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In June 2019, the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance announced its six National Compliance Initiatives (NCIs) for fiscal years 2020 through 2023. Before the Trump administration, the Agency referred to this program as its National Enforcement Initiatives. Regardless of the title, the program identifies sectors or types of activities that are in need […]
On May 6, 2020, the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) unanimously approved—by identical votes of 21–0—two bipartisan bills that, combined, would invest nearly $20 billion in wastewater infrastructure projects and community drinking water improvements.
In a final rule, the EPA has issued its Residual Risk and Technology Review (RTR) for the Site Remediation source category regulated under the Clean Air Act’s National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP).
The EPA has announced that its Science Advisory Board (SAB) will significantly ramp up its research into the human and environmental health impacts of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be restricting travel, access, and safety for personnel who perform required Clean Air Act (CAA) monitoring and related tasks at power plants. Accordingly, the EPA has issued an interim final rule that provides flexibility intended to cut compliance costs under three 40 CFR Part 75 programs: the Acid Rain Program, the […]
In writing the Clean Air Act (CAA), Congress was careful to ensure that the responsibility for improving and protecting the nation’s ambient air is shared by the federal government and state, local, and tribal governments. While the EPA is the federal entity that sets standards and bears the responsibility for implementing and enforcing the CAA, […]
It has been clear for some time that deregulatory actions at the federal level will slow but not stop the decline of coal as an energy source in the United States. Still, the EPA continues to do what it can to ensure that coal remains a key component of the nation’s energy portfolio.
Between 2007 and 2018, every major measure of the EPA’s enforcement and compliance activities declined, states the Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report.
Chemical substances can have an assortment of labels and placards as they move through commerce and eventually end up as waste products. The Departments of Labor (DOL) and Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have regulatory authority during various points of transport, storage, use, and disposal of hazardous substances. The National Fire Protection […]
The EPA’s release of its Draft Risk Evaluation for Asbestos is a significant step in the Agency’s halting progress over more than 30 years to control the effects of one of the most carcinogenic substances in commercial use in the United States. The risk evaluation is a product of the 2016 amendments to the federal […]