Tag: Clean Air Act

Court paves path for Biden on power plant climate rule

Politico: Court paves path for Biden on power plant climate rule. The incoming Biden administration is likely to use the court’s ruling to justify returning to something resembling the Clean Power Plan.

President-elect Joe Biden’s EPA could have significant legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide from power plants after a federal court on Tuesday struck down one of the Trump administration’s biggest climate change rule rollbacks.

The split-panel opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the first time offers a binding judicial opinion on the statutory scope of EPA’s regulatory powers on greenhouse gases.

Biden will launch his presidency on Wednesday with the most ambitious climate change plan ever sought by a White House, and the new ruling will make it easier for his administration to create rules that help drive the nation’s power grid toward net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2035, a goal that Biden has laid out.

Federal court strikes down major Trump climate rollback

ABC News: Federal court strikes down major Trump climate rollback. A federal appeals court has thrown out a rule that made one of the Trump administration’s most momentous climate rollbacks.

In a last-minute slap at President Donald Trump, a federal appeals court struck down one of his administration’s most momentous climate rollbacks on Tuesday, saying officials acted illegally in issuing a new rule that eased federal regulation of air pollution from power plants.

The Trump administration rule was based on a “mistaken reading of the Clean Air Act,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled, adding that the Environmental Protection Agency “fundamentally has misconceived the law.” The decision is likely to give the incoming Biden administration a freer hand to regulate emissions from power plants, one of the major sources of climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions.

 

New Trump Rule Aims to Limit Tough Clean Air Measures Under Biden

The New York Times discusses New Trump Rule Aims to Limit Tough Clean Air Measures Under Biden. The E.P.A. rule, which changes the way cost-benefit analyses are used, would make it easier for fossil fuel companies to fight regulations in court.

The Trump administration on Wednesday completed a rule that could weaken federal authority to issue clean air and climate change rules by changing the way the costs of pollution to human health and safety are tallied — and the way benefits of controlling that pollution are tabulated.

The new rule is the latest in a flurry of final Trump administration policies from the Environmental Protection Agency, as agency political appointees seek to wrap up four years of rolling back or weakening more than 100 environmental rules and policies.

But the cost-benefit rule, which changes the way the E.P.A. is required to report economic analyses of Clean Air Act regulations, is not expected to survive the incoming Biden administration, which could quickly reverse it.

Study: The Need for a Tighter Particulate-Matter Air-Quality Standard

The New England Journal of Medicine discusses the Need for a Tighter Particulate-Matter Air-Quality Standard.

he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to retain the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (particles with a diameter of ≤2.5 μm [PM2.5]) — that is, levels not exceeding an annual average of 12 μg per cubic meter and a 24-hour average of 35 μg per cubic meter.1 The current NAAQS were set in 2012 on the basis of a scientific review that was largely completed in 2010.2 At that time, available epidemiologic evidence, supported by toxicologic evidence and a risk assessment conducted by EPA staff, indicated that annual exposure to PM2.5 caused premature death at ambient concentrations as low as 11 μg per cubic meter. However, on the basis of more recent evidence, as described below, exposure to ambient PM2.5 at the levels of the current standards is estimated by the EPA to be responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths in the United States each year.3

Harvard EELP Updates, August 5, 2020

Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program (EELP) includes:

  • EPA’s Benefit-Cost Proposal in the Context of PM Pollution Regulation
  • Immediate Executive Action: Unexplored Options for Addressing Climate Change Under the Existing Clean Air Act
  • BOEM predicts offshore wind boom, but where does the industry stand today?
  • Hana Vizcarra speaks with Kevin McLean on the Toxic Substances Control Act
  • Joe Goffman and Cynthia Giles discuss EPA’s Enforcement During Covid-19
  • Jody Freeman on CGTN America
  • Hana Vizcarra on How Climate Change is Changing the Practice of Law
  • Jody Freeman in S&P Global Webinar on ESG in Oil and Gas

​As the nation reels, Trump Administration continues environmental policy rollbacks

Environmental Health News discusses, as the nation reels, Trump Administration continues environmental policy rollbacks. Just beneath the headlines, politics and nature are whipping up a few more storms.

