Facilities subject to EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety program should keep an eye out for expected amendments to the governing rules, expected to be published in March by EPA. EPA is completing its Small Business Advocacy Review of potential costs to small businesses. In a presentation in November to an industry group, EPA described its plans for the amendments, which include provisions enhancing requirements for facility audits, new requirements for consideration of safer processes, new standards to increase disclosure of facility data to first responders and the public, and provisions addressing root cause analysis after accidents or near… Read more
Tag: Clean Air Act
Third Circuit Upholds Diligent Prosecution Bar to Citizen Suit Under Clean Air Act
In May, 2014, Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) sued coke producer Shenango, Inc. under the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) citizen suit provision for allegedly violating opacity limits in its air permit for its Neville Island, Pennsylvania facility. Prior to that lawsuit, U.S. EPA, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) had sued Shenango in 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and entered into a consent decree addressing opacity violations. The Court retained jurisdiction to enforce the consent decree. In 2014, ACHD sued Shenango in the Allegheny County Court… Read more
Fertilizer Manufacturers Challenge EPA Air Toxics Rule
In October, the Fertilizer Institute and a coalition of fertilizer manufacturers led by PCS Phosphate Company, Inc. filed separate challenges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, seeking to stay and invalidate EPA’s final rule for Phosphoric Acid Manufacturing and Phosphate Fertilizer Production Risk and Technology Review and Standards of Performance for Phosphate Processing, under the Clean Air Act. The October Petitions claim that EPA imposed new requirements to continuously monitor the liquid and gas influent flow rates for low-energy scrubbers and demonstrate continuous compliance with a minimum influent liquid-to-gas ratio, effective immediately upon publication of the… Read more
EPA Sued Again Over Clean Power Plan Rule
On Friday twenty-four states, led by West Virginia’s Republican Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, and Murray Energy Corp. filed two petitions against the Environmental Protection Agency and its Administrator, Regina McCarthy, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit seeking judicial review and an immediate stop to enforcement of the final rule implementing the Clean Power Plan, also known as Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. The Plan requires states to substantially reduce carbon emissions from power plants running on fossil fuels by 2030. The overall projection for reduced emissions is 32% over 2005 levels, with states assigned… Read more
U.S. EPA Sends Notice of Violation to Volkswagen
On Friday, September 25, the U.S. EPA released a letter sent to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. asserting that the companies were in violation of the Clean Air Act for model years 2009-2015 for certain four-cylinder Audi and Volkswagen diesel cars. The allegations in the letter state that the cars were equipped with software that circumvented the EPA’s emission standards. The software, known as a “defeat device” was designed to turn off emission controls under normal operating condition, and to turn them on when the car is undergoing emissions test. The software allowed the cars… Read more
Clean Power Plan Emphasizes Carbon Trading
The EPA’s Clean Power Plan (RIN2060-AR33), released August 3, 2015, sets individual state emissions targets allows states to craft their own plan to meet those requirements. In the rule, the EPA has also proposed a model federal plan which it will impose on states that choose not to submit their own. The federal plan focuses entirely on emissions trading, and it is widely anticipated that states that choose to implement their own plan will follow suit. The EPA has previously enacted trading schemes for emissions of conventional pollutants, such as sulfur and nitrogen, but those programs were established under separate… Read more
New EPA Rule Requires 36 States To Revise Implementation Plans Disallowing Affirmative Defense To Clean Air Violations
In a final rule issued on May 22, the EPA has given 36 states until November 22, 2016 to revise their state implementation plans (“SIPs”) to remove provisions allowing a defense to enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act for violations that occur during start up, shut down and other emergency situations. The rule, which amends 40 CFR part 52, requires the 36 affected states to do away with affirmative defenses for excess air admissions during equipment malfunctions, and during the start up and shut down operations when air emissions tend to be higher than during normal operations. In the… Read more
EPA Defends Standards for Air Toxics from Solid Waste Incinerators
The EPA is currently defending its process for establishing standards for emissions of hazardous air pollutants from solid waste incinerators before the D.C. Court of Appeals.[1] Historically, EPA takes a pollutant-by-pollutant approach when determining maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units. Industry groups have attacked the EPA’s approach which resulted in standards that cannot actually be achieved by existing industrial incinerators. These groups argue that the Clean Air Act requires EPA to set MACT standards based on average overall industry emissions, rather than selecting the best performing units for each individual pollutant. Conversely,… Read more
Regional Grid Operators Consider a Price on Carbon
Regulations proposed by EPA under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act for the control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing sources would require States to meet assigned GHG reduction targets by deadlines set forth in the proposed regulations. States can either submit individual plans for meeting those reductions or participate in regional plans. The operators of two of the largest electricity grids in the country are evaluating whether to approach the targets regionally within their territories by, among other things, studying whether imposing a price on GHG emissions within the region might be the most efficient way to… Read more
Diesel Exhaust Emissions not Subject to RCRA Regulation
On August 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the diesel exhaust emissions of two railyards were not subject to regulation under the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA). The environmental advocates that brought the suit argued that the diesel emissions were solid waste that was disposed of when the emissions were “transported by wind and air currents” to the land and water surrounding the railyards. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that the regulation of diesel fuel emissions fell under the Clean Air Act rather than the RCRA. The Court rejected the argument that releasing… Read more