In March 2023, the EPA issued its final Good Neighbor Plan, the last in a series of legislations designed to reduce emissions of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide (NO2) which cross state borders. Specifically, the Plan was...more
On August 4, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) “Good Neighbor Plan (GNP)” went into effect, requiring power plants and certain industrial facilities to implement emissions reductions through...more
PM NAAQS: Already behind schedule is perhaps the mostly widely impactful rule change EPA has proposed in many years: a lowering of the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). EPA has...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced it is initiating a new review of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (“NAAQS”). EPA states it is taking this action based on advice provided...more
On June 20, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors Int'l v. Envtl. Prot. Agency, No. 21-1251, (D.C. Cir. June 20, 2023),...more
Last week, the EPA Clean Air Science Advisory Committee provided EPA its review of EPA’s Policy Assessment for the Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone. As expected, CASAC has disagreed with...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its plan under the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor” provision (the “Plan”) on March 15, 2023. The Plan requires 23 states to reduce their air pollution that...more
EPA’s Big Plans for 2023: Top Air Rulemakings We Are Watching - An environmental lawyer walks into a cocktail party. An often-asked question is: What is happening at EPA in your world? What should we be watching that...more
Last week, Inside EPA (subscription required) reported that the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee has pretty much agreed that the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone must be made more stringent. Apparently,...more
On March 15, 2023, EPA finalized its Good Neighbor Plan under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), a rule designed to reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide ("NOx") pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities in 23 upwind...more
Last week, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges to EPA’s “Revised Cross-State Air Pollution Update Rule”. The Court found that the Rule was “an appropriate exercise of EPA’s statutory authority”....more
For air emission sources in New Haven County, Middlesex County, and Shelton, Connecticut, the regulatory landscape will change on November 7, 2022. Per a regulation published on October 7, 2022, EPA is reclassifying the...more
EPA’s latest proposed rule targeting NOx emissions from fossil-fueled electric generating units (EGUs) is a classic study of diminishing returns. It marks the seventh round of NOx controls for the EGU sector since 1990. The...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that has important implications for powerplants and other industrial nitrogen oxide (NOx) sources in the Western United States,...more
Environmental groups have sued the EPA to overturn its December 31st rule retaining Obama Era National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The suit alleges that the Trump EPA ignored science and mounting...more
On Friday Jan. 29, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Sierra Club v. EPA, Case No. 15-1465, struck down several provisions in EPA’s 2018 rule implementing the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (“Court”) addressed whether a guidance document issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) constituted final agency action for purposes of...more
Over the past three years, USEPA has issued a series of revisions to the regulatory program that addresses ozone-depleting substances (ODS), Protection of Stratospheric Ozone (40 CFR 82)....more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Clean Air Scientific Air Committee (“CASAC”) has memorialized its disagreement with the a key recommendation of an EPA staff draft policy assessment for a Clean Air...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Halloween published a draft policy assessment recommending that the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards (“NAAQS”) of 70 parts per billion (ppb) be...more
On Tuesday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated EPA’s “Close-Out Rule,” which basically concluded that upwind states contributing to exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone in downwind...more
Focus - Environmental groups sue Trump administration for weakening Endangered Species Act - San Francisco Chronicle – August 21 - A coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) in...more
Following California’s lead, Washington State has revived, at the state level, federal limits on greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and is contemplating additional restrictions in the future. HFCs are...more
On April 5, 2019, the D.C. Circuit largely struck down another regulation restricting the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in certain products under EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP). The court held that it was...more
On June 27, 2018, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted for public comment a draft petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove most of the state from the Ozone Transport Region...more