EPA is deferring action on first-time greenhouse gas (GHG) limits for nitric acid plants due to a lack of data on the plants' GHG emissions and costs of controlling the emissions, though the agency says it is working on a future GHG proposal, according to a just-signed new source performance standard (NSPS) for the sector obtained by Inside EPA.

North Carolina's Science Advisory Board (NCSAB) appears set to shelve a closely watched risk assessment of the contaminant perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) that it began crafting years ago because of a "murky" risk picture created by studies performed by EPA scientists and others, which relied on small samples and showed harms only at the smallest doses.

A federal appeals court has temporarily delayed a novel case that could provide first-time legal guidance on how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must win state water quality approvals before issuing plant licenses, asking parties to file new briefs on whether an administratively extended discharge permit can supplant the approvals.

Texas and Wyoming are warning that EPA's policy exempting the proposed Avenal natural gas power plant from greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting requirements undermines the agency's takeover of GHG permitting in the two states, saying it shows EPA's claim that it had no choice but to impose GHG permitting on the states is false.

Senate Republicans are questioning whether EPA's proposed study on the environmental and human health impacts of hydraulic fracturing could exceed the scope of Congress' mandate for the agency to assess drinking water impacts, saying the agency's attempt to assess emissions and equity impacts is beyond the scope of its authority.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is promising that the agency will restrict the scope of a hotly-anticipated watershed assessment of Bristol Bay, AK, to the potential impact of hard-rock mining in the area, responding to concerns from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that the study could limit Alaska's ability to move forward with other projects near the bay.

EPA is elevating internal review of its controversial rulemaking to strengthen requirements for pesticide manufacturers to disclose "inert" ingredients in their products, citing the complexity of the rulemaking, controversial legal issues surrounding confidential business information (CBI) protection and a high level of public interest.

EPA says its upcoming rule adding vapor intrusion from underground sources of contamination as a pathway for determining whether a site should be placed on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) is likely to reprioritize its cleanup program toward those sites because they may pose a higher risk than other sites without such pathways.

EPA has revised screening levels it is developing for determining vapor intrusion risks for the ubiquitous solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (perc) at hazardous waste sites to account for recently revised toxicity values for the chemicals, according to recent EPA presentations to state officials on its upcoming vapor intrusion guidance for chlorinated solvents.

State and industry officials are praising EPA's draft petroleum vapor intrusion (PVI) guidance, saying the document represents a major advancement in the science of PVI and will lead to more accurate and efficient assessments of PVI risk from leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) by helping regulators quantify rates of biodegradation in healthy soil.

EPA is poised to promulgate a final Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) for airplane and airport deicing operations that scales back proposed approaches for reducing contaminated runoff, opting for federal stormwater controls at only the largest airports and requiring facilities to switch to less harmful pavement deicing chemicals.

EPA has identified eight chemicals that are safer alternatives to nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) surfactants in cleaning products after assessing the potential hazards from the alternatives industry is voluntarily using to reduce NPE use, an effort that could serve as a model for EPA to encourage the phase out of NPE in other sectors.

The National Academies' National Research Council (NRC) is preparing to undertake a preliminary review of the potential human and environmental risks of shale gas development, and in particular hydraulic fracturing, following concerns from advisers that risk studies by EPA and other agencies have failed to address the process as a whole.

The Supreme Court may be more inclined to consider whether the Superfund law unconstitutionally bars pre-enforcement judicial review in the wake of its recent unanimous holding that Clean Water Act (CWA) compliance orders are subject to pre-enforcement judicial review on statutory grounds, legal observers say.

EPA is achieving "major milestones" in advancing haze reduction programs in western states as part of its long-stalled regional haze program, environmentalists say, adding that although some of the state haze plans or federal plans imposed on states could be more stringent, a trend is emerging of progress in the program.

EPA's research office is "wary" of calls by some members of its Science Advisory Board (SAB) to improve what they see as flaws in a risk assessment of Libby amphibole (LA) asbestos by modeling risks from long-term exposures from other forms of asbestos, with EPA cautioning the review is not intended to apply to other asbestos types.

A federal interagency panel on breast cancer research appears to be dropping draft advice that called on EPA and other government agencies to take a “precautionary approach” when assessing and addressing chemical and other environmental breast cancer risks.

States and activists seeking a court-ordered quick deadline for EPA to propose a revised particulate matter (PM) air standard are fighting the agency's claims that it needs more time to propose the rule in order to allow for White House review of the proposal, saying White House review cannot legally be a bar to setting a tight deadline.

EPA in a new final rule is tightening requirements for states to impose strict ozone emission controls on industry by scrapping a Bush-era rule that allowed states to impose less-stringent controls, while setting tighter deadlines for states to submit plans for meeting the agency's ozone standard and to achieve attainment than some states support.

A federal appeals court judge at May 14 oral arguments appeared skeptical of EPA's reasons for not seeking notice and comment on an interim final rule allowing trucking company Navistar to sell vehicles that did not comply with EPA diesel engine emissions control requirements, echoing industry criticisms over the lack of a comment period.