There’s a whirlwind of distressing news these days. Rage over racism; fretting over finance; and coronavirus may just be getting its boots on. It’s all a perfect time to unleash some quiet mayhem on the environment.

It’s all hard to write about, and I’m sorry, I know it’s equally hard to read about. But it’s even more impossible to ignore.

The Trump Administration’s war on environmental regulation might draw a little more attention in normal times. Here are a few things, flying under the radar, that will have ramifications for years.

In early June, Trump launched a frontal attack on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is a 50-year-old, profoundly un-sexy law that generates tons of paperwork and keeps scores of attorneys gainfully employed. It’s also a cornerstone of environmental law—the statute that requires an Environmental Impact Statement for federally-funded development projects, including pipeline and construction, airport expansion, and more.

Soot Rule Thrusts EPA into Spotlight on Race

Scientific American discusses how a soot rule thrusts EPA into spotlight on race. Air pollution disproportionately impacts minority communities and proposed changes would stymie efforts to address the disparity.

EPA published a proposal in the Federal Register yesterday that critics described as an assault on minority communities coping with the public health legacy of structural racism.

The agency’s plan would mandate changes to the way future rules under the Clean Air Act would weigh the costs and benefits of climate and air pollution regulations.

It’s the first time EPA has attempted such a rulemaking, and critics say the goal is to saddle future administrations with an inflexible set of cost-benefit methodologies that discount benefits from cutting pollutants while stressing cost to industry.

The rule would also bar EPA from giving special consideration to individual communities that bear the brunt of environmental risks — frequently populations of color.

Trump, Citing Pandemic, Moves to Weaken Two Key Environmental Protections

The New York Times discusses how Trump is using the pandemic to weaken key environmental protections. Twin environmental actions set for Thursday underscored the president’s push to roll back regulations as the coronavirus crisis continues.

The Trump administration, in twin actions to curb environmental regulations, moved on Thursday to temporarily speed the construction of energy projects and to permanently weaken federal authority to issue stringent clean air and climate change rules.

President Trump signed an executive order that calls on agencies to waive required environmental reviews of infrastructure projects to be built during the pandemic-driven economic crisis. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new rule that changes the way the agency uses cost-benefit analyses to enact Clean Air Act regulations, effectively limiting the strength of future air pollution controls.

In Rebuke to Pruitt, EPA Science Board Votes to Review Climate Policy Changes

This article discusses the EPA efforts to roll back the Clean Power Plan and weaken auto standards and other regulations. This action was done by the EPA Science Advisory Board, which has more than a dozen a Pruitt-appointed EPA scientists.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board, in a rebuke to the Trump administration’s retreat on environmental protection, voted overwhelmingly Thursday in favor of a full board review of the agency’s most important actions to dismantle climate policy.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who appointed about 15 members of the 44-member board, now must decide whether to accept its recommendation that the outside scientific experts be allowed to formally vet his decisions.

With only two members dissenting, the Science Advisory Board agreed that it had received insufficient information on the science behind several of Pruitt’s decisions—including his planned repeal of the Clean Power Plan and methane regulations on oil and gas operations, the weakening of auto efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards, and the elimination of a rule to curb truck pollution. The board also backed a full review of a revised “social cost of carbon” cost-benefit analysis EPA is using that essentially wipes out the benefits of actions to curb carbon emissions.

EPA wants to halt fracking rules by two years, instead of 90 days

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it is ready to halt the Obama administration’s emission rules for fracking by two years, instead of the initial 90-day stay that it had announced weeks earlier.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/epa-wants-to-halt-fracking-rules-by-two-years-instead-of-90-days/article/2625885