EPA has launched a broad new rulemaking to clarify and consolidate its regulations for hazardous waste generators, a move that one industry source says could make it easier for some companies to comply with disparate requirements, but which also could open the door to controversial policy changes.724 words

A natural gas distribution company is urging the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed a judge, rather than a jury, to impose enhanced criminal fines for a waste law violation, warning the justices that allowing the ruling to stand would undermine defendants in a host of environmental enforcement actions.1353 words

House Republicans are working to amend Senate-approved legislation that would allow EPA to follow through on its long-pending plans to modernize its system for tracking hazardous waste shipments by providing congressional appropriators oversight authority over the program.617 words

Environmental and public health groups are threatening to sue EPA to force a hard legal deadline for the the agency to issue the final version of its long-stalled coal combustion residuals (CCRs) disposal rule, arguing that EPA is ignoring a Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) requirement to periodically review and revise its waste rules.790 words

EPA and a group representing local government cleanup officials are floating new guidance to help municipal and other entities decide how and whether to support development of renewable energy facilities on contaminated brownfields sites -- a key agency goal.1022 words

EPA is including a controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guide for cleaning up after nuclear attacks on a short list of reference materials it is providing to Japanese officials seeking advice on how to remediate the Fukushima power power plant meltdown, a move that is prompting strong criticisms from environmentalists who fear such advice could set a precedent that would dramatically weaken domestic cleanup standards.1050 words

EPA has sent for White House review a rule detailing how it will define areas in attainment with its contested 2008 ozone standard, and is separately preparing a rule giving states guidance on how to implement the limit, key steps toward enforcing the standard even as activists push ahead with a lawsuit challenging the standard as too weak.1385 words

EPA is crafting a controversial rule that could set a first-time mandate for Clean Air Act prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permit applicants to model their projected emission impacts on states' attainment of the agency's ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standards, which sources say could prevent some facilities from winning permits.939 words

A federal appeals court has denied a request by states, electric utilities and others to split briefing in their suits over EPA's cap-and-trade emissions rule for power plants into two stages and has instead set a faster schedule for briefs than EPA or the plaintiffs sought, which could lead to a quicker resolution of uncertainty over the rule's legality.1442 words

EPA is vowing to use its discretion not to enforce against any boilers and incinerators that do not comply with requirements under the agency's combustion air rule package -- recently reinstated after a federal district court scrapped EPA's indefinite stay of the rules -- while also saying the agency will fight legislative efforts to delay or overhaul a pending revision of the rules.861 words

EPA has revealed through court documents that it plans to propose this June long-stalled revisions to its particulate matter (PM) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) ahead of a final rule set for June 2013, even while the agency fights attempts by states and activists to have a federal appeals court set a hard legal deadline for the rule.1020 words

Industry groups are weighing a possible lawsuit challenging EPA's proposed tougher air toxics rules for the feroalloy production sector, primarily because the rule is based on a risk assessment of the ubiquitous metal manganese that industry critics charge overestimates the metal's risks and led to an excessively stringent proposal.766 words

EPA is appealing a 2010 federal district court ruling that found new owners of a power plant were not liable for the alleged Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) program violations by the prior owner, fighting a decision that observers agree is a significant finding that could stymie the agency's ongoing NSR enforcement efforts if upheld.685 words

A bipartisan group of senators is urging EPA to halt its pending proposal to tighten pollution standards for gasoline and vehicles in part due to their concerns that the rule will raise gas prices, escalating an emerging battle over the costs of the rule that states and environmentalists say will provide widespread benefits for minimal cost.834 words

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is launching a probe of EPA's effluent limitation guidelines (ELG) program under the Clean Water Act (CWA), and though the scope is not yet clear, sources say the study will likely examine the portion of the ELG program dealing with pretreatment standards -- which has long been the source of divisions among wastewater utilities.786 words

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) is considering asking Congress to amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act to allow additional compliance flexibility for municipalities in the event that EPA's forthcoming integrated planning and permitting policy (IP3) does not result in tangible economic relief.721 words

EPA is defending its recently released draft water quality criteria for protecting against human health risks associated with bacterial contamination at beaches from criticisms leveled by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and environmentalists who charged the agency had failed to use recent epidemiological data that they say suggests the need for stricter limits than what the agency proposed.533 words

EPA is rejecting calls from water utilities to consider early use of its pending methodology for harmonizing the way that its water and pesticides offices screen pesticide risks to aquatic life for use in registration decisions, prompting concerns that utilities will bear the burden of new water quality requirements rather than pesticide manufacturers.568 words

EPA has issued a revised method for measuring levels of hexavelent chromium (Cr6) in drinking water, which appears to resolve concerns raised by drinking water utilities while fueling speculation that the agency's upcoming Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) will require utilities to monitor for the ubiquitous contaminant.562 words

