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The COVID-19 pandemic may be restricting travel, access, and safety for personnel who perform required Clean Air Act (CAA) monitoring and related tasks at power plants. Accordingly, the EPA has issued an interim final rule that provides flexibility intended to cut compliance costs under three 40 CFR Part 75 programs: the Acid Rain Program, the […]
In writing the Clean Air Act (CAA), Congress was careful to ensure that the responsibility for improving and protecting the nation’s ambient air is shared by the federal government and state, local, and tribal governments. While the EPA is the federal entity that sets standards and bears the responsibility for implementing and enforcing the CAA, […]
It has been clear for some time that deregulatory actions at the federal level will slow but not stop the decline of coal as an energy source in the United States. Still, the EPA continues to do what it can to ensure that coal remains a key component of the nation’s energy portfolio.
Between 2007 and 2018, every major measure of the EPA’s enforcement and compliance activities declined, states the Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report.
First observed in 1970, Earth Day is marking its 50th anniversary on April 22, 2020. As a day set aside for reflection on the current state of our planetary environment and how it may be improved by our day-to-day actions, Earth Day is an opportunity for environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals to consider the […]
The EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) has issued two documents intended to assist managers in the Agency’s 10 regional offices on deciding if site cleanup and emergency response should begin or continue in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The temporary policy the EPA issued March 26, 2020, to explain noncompliance situations in which the Agency will exercise enforcement discretion during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rush of letters from Democratic members of Congress who were concerned that the Agency intended to allow major sources of air pollution to violate their regulatory limits. Enforcement […]
According to the EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), ensuring that Americans can buy the types of cars and light trucks they prefer is at the heart of the EPA’s/NHTSA’s final rule amending and establishing carbon dioxide (CO2) and fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Navigable Waters Rule (NWR), issued by the Corps and the EPA, will effectively remove 51% of the Corps’s mapped wetlands from federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Much of that eliminated inventory was subject to federal protection under the Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Water […]
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit found that an EPA directive that recast procedures for selecting members for the Agency’s 22 science committees violated federal law. Issued by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in October 2017, the directive’s most controversial element prohibited committee membership to recipients of EPA grants. […]