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A federal district court judge gave the EPA 6 months to promulgate—and post on the Web—final federal implementation plans (FIPs) for five upwind states that are contributing significantly to nonattainment of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in Connecticut and New York State, both downwind states.
In a proposal, the EPA indicated that it intends to deny five petitions from the states of Delaware and Maryland, which asked the Agency to find that emissions from power plants in upwind states are significantly contributing to exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in the two petitioning states.
The EPA only recently issued almost all the remaining area designations for the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone (only eight counties in the San Antonio, Texas, area have not been designated). Now, with the ink barely dry on those designations, the Agency is facing yet another Clean Air Act (CAA) deadline […]
On April 30, 2018, the EPA issued a rule with final designations under the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone for almost all U.S. counties not previously designated.
The air pollution in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska (Fairbanks), is among the worst in the nation, and the EPA is doing nothing about it. That’s the view of several citizen groups that with the assistance of major U.S. environmental organizations are now suing the Agency for inaction for the third time in 2 years. […]
Six downwind northeastern states in the Ozone Transport Region (OTR) have filed suit in federal court asking that the EPA be ordered to take action on a December 2013 request that nine upwind states be added to the OTR. The designation would require that the added states develop plans to reduce the transport of pollutants […]
In a final action, the EPA has updated its 2011 Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) with respect to the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). According to the Agency, the action constitutes the first time the EPA has updated an existing program to address interstate transport of air pollution under a new air […]
Two Clean Air Act (CAA) provisions governing deadlines for submission of state implementation plans (SIPs) to bring areas into attainment with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) were at the core of a recent decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The air regulatory agencies and industries of many states have been frustrated by EPA’s decision to revise its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in 2015. One of the major complaints is that the 2008 ozone NAAQS are still in effect. Therefore, states now face the prospect of implementing two different ozone standards […]
As part of their Clean Air Act (CAA) responsibilities to implement the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), state and local air agencies must monitor for the presence of NAAQS pollutants (formally, criteria air pollutants) in the ambient air and report the monitored data to the EPA. The relevant regulations at 40 CFR Part 58 […]