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The EPA’s recent final rule based on its residual risk and technology review (RTR) of the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Surface Coating of Wood Building Products (Subpart QQQQ, Part 63) (March 4, 2019, Federal Register (FR)) provides an opportunity to consider how the Agency determines if […]
Hours before the EPA put almost all of its 14,000 workers on furlough because of the government shutdown, the Agency announced its latest measure to preserve coal-fired power in the United States.
The EPA’s implementation of Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I), also known as the Good Neighbor Provision, has been a source of conflict among the Agency, the states, industry stakeholders, and public health and environmental interest groups. That trend is continuing with the Agency’s latest action, a final rule that establishes that 20 eastern states […]
The EPA’s use of its Clean Air Act (CAA) authority to grant waivers from Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations to small refineries has for years been a top issue of contention associated with the RFS. The Agency’s use of the waiver has continued to spark negative reactions from renewable fuel advocates following the Agency’s issuance […]
The EPA’s enforcement of violations of environmental laws and regulations at federal facilities is a complicated business that has been addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court (Ohio v. United States Department of Energy, 1992, which affirmed federal facility sovereign immunity with respect to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)), presidential Executive Orders, and by […]
In a deregulatory action, the EPA is proposing to amend an Obama-era rule that extended certain regulations promulgated under Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 608, which apply to Class I and II refrigerants that are ozone-depleting substances (ODSs), to non-ODSs used as substitute for ODSs.
Under a new EPA proposal, approximately 310 sources subject to monitoring under the Agency’s NOx SIP Call regulations would be able to use options to the emissions monitoring requirements now required by the regulations.
In a majority opinion, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that Oregon state violated neither the dormant Interstate Commerce Clause nor a provision of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) when it assigned a carbon intensity value to transportation fuels produced out of state and imported into Oregon, […]
This summer saw three important actions in the EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). First, in June, the Agency proposed its renewable fuel percentage standards for 2019 and for 2020 for biomass-based diesel. Second, several days later, the EPA issued its second report to Congress on the environmental and […]
A new memo from Susan Bodine, the EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), suggests that the Agency will continue to revamp its enforcement activities by placing a stronger emphasis on compliance assistance.