EPA in a new draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment is weakening its non-cancer risk estimates for methanol from what the agency proposed in a 2011 draft, following concerns from many peer reviewers who considered the earlier draft estimates overly stringent.

Officials from several energy-producing states are seeking to block EPA from launching talks with a group of Eastern attorneys general who have threatened to sue the agency for failing to impose first-time limits on the greenhouse gas (GHG) methane from new and existing drilling operations.

EPA advisors are raising concerns that data and other limitations could prevent the agency from using its pending study on the possible effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water from drawing conclusions on the practice’s safety, echoing statements from industry groups who say the study may not be adequate to justify future regulatory policies.

Officials with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in California are planning to use their recently announced moratorium on new energy leasing in the state to review their methods for assessing hydraulic fracturing's environmental impacts, after a federal court recently faulted their assessment practices and blocked a prior lease sale.

EPA is floating at least three options for how it could approach a future interstate air pollution plan and ensure it complies with a restrictive U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that scrapped the agency's most recent air transport rule and created new limits on how EPA can impose an interstate air policy on states.

A high-level EPA Region II official has promised to investigate the potential impact of wording in a new EPA tenant liability relief policy that could inadvertently pose liability for tenants at brownfields, after attorneys at a recent legal forum raised concerns.

EPA Region II is open to issuing so-called "friendly" unilateral administrative orders (UAOs) against potentially responsible parties (PRPs) willing to perform cleanups, responding to PRPs' interest in preserving their ability to file Superfund section 107 cost recovery claims against third parties also responsible for a contaminated site, a Region II Superfund official told a recent legal forum.

EPA is outlining the types of wastewater and drinking water infrastructure projects in New York and New Jersey eligible for funding in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in order to increase water utilities' resiliency to extreme weather events, with the agency saying the projects are intended to serve as a model for responding to future disasters.

A panel of federal appellate judges appears likely to back EPA's efforts to force states to create a permitting regime for greenhouse gases (GHGs), but during May 7 oral arguments the agency appeared to be on shakier ground in a separate but related case on whether it acted lawfully when it imposed a federal GHG permitting regime on Texas.

Congressional and other supporters of EPA's water infrastructure loan programs are urging appropriators to maintain level funding for the programs in fiscal year 2014, and prevent rescissions of unobligated funds, after EPA proposed cutting the funds and a key appropriator downplayed the relative benefits of the funding increase being sought.

Pushed by wastewater industry groups, key House lawmakers are urging appropriators to earmark $5 million in EPA's fiscal year 2014 budget for a series of pilot projects to test the agency's policy for integrating wastewater and stormwater infrastructure planning, though supporters of the pilot are pessimistic given the austere budget climate.

Mayors are strongly rejecting EPA's suggestion that utilities consider variable water rates -- where higher income households bear a greater burden than lower income households -- as an alternative to the agency's current policy for determining cities' capability to afford sewer upgrades, which uses a uniform measure of household income.

An industry group is urging EPA to adopt a new method for classifying nanosilver pesticides for possible enhanced assessment and launch a new call for relevant industry data, steps they hope EPA will include in a long-awaited work plan it is developing to guide its work to distinguish silver from nanosilver and assess the two materials' relative risks.

Key Democratic lawmakers are charging that EPA violated its Clean Air Act obligations when it rejected environmentalists' petition for a first-time greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for coal mines due to budget constraints, hinting at a legal argument that environmentalists could make should they file suit over the agency's decision.

A split is emerging within the refining industry over the American Petroleum Institute's (API) claims of massive costs in meeting EPA's “Tier III” fuel rule that could add up to 9 cents per gallon to gas prices, with some refiners saying the actual costs will be much lower -- potentially undermining API's bid to block the rule.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is faulting EPA for “pursuing a flawed process” in developing its proposed “Tier III” fuel and vehicle air rule, citing a host of procedural flaws that could give API another way to challenge the final version of the rule in addition to its existing claims that EPA lacks a scientific justification for the policy.

In the face of strong industry opposition, EPA has ceased work on its controversial assessment of the risks posed by halogenated platinum salts (HPS), a move that was due in part to the agency dropping the substance from the list of registered diesel fuel additives as the product had not entered the commercial market.

Supreme Court justices are set to consider at their May 9 conference whether the court will hear a Massachusetts wastewater treatment plant's petition to overturn an appellate court's ruling that granted EPA "extreme deference" when it sets Clean Water Act (CWA) permit limits to meet narrative water quality criteria.

Opponents and supporters of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline are predicting steep procedural hurdles to challenge the Obama administration's final decision on the proposed cross-border leg of the pipeline -- regardless of whether the administration approves or denies the project.

Environmentalists and Justice Department (DOJ) attorneys are urging courts presiding over challenges to a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit authorizing construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline to consider recent rulings that provide competing legal guidance on the stringency of reviews regulators must conduct before granting the streamlined permits.