Environmentalists and the Teamsters, a key labor union, are strongly urging EPA and top White House officials to release the long-awaited risk assessment of the ubiquitous environmental contaminant dioxin this month, as Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised, according to a flurry of letters sent to the agency over the past week.1384 words

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) is expected to soon release its long-awaited review of carcinogenicity studies performed by a controversial Italian laboratory, studies relating to six of EPA's major chemical risk assessments, which the agency was forced to "hold" after an initial NTP review of one of the studies found inconsistencies.430 words

President Obama has nominated James Jones, the acting chief of EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), to lead the office on a permanent basis, a nomination that could raise the profile of the administration's toxics policies as the Senate weighs Jones' selection.312 words

EPA officials are preparing additional guidance for companies subject to its new Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule, which the officials say will address industry concerns with how to report data on byproducts and other compounds and should be completed by the time the submission period begins Feb. 1.484 words

EPA is weighing whether to add the commonly used detergent chemical nonylphenol (NP) to the list of substances that require reporting under federal emergency planning laws, a move the agency first suggested in the chemical action plan it released for the substance in 2010.775 words

EPA has signed an agreement with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to exchange data and help the state in its fledgling green chemistry program, which agency officials view as a potential model for national chemical policy reforms.725 words

EPA's Office of Inspector General (IG) says the agency's recently issued plan to improve its Endocrine Disruptor Screening program (EDSP) -- known as EDSP21 -- falls short of some recent IG recommendations to improve the program's management and speed its implementation.705 words

EPA is using its Superfund law authority to investigate and address hazardous substances found in drinking water wells in Pennsylvania and Wyoming that the agency is signaling could have been caused by natural gas drilling, a rare move since the law has rarely been used to address oil and gas drilling operations.828 words

Industry and Republican sources are raising concerns that separate EPA investigations into whether hydraulic fracturing operations in Wyoming and Pennsylvania contaminated water supplies may preempt the finding of a broader EPA fracking study, and are also criticizing the differing approaches in the two existing investigations.790 words

EPA is urging New York to tighten limits for radioactive constituents in wastewater generated from hydraulic fracturing operations in the state's pending draft rules for natural gas development, a move that environmentalists hope indicates how the agency will address the issue in its own pending pretreatment standards for the shale gas industry.818 words

A top adviser to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is ranking the agency's core environmental concerns related to hydraulic fracturing, with strains on water supply as a top issue.675 words

EPA and the power industry are sparring over whether the agency can cite a recent appellate ruling blocking home builders from challenging an Army Corps of Engineers permit to block industry's standing to challenge some of the agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations in a major case that is slated for oral arguments next month.893 words

Auto giant Honda and others are urging EPA to revise its proposed light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) and fuel economy rules for model years 2017-2025 by scrapping a policy that credits electric vehicles (EVs) as emitting zero GHGs, saying it fails to account for GHGs resulting from power plant electricity generation necessary to charge the vehicles.780 words

An EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) panel this week will discuss its Jan. 19 draft report that asks the agency to back away from its plan to develop a carbon dioxide (CO2) accounting framework to determine lifecycle emissions from biomass and suggests alternatives such as including biomass emissions in some greenhouse gas (GHG) permits.890 words

The Obama administration's denial of a permit for the Keystone tar sands pipeline appears to have removed a high profile pressure point for administration to fully account for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) -- an issue on which the administration has yet to finalize pending draft guidance.676 words

Open government and environmental groups Jan. 24 sent letters to the Defense and Health & Human Services secretaries to stress concerns and question the legal justification for the Department of the Navy's (DON) recent decision to restrict the release of water contamination data from a North Carolina base where up to 1 million people may have been exposed to toxic chemicals.1163 words

State environmental commissioners are pressing the White House budget office and Energy Department (DOE) to fully fund DOE's nuclear cleanup budget in the next fiscal year even as a DOE waste official warned recently that the cleanup program will likely suffer cuts in the coming years with possible breaches of cleanup milestones.467 words

Military researchers are suggesting that EPA and other federal agencies use a non-cancer risk level less stringent than the current EPA standard for the explosive RDX -- a contaminant at military sites -- as a result of a new modeling approach the researchers applied to both old and new data.759 words

The Army is working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on plans for the environmental monitoring of depleted uranium (DU) contamination at multiple sites, even as the military has raised concerns over the training restrictions the NRC has imposed at these sites and questioned NRC's jurisdiction at ranges the military continues to operate.872 words

As industry is struggling to meet EPA's supply mandates for cellulosic biofuels under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), the Obama administration is scrambling to create a market for new forms of advanced biofuels that could be commercialized sooner than cellulosic fuels, which were once viewed as the lowest-carbon biofuel.872 words