Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Following several stern tweets from President Donald Trump, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) have put the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on notice that the voluntary framework the state reached with four major automakers “appears to be inconsistent with federal law.” The EPA/DOT letter urged CARB to disassociate itself from the […]
Effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register, the EPA/Army Corps of Engineers’ (EPA/Corps) final rule repealing the Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Water Rule formally concludes Step 1, the first of two steps to ensure that the states exercise majority control over their water resources. The final rule removes the complex definition of […]
In a recent “final action”, the EPA announced that it will not “at this time” promulgate new regulations to prevent spills of hazardous substances (HSs) under Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 311.
Among the actions President Donald Trump has taken to reform the issuance of federal regulations, none exceed Executive Order (EO) 13771, Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs (January 30, 2017) in originality. That action stipulated that for every new regulation, the issuing federal agency must identify at least two prior regulations for repeal, replacement, or […]
Apart from the cleanup itself, sampling is probably the most important task to perform at a contaminated site (or a site suspected to be contaminated).
Seven years after the Obama administration issued major amendments to Clean Air Act (CAA) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) affecting the oil and gas (O&G) sector and 3 years after it issued another set of amendments, the EPA is proposing to rescind substantial parts of both actions. First, the Agency wants to remove O&G storage […]
Two challenges filed from opposite directions against the EPA’s 2015 primary or health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Ozone were denied by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. At one end, environmental and health advocacy groups argued that the standard was insufficiently protective of children. At the […]
Proponents of energy infrastructure projects such as natural gas pipelines and electricity transmission lines that require federal licenses or permits welcomed an EPA proposal to amend regulations to implement the state certification process authorized by Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for these projects.
In a majority opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed a petition from the state of California and environmental groups to have the court review the legality of a memo William L. Wehrum, the assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, issued to all Regional Air Division directors.
The EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards recently issued guidance on how information on prescribed fires on wildland may be factored into exceptional events demonstrations required by Section 319(b) of the Clean Air Act (CAA). If the Agency accepts a state’s exceptional event demonstration, air pollution resulting from the event is excluded from […]