challenge Complicates Effort To Aid States With 404 Permitting

EPA advisors are facing a “delicate dance” in attempting to craft recommendations on how to help states gain the authority to issue Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 dredge-and-fill permits while the question of which waters are subject to such permits is still being hashed out in federal courts. The Assumable Water Subcommittee of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) is scheduled to finalize its recommendations by late 2016 on how EPA can best clarify for...

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