The EPA decision to add 1-Bromopropane (“1-BP”) to the list of Hazardous Air Pollutants (“HAP”) has implications that go beyond the addition of another chemical to the HAP list. Industry received a glimpse of how far the...more
Can you still build a bulkhead along the shoreline in coastal Virginia to protect your property? Well, it depends, but now the answer is more likely to be “no.” Major changes to how Virginia tidal waterfront property owners...more
If Joe Biden is elected President there will be significant changes in environmental regulation for American businesses. Some changes can (and likely will) take place very quickly, with the stroke of a pen. These could...more
Section 112 of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) requires major sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) to, among other things, control emissions using the maximum achievable control technology (MACT). A major source is a...more
Data is in from EPA’s “work practice” requirement that petroleum refineries monitor ambient air for benzene concentrations around their fence lines. The regulations set an “action level” of 9 µg/m3 benzene, using benzene as a...more
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the petition for rehearing in the “once in, always in” case. It was a one sentence order. Judge Rogers, who dissented from the original panel opinion, dissented from the denial....more
Earlier this week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the “Wehrum Memo,” which reversed EPA’s longstanding policy of “once in, always in” regarding MACT jurisdiction, was not final agency action subject to judicial...more
In what is now clear to be a series of policy changes to ease air permitting requirements for industrial and manufacturing facilities, U.S. EPA has issued its second memorandum entitled “Project Emissions Accounting under the...more
On January 25, 2018, U.S. EPA issued a memorandum entitled "Reclassification of Major Sources as Area Sources under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act." The memorandum addresses whether a source is subject to the stringent...more
On January 25, 2018, EPA issued guidance replacing the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) "once in, always in" (OIAI) policy under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA). Memorandum from William L. Wehrum, Assistant...more
On January 25, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a guidance memorandum reversing its 1995 “once in, always in” policy interpreting Clean Air Act (CAA) Section 112 to require sources to use maximum...more
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia recently ordered EPA to update the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) emission standards for 13 sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The order was...more
On December 14, 2016, EPA signed its proposed Kraft Pulp Residual Risk and Technology Review rule covering 40 C.F.R. Part 63, Subpart MM (a.k.a. “MACT II”) for recovery furnaces, lime kilns and smelt dissolving tanks at kraft...more
If there’s any good news for industry in the recent 162-page decision issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on the Boiler MACT, we can’t find it. The court rejected all challenges by industry...more
Time to Pay More: EPA Increases Maximum Civil Penalties - Remember the days when the maximum civil penalty EPA could assess for a violation of environmental law was $25,000 per day? Those days disappeared 26 years ago...more
On Friday, the D.C. Circuit largely upheld EPA’s Boiler MACT rule. The industry challenges were a complete washout. The environmental petitioners won one significant victory and a number of smaller ones....more
EPA recently issued a final rule that amends the Boiler MACT, the regulation that addresses emissions of HAPs from industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers and process heaters located at major sources of HAPs. The...more
As major sources gear up to meet the January 31, 2016, compliance deadline for the Boiler MACT regulation, EPA has finalized a number of revisions to the rule that might affect your facility’s compliance plans. On November...more
Section 112(d) of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to set emission standards for hazardous air pollutants emitted by sources in certain specified source categories and subcategories. EPA recently published final maximum...more
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed EPA’s update of its hexavalent chromium MACT rule. Suffice it to say that this was a little easier than review of the power plant MACT rule....more
The US Supreme Court held yesterday that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unreasonably failed to consider costs when it made the initial decision to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from power...more
The Final EPA Rule under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) emissions standards for the Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction (“SSM”) Rule is out. EPA issued the Final Rule on May 22, 2015 and it’s even worse than when proposed. I...more
On Thursday, EPA finalized revisions to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS (also known as “Utility MACT”). The most significant change was to revise the mercury emissions standard from 0.0002 pounds per...more
Boiler owners beware – EPA has “finalized” its Boiler MACT, GACT, CISWI and NHSM rules and the compliance clocks have begun ticking. EPA expects the rules to affect about 200,000 boilers and that annualized compliance costs...more
Last Friday, just in time for the Christmas holiday, EPA finalized revisions to the Boiler MACT rule. As it has done with other significant rules, EPA basically fine-tuned the existing rule, responding to some specific...more