Redefining EPA

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Continuing coverage of the Trump administration's environmental policy moves

High Court Vacates Suit Over Border Wall But New NEPA Challenge Looms

At the request of the Biden administration, the Supreme Court has vacated an appellate ruling that rejected states and environmentalists’ challenges to the Trump administration’s border wall after Biden halted construction, ending a suit that could have raised the bar for environmentalists to argue such challenges are within spending laws’ “zone of interest.” But even as the high court effort ends, officials are facing a new suit from Arizona’s Republican attorney general (AG) who charges that the administration’s decision to...

Industry, GOP States Ramp Up Push To Assume Trump Stances In Suits

Industry groups and GOP-led states are beginning to make moves to assume Trump administration stances in ongoing environmental lawsuits over concern that the Biden administration will switch sides or not adequately represent their interests, efforts that some legal experts expect will ramp up in the coming months. Among recent examples of these efforts, the American Petroleum Institute (API), an intervenor, is seeking to dismiss an environmentalist suit challenging environmental reviews for oil and gas leasing, the Chlorine Institute won the...

Trump Alums Say EPA Punting On Key Rule Deadlines Creates Uncertainty

Trump administration alumni and other conservatives say EPA’s decision to move key rules to “long-term” actions in the Biden administration’s first unified agenda creates policy uncertainty though they also say they are not surprised given that many of the delayed items present complex and time-consuming legal questions that are likely to face litigation. The unified agenda is “ambitious . . . when you look at the proposed timeline for actions,” Brittany Bolen, who served as EPA policy chief and is...

Biden EPA Sets ‘Long-Term’ Deadlines For Revising Key Trump Water Rules

EPA is setting “long-term” deadlines for revising a suite of major Clean Water Act (CWA) rules crafted by the Trump administration, including measures governing the CWA’s reach and discharge limits for power plants, as well as lead drinking water standards, though its overhaul of states’ water act authorities is slated for proposal next February. The deadlines are spelled out in the agency’s just-released spring 2021 Unified Agenda, which details EPA and other agencies’ regulatory plans for the next six months...

EPA Defends Trump Approval Of Florida’s Section 404 Permitting Program

EPA is defending the Trump administration’s decision to allow Florida to begin issuing Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 dredge-and-fill permits, arguing the agency properly followed federal administrative procedures and urging a federal district court to reject environmentalists’ arguments to the contrary. “The jurisdictional issues and procedural claims before the Court are unusual but their resolution requires only the application of well-settled legal principles to undisputed fact,” EPA tells the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Center...

EPA Repeals Most Of Trump-Era Rule Curbing EAB’s Procedures

EPA has rescinded nearly all provisions in a controversial Trump-era rule that curbed the authorities of its Environmental Appeals Board (EAB), the body that adjudicates challenges to permits and administrative penalties, with the Biden administration saying the reversal restores the board’s impartiality and independence. “Achieving greater transparency and maintaining the public trust are among my top priorities and reestablishing the EAB as an impartial review body is an important step to deliver on those commitments,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said...

EPA Declines ‘General Duty’ Objection To Air Permit, Citing Trump Stance

In a blow to environmentalists, EPA Administrator Michael Regan is rejecting their calls to object to state-issued air permits on the grounds that they fail to meet the Clean Air Act’s rarely used “general duty” requirements to limit emissions, citing arguments based on a Trump-era policy on the question. Regan last month quietly declined environmentalists’ petition for an objection to an Oregon glass manufacturer’s air permit on general duty grounds though the administrator upheld their request for objection on other...

EPA Seeks To Re-Do HBCD Evaluation, Second Request For TSCA Analyses

EPA is for the second time asking a federal appellate court to remand a Trump-era TSCA evaluation so it can re-do it, saying in a new court filing that it intends to drop its past practice of making separate risk findings for each use of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), a group of flame retardant chemicals, for a single “binary” determination. “While parties in this litigation have yet to make arguments in this case, EPA believes the parties may argue that the condition-of-use...

