Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
In one of its few major Clean Air Act (CAA) rulemaking actions that is not deregulatory, the Trump EPA is proposing to add significant requirements to its existing National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for the Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing source category. Called the MON, the existing rule covers an estimated 201 facilities […]
The EPA has issued a policy memo largely to accommodate industry concerns about the rigidity of the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) New Source Review (NSR) program, as it has been implemented by the Agency, as well as states with CAA permitting authority.
Facilities subject to Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act—better known as the Risk Management Program (RMP)—won a significant deregulatory victory with the EPA’s issuance of its RMP Reconsideration Rule. The Reconsideration Rule rescinds major portions of the RMP Amendments Rule the Obama EPA issued in January 2017.
The EPA’s commitment to regulatory reform through deregulation is evident in the Agency’s latest Regulatory Agenda. The 145 entries on the Agency’s Fall 2019 Rule List include 56 actions that are expected to be deregulatory; these actions follow the 47 deregulatory amendments the EPA says it has already finalized under President Donald Trump.
Under an EPA proposal, a populous industrial sector the Agency calls the Organic Liquids Distribution (OLD) source category would be subject to new Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments pertaining to storage tanks, transfer operations, equipment leaks, and flares.
Following its Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 112 Residual Risk and Technology Review (RTR) of the 2002 and 2005 National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for the Ethylene Production source category, the EPA is proposing significant revisions for flaring at these facilities.
In Q3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized 158 settlement agreements with companies small and large across the United States. There was a definitive increase in enforcement actions, with only 106 penalties issued in the previous quarter. Here we highlight some of the biggest fines.
In a ruling that helps downwind states with areas in nonattainment with the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to vacate the EPA’s 2016 rule to update its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR). However, the court did remand one […]
With the exception of a waiver denial in 2007—which was later reversed—the EPA has granted every request California has made since the first request was granted in 1968 to allow the state to set its own vehicle emissions standards. That record is now ended with the EPA’s final rule that withdraws its January 2013 waiver […]
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 […]