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In its continuing effort to bring its Clean Air Act (CAA) greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA (UARG v. EPA), the Agency is proposing several amendments to provisions in its Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. Essentially, the proposal describes specific conditions […]
The EPA has issued a direct final rule extending the compliance deadline for onshore unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction wells subject to the Agency’s June 28, 2016, final pretreatment effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs). Under the direct final rule, UOG facilities—including wells that are hydraulically fractured—that were lawfully discharging to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) […]
On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with Joe MacDougald, a Professor in Residence on the faculty of the UConn Law School and the Executive Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Law about the D.C. Circuit Court’s en banc review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s most ambitious regulatory initiative and a […]
Q. My client has their 5-year review of their Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan due this year. If they find shortcomings, can they still do the 5-year review/certification of the SPCC to be in compliance, if they program and budget in the project to address the shortcoming?
In a case that set several precedents, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied an appeal from environmental groups seeking to have the court review a final decision by the EPA to grant a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit for a new biomass-burning power plant planned by Sierra […]
In anticipation of international adoption of an amendment to the Montreal Protocol and also in fulfillment of parts of President Obama’s June 2013 Climate Action Plan (CAP), the EPA has issued two final rules that will reduce releases of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) to the atmosphere.
Responding to recommendations from owners and operators (O/Os) of electric power plants subject to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), the EPA is proposing final regulations to require the submission of compliance data through a single electric reporting system rather than through two systems as established by the original MATS (February 16, 2012, FR). […]
Q. Does the requirement for additional capacity for precipitation for specific secondary containment apply for “General” Secondary Containment cases such as pipelines?
On September 27, 10 justices of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments from 16 attorneys divided over the legality of EPA’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The hearing comprised a morning session that addressed whether authority for the EPA to promulgate the CCP exists in the Clean Air Act (CAA) […]
Q. Is our stormwater system recovery tank, which is an underground steel tank, regulated?