EPA plans listening sessions on revising Trump facility-safety rollback

EPA is further signaling that it is moving to reconsider a controversial Trump-era rule rolling back Obama EPA facility-safety requirements, announcing plans to hold listening sessions in June and July to allow stakeholders to weigh in on revisions to the policy that the Biden EPA had already flagged for potential reversal. “The listening sessions are a first step in considering improvements to the [Risk Management Plan (RMP)] rule, so EPA can better address the impacts of climate change on facility...

EPA signs final action repealing Trump-era science rule

EPA has signed its final action repealing a Trump-era rule governing agency officials’ use of scientific studies in regulatory work, months after a federal district judge vacated the policy after ruling that it was not merely “procedural” as EPA had argued during the rulemaking process. The repeal rule , which EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed on May 26, will immediately strike the science policy from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) when published in the Federal Register . “This action...

Environmentalists renew push to vacate Trump WOTUS rule

Environmental groups challenging the Trump administration’s definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS) are renewing their push for a federal district court in South Carolina to vacate the rule, after the court lifted a stay on the litigation that had been in place to allow the Biden administration to formulate its position on the issue. “The rule challenged here is an arbitrary policy reversal that removes the Clean Water Act’s safeguards from millions of stream miles, tens of millions...

Benevento Defends Trump EPA, Queries Biden’s Ability To Achieve Goals

Doug Benevento, who served as acting EPA deputy chief for most of the final year of President Donald Trump’s administration, is strongly defending the agency’s work during Trump’s tenure and rejecting claims that it harmed staff morale, while questioning whether the Biden administration will achieve its ambitious climate and equity goals. As acting EPA deputy, Benevento oversaw day-to-day operations and was involved in key policy and regulatory matters. He managed the agency’s 10 regions and was chair-designee of the Gulf...

White House completes review of Trump EPA science rule vacatur

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of EPA’s action to withdraw a Trump administration rule that set new limits on its use of scientific studies in regulatory actions, teeing up the agency’s final repeal of that policy after a federal district judge vacated it in February. According to its website, OMB completed review of the science policy “vacatur rule” on May 20 and certified that the action is “consistent with change,” clearing the...

10th Circuit Scraps Small Refiner’s Last-Minute Trump EPA RFS Waivers

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has scrapped three renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers that EPA issued to small refiner Sinclair just days before the end of the Trump administration, another setback for refiners who oppose the Biden EPA’s tougher stance on granting the exemptions. In its brief May 19 order , the court grants EPA’s motion for voluntary remand and vacatur of the three small refinery waivers issued Jan. 14 by then-Trump EPA Administrator Andrew...

Trump Veterans Say Revisiting Methylene Chloride Evaluation Will Tax EPA Resources

Former Trump-era toxics officials are questioning EPA officials’ plan to reopen its risk evaluation of methylene chloride and potentially other chemicals the prior administration studied, saying the agency has already struggled to meet TSCA’s strict deadlines for action and lacks the resources to take on an even-more-expansive workload. Alex Dunn, the former assistant administrator of EPA’s chemicals office and now a partner at the law firm Baker Botts, tells Inside TSCA that the Biden administration’s newly announced plan to...

D.C. Circuit denies bid to sever PM NAAQS species suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has denied environmentalists’ motion to sever their novel suit based on alleged Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations from other litigation challenging the Trump EPA’s rule opting against tightening its ambient air limits for particulate matter (PM) last revised in 2012. In a May 14 per curiam order , the court denies a motion by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in CBD v. EPA, et al. to...

EPA wins praise for rescinding Trump air cost-benefit rule

Environmental groups and Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) are offering praise for EPA’s decision to rescind an 11th-hour Trump-era rule that limited how the agency could calculate regulatory benefits under the Clean Air Act. Carper, chair of the Senate environment committee, said, “This is another important step in bringing back science to the regulatory process and rebuilding public trust at EPA.” He added that the prior administration sought “to prevent EPA from assessing the real benefits of cleaning up climate and...

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