Tag: Clean Air Act

2015 Ozone Primary NAAQS Upheld by D.C. Circuit

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 […]

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 […]

EPA Begins Rulemaking on Streamlining NSR

The EPA is proposing to amend its New Source Review (NSR) regulations (40 CFR 51.166 and 51.165) to allow the emissions decreases from a single project to be included in Step 1 of the NSR applicability test. The EPA has interpreted existing regulations to indicate that only emissions increases may be considered in Step 1, […]

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. […]