Tag: CAA

Emissions, Clean Air Act

Court Says EPA Memo on HAPs Not a ‘Final Action’

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.

Prescribed burn

How Recurring Prescribed Fires Fit into the NAAQS

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 […]

Renewable fuel standard, biofuel, corn

Proposed RFS Obligations Widely Met with Dissatisfaction

The EPA’s proposed 2020 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) for petroleum refiners, which are required under the Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), were greeted with almost universal disapproval from the ethanol industry and the farmers who grow crops that are converted into ethanol.

EPA’s Air Monitoring Rule Upheld by D.C. Circuit

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected challenges the Sierra Club mounted against procedures the EPA uses to approve plans states develop to monitor compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

Air pollution, pollutants, smokestacks

EPA Proposal Would Allow Major Sources to Reclassify

Under a new EPA proposal, a major source of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) could be reclassified as an area source at any time by limiting its potential to emit (PTE) HAPs to below the major source thresholds of 10 tons per year (tpy) of any single HAP or 25 tpy of any combination of HAPs. […]

EPA Proposal Would Approve Use of E15 During the Summer

The prospects for year-round use of vehicle fuel with 15 percent ethanol (E15) are brighter with the EPA’s release of a proposed rule that would extend a Clean Air Act (CAA) waiver to E15 during the summer season.