On Tuesday, in Ohio v. EPA, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied several challenges to EPA’s decision to restore California’s authority under § 209(b) of the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions from motor vehicles. It’s...more
4/10/2024
/ Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Motor Vehicles ,
NGOs ,
Preemption ,
Regulatory Requirements
Earlier this month, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated most of EPA’s startup, shutdown, and malfunction SIP Call. The Court’s rationale boils down to EPA’s failure to make a predicate finding that the SIP call...more
3/11/2024
/ Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Appeals ,
Citizen Suits ,
Electricity ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Florida ,
NAAQS ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Vacated
On February 7, 2024, EPA finalized a rule lowering the primary annual National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5 to 9.00 ug/m3. This is a significant reduction from the current 12.00 ug/m3 standard and a victory for...more
An article in Science published last week indicates that the mortality risk from exposure to PM2.5 from coal-fired electric generating units is roughly twice as high as the risk posed by PM2.5 from other sources. According...more
Earlier this month, Judge William Young dismissed for lack of standing claims brought by the Conservation Law Foundation alleging that bus companies violated anti-idling regulations. The opinion is important, because it does...more
The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council recently weighed in on EPA’s decision whether to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2.5 and ozone.
Specifically, with respect to PM2.5, WHEJAC...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
Greenwire (subscription required) reported yesterday that more than 150 wildfires in Quebec have blanketed large swaths of the United States with unhealthy levels of particulate matter. Indeed, as of 9:00 AM on Thursday,...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
EPA has finally proposed revisions to the national ambient air quality standard for PM2.5. The Administrator is proposing to lower the standard from 12.0 ug/m3 to a range of 9.0 to 10.0 ug/m3....more
I’ve written before about the developing science regarding the impacts of PM2.5 emissions. Short version – they’re bad for you. They’re even worse than we thought, and there’s increasing evidence that they cause a lot of...more
The momentum continues to build for a more stringent National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5. In June, EPA announced it would revisit the Trump Administration’s decision to keep the PM2.5 NAAQS at 12 ug/m3. In early...more
On Friday, EPA announced that it was reconsidering its 2020 decision to leave the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone unchanged. The reconsideration will be based on the existing record. The notice does not...more
Late last week, EPA released an external review draft of the “Supplement to the 2019 Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter.” For those of you who don’t recall, the original Integrated Science Assessment was the...more
EPA announced yesterday that it will “reconsider” the Trump EPA’s decision not to change the PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standard. I’ve blogged numerous times about the growing body of evidence that exposure to...more
I’ve frequently discussed in recent years the mounting evidence for the need to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5. There is also substantial evidence that PM exposure is an environmental justice issue....more
The evidence of the harm resulting from PM2.5 exposures keeps rolling in. Earlier this month, Environmental Research published an article titled “Global mortality from outdoor fine particle pollution generated by fossil fuel...more
On December 23, 2020, EPA formalized its decision to leave the ozone NAAQS unchanged, at 70 ppb. I don’t think that this decision is in the same category of egregiousness as EPA’s recent decision not to reduce the PM2.5...more
Yesterday, EPA finalized its decision to retain the existing PM2.5 NAAQS of 12 ug/m3, rejecting substantial scientific evidence that PM2.5 causes significant harm at concentrations below 12 ug/m3. In fact, as noted in one of...more
On Tuesday, Judge John Koeltl ordered EPA to issue a final rule addressing its obligations under the Good Neighbor provisions of the Clean Air Act by no later than March 15, 2021.Two aspects of the decision are worth note...more
Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published The Need for a Tighter Particulate-Matter Air-Quality Standard, written by the Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel. For those who don’t remember, the Review...more
EPA Administrator Wheeler has distributed a “Revised Policy on Exclusions from ‘Ambient Air’”. Here’s the short version. EPA has long defined “ambient air” as outside air “to which the general public has access.”...more
According to Bloomberg Environment (subscription required), EPA’s Clean Air Science Advisory Committee cannot reach agreement whether to recommend that the NAAQS for PM2.5 be lowered. Even after two years, I guess I had not...more
10/31/2019
/ Agency Deference ,
Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Chevron Deference ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
NAAQS ,
Public Health ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Risk Assessment ,
Scientific Evidence
Last month, I noted that EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards had released a draft reassessment of the particulate matter NAAQS. In a bold moment of speculation, I indicated that it would be difficult for EPA to...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
10/3/2019
/ Air Pollution ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Appeals ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
NAAQS ,
Ozone ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Vacated