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Last month, the U.S. Senate consented to ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The vote, 69–27, showed strong bipartisan support for the measure. The United States will soon join 137 other countries that have already ratified the Kigali Amendment, according to a media note issued […]
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 […]
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 […]
After grumbling that it intended to resist implementing the revised National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone it issued in 2015, in August 2018, the EPA informed a federal court that it had decided to uphold and defend the NAAQS as they had been promulgated. That decision set in motion the Agency’s responsibility to […]
Last week, the EPA issued a news release that purported to fact-check a CNN article regarding an August 31, 2018, EPA memo regarding cross-state air pollution. The memo indicated that a state’s 1-part-per-billion (ppb) contribution threshold to ozone pollution in downwind states may be appropriate in state implementation plan (SIP) that states must develop to […]
There is a strong push at the EPA from the White House, Congress, and from some states to assign more weight to background ozone levels in designating areas in or out of attainment with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. Probably the most controversial type of background ozone is ozone from other […]
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 […]