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The applicability of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Management Program (RMP) is reasonably clear, but facilities with chemicals in amounts less than the RMP thresholds are finding themselves in trouble with the EPA because they are overlooking EPA’s General Duty Clause (42 U.S. Code 7412(r)(1)). Several times over the last 6 months the […]
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.
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 […]
The EPA is proposing several significant revisions to its 2015 regulations governing coal combustion residuals (CCRs) generated by electric utilities.
In a short letter, the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) informed registrants of pesticides that a statement on the label of a pesticide product warning that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” is “false and misleading” and will be considered misbranding and in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Therefore, […]
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, […]
Based on its Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 112 Residual Risk and Technology Review (RTR), the EPA is proposing amendments to its 2003 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill source category.
With several minor exceptions, the EPA is proposing to grant each of the requests four small-volume manufacturers (SVM) made for alternative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for their light-duty vehicles.
If a federal agency proposes a regulation and then subsequently declines to promulgate that regulation, is the second action arbitrary and capricious because it is not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposal, that is, because the option not to regulate is not sufficiently discussed in the proposal?
The role of Federal Advisory Committees (FACs) that advise the EPA on the environment and human health is in a state of transition that is being viewed differently by the Trump administration on one side and congressional Democrats and many scientists on the other.