Holly Cook, Author at SGR Law

Mar 13, 2018

Federal Court Rejects EPA Rule Delaying Formaldehyde Standards in Composite Wood Products

In the wake of illnesses reported by refugees from Hurricane Katrina who were housed temporarily in manufactured housing, Congress in 2010, in the Formaldehyde Standards in Composite Wood Products Act, required EPA to issue rules limiting formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products. The Obama EPA took 6 years to issue the final rule, which required compliance with the new emissions limits by December 2017. In September 2017, the Trump EPA issued a rule delaying compliance with the emissions limits until December 2018. The delay rule was challenged by the Sierra Club and the New Orleans-based group A Community Voice. Judge… Read more

Mar 5, 2018

Federal Appellate Court Rules That CWA Applies To Groundwater Discharges

On February 1, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision concluding that the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) applies to claims involving the discharge of pollutants to groundwater which ultimately migrate to surface waters. In Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, the Ninth Circuit (which covers federal courts in the states of Hawaii, California, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Montana and Washington) affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiff environmental organizations and held that the defendant-county was in violation of the CWA in regard to its decades-old practice of… Read more

Feb 28, 2018

Congress Reauthorizes Tax Credit For Buried Carbon Dioxide

In a bill signed into law on February 9, Congress expanded a tax incentive program responsible for more than a billion dollars in tax credits awarded to oil companies for burying carbon dioxide underground. Both environmental and industry groups support the move which encourages emitters of carbon dioxide, such as power plants, ethanol factories, steel mills, and refineries, to capture their CO2 emissions and bury them underground for storage, or pump them underground to help oil companies extract more crude from aging reservoirs. The credit allowed for captured carbon dioxide was worth as much as $20 per ton and was… Read more

Feb 21, 2018

EPA Reverses Toxic Pollutant Policy under Clean Air Act

On January 25, the EPA issued a memorandum reversing the “once-in-always-in” policy under the Clean Air Act (“Act”) which prevented major sources of toxic air pollutants from removing pollution control devices at their facilities once actual emissions fell below major source thresholds. The new policy will allow these facilities to be reclassified as smaller “area” sources subject to less stringent requirements. The policy originated in a 1995 memorandum which clarified when major sources (defined as facilities that released at least 10 tons per year of single toxic air pollutant or 25 tons of any combined toxic pollutants each year) can… Read more

Feb 12, 2018

Solar Tariffs Set to Slow Expansion of Solar in U.S.

Solar Panels - Solar Tariffs - Solar Energy

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on solar panel imports to the U.S. are expected to add roughly 10% to the cost of a utility-scale solar farm in the U.S. and 3% to rooftop units bought for homes according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The tariffs are projected to cut U.S. installations by 11% over the next five years, but the decision is unlikely to reshape the economics of the photovoltaic business on the global stage or threaten China’s leadership of the industry. While Bell Labs in the U.S. invented the modern photovoltaic cell in the 1950s, the industry flourished elsewhere while… Read more

Feb 6, 2018

EPA Must Consider Banning Drinking Water Flouridation

A federal judge in California has ruled that EPA wrongly dismissed a petition to ban fluoridation of drinking water under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. EPA, N.D. California, 12/21/2017. The Petitioners sought a determination by EPA to ban the use of fluoride in drinking water. EPA dismissed the petition because it sought only to ban a single use of a chemical, finding that Section 21 of TSCA requires that a Section 21 petition seek to ban all uses of a chemical, rather than a single use. The Court disagreed, holding that the new… Read more

Jan 30, 2018

U.S. EPA Targets Faster Cleanups for Superfund Sites in 2018

The U.S. EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, has set accelerated cleanup at Superfund sites as an Agency goal for 2018. The Agency insists that the goal is achievable despite the proposed slashing of the program’s funding by 30% for fiscal year 2018. In May of 2017, Pruitt directed a task force to study how to reshape the Program using the Agency’s current resources. The report, which makes over 40 recommendations, recommends emphasizing the potential for Superfund sites to be redeveloped or reused and encouraging responsible parties to work with developers eager to redevelop the land. Another proposed avenue to expedite cleanup… Read more

Jan 23, 2018

Supreme Court Rules Challenges to WOTUS Rule Must be Brought in District Court

Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule

In a unanimous decision issued on January 22, 2018, the Supreme Court held that challenges to the WOTUS Rule must be reviewed first in federal district court, reversing the Sixth Circuit’s ruling with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The Supreme Court’s decision results in a lift of the national stay of the WOTUS Rule ordered by the Sixth Circuit, which could make the Rule’s provisions enforceable, at least until another court issues a national stay of the Rule. In 2015, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proffered a definition of the term “waters of the United States”… Read more

Jan 18, 2018

9th Circuit: EPA Must Update Its Lead Dust Standards

In another blow to the Administration’s deregulatory agenda, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on December 27 that EPA has a non-discretionary duty to propose updates to its 2001 lead dust hazard standard. The Court gave EPA 90 days to issue the proposal, and a year to finalize it. Community Voice, et al v. EPA (9th Circuit, Dec. 27, 2017). The Court’s 2-1 decision rejected the Administration’s argument that its only duty under the law was to issue the original standards in 2001, and that the decision whether to update the standards was within the agency’s discretion. Instead,… Read more

Jan 10, 2018

EPA Responds to States Regarding Ozone Nonattainment Areas

Factory Emitting Air Pollution and the Ozone

The U.S. EPA missed its October 1, 2017 deadline to designate which areas of the country exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone under the updated 2015 standards. Environmental and public health groups sued the EPA for missing its deadline, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia gave the agency until January 12, 2018 to announce its plans to complete the process. In response, the EPA issued letters on December 22 to all 50 states informing them whether the agency agrees with state recommendations on which areas within their borders violate the 2015 standards. … Read more