Republicans are considering using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to formally disapprove and undo EPA's pending final coal waste disposal rule if the agency classifies the waste as hazardous, with the GOP saying it expects bipartisan support for the legislative maneuver given lawmakers' existing concerns over the proposed rule.662 words

The Supreme Court is poised to decide whether to review an appellate court ruling that bankruptcy is not necessarily a defense against cleanup liability -- a decision that some lawyers following the case say could prevent companies throughout the country from surviving financial hardship and inhibit cleanup at the sites where they are liable.912 words

A new federal appeals court ruling backs EPA's authority to designate materials as hazardous without seeking public comment, which one key waste lawyer says should serve as a warning to industry to be cautious handling materials that lack an EPA definition and treat them as hazardous until the agency issues a decision that they are not hazardous.536 words

Previous EPA objections to proposals to blend or dilute radioactive waste -- outlined in documents obtained by Inside EPA -- could bolster environmentalists' efforts to shoot down an industry petition asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to broaden the types of facilities where certain wastes can be disposed, activists say.743 words

The expert panel reviewing the cleanup of the Hudson River is urging EPA to slow dredging of contaminated sediment in order to limit the amount of contamination resuspended in the water column, a suggestion industry officials claim bolsters their long-standing calls for EPA to limit the dredging of historical contamination generally.913 words

Two Western states' recent decisions to impose conventional emission controls on pollution sources to meet EPA's regional haze reduction mandates could signal the end of an EPA-preferred alternative that sets voluntary haze reduction goals with a backstop of a mandatory sulfur dioxide (SO2) cap-and-trade program in the West, sources say.953 words

EPA is preparing to formally reject Oklahoma's state implementation plan (SIP) outlining how the state intends to meet federal haze reduction requirements and could replace it with a federal implementation plan (FIP) imposing an EPA-crafted emission control haze plan on the state -- a possible first for the agency's regional haze program.570 words

Environmentalists are criticizing EPA's proposed definition of non-hazardous solid waste -- which will determine the level of emission controls required at power units -- saying it would lead to a host of "unalwful" regulatory exemptions for units that would exacerbate toxic air pollution impacting communities' health and welfare.603 words

A second appellate court has rejected EPA's long-held position that there is no time bar for seeking civil penalties for past violations of the agency's prevention of significant deterioriation (PSD) rules, broadening an existing circuit split that some sources say could prompt the agency to issue clarifying guidance.715 words

Texas officials are floating permitting rules that adopt a revoked Bush-era policy on "aggregation" of oil and gas facilities' emissions to determine whether they are major pollution sources, setting up a possible clash with the Obama EPA's attempts to define aggregation based on a more comprehensive test than the revoked policy.939 words

EPA's just-issued final emission rules for the Portland cement sector make key concessions to industry, softening the regulations compared to their proposed versions, but the changes have failed to quell industry criticism over the costs of installing new pollution controls that companies face in order to come into compliance.522 words

EPA is delaying until late October its pending tightening of its ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), telling a federal court that it is scrapping earlier plans to issue the final standard later this month in order to give the agency more time to review public comments.397 words

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is backing a 2003 district court ruling that revoked a long-standing EPA permit exemption for roads at timber harvesting sites, requiring regulators to permit the developments in the key logging states that the court oversees and possibly beyond.733 words

A variety of industry groups are warning EPA against moving forward with revisions to the requirements for water effluent testing methods until the agency has clarified long-standing policies for determining pollution detection limits, saying the proposed changes are not based on the best available science and would add additional burdens and ambiguity to the agency's water permitting process.841 words

Industry officials hope that EPA's request for a federal appeals court to remand its strict numeric discharge limits for the construction and development sector will curtail state efforts to implement similar standards, because EPA in the request acknowledged errors in the data justifying the standard that some states are looking to adopt.694 words

EPA needs to more clearly define what it wants from states and other permitting authorities when urging new use of so-called residual designation authority (RDA), a Clean Water Act (CWA) legal tool the agency is pushing as a way to control previously unregulated stormwater pollution sources, according to a Vermont regulator.672 words

Activists are urging EPA to drop plans for a study on the benefits of strict cooling water rules, saying a recent federal appellate ruling upholding cooling water regulations for new offshore drilling rigs should strengthen the agency's hand to stave off demands by White House officials who favor broad use of cost-benefit studies.577 words

EPA in a new draft report is outlining a number of steps it wants to take to boost its existing Clean Water Act (CWA) authority through new regulatory, permitting and enforcement efforts, while saying Congress needs to pass legislation clarifying the scope of the CWA to ensure EPA can implement some of the steps.634 words

A host of local environmentalists is planning to publicly oppose Sen. Benjamin Cardin's (D-MD) bill to reauthorize EPA's Chesapeake Bay program, charging that changes the senator made to win GOP support for the bill set a bad precedent for future efforts to amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) and do little good for the Bay.596 words

A federal court has rejected an industry effort to overturn EPA's precedent-setting designation of an Arizona river as a "traditionally navigable water" (TNWs), a designation that industry charges allows regulators to bypass Supreme Court limits on their water act jurisdiction in regulating intermittently flowing streams, wetlands and other marginal waters.322 words

The Army Corps of Engineers is urging a federal court to dismiss an industry lawsuit that aims to test the scope of EPA-Corps rules exempting "prior converted croplands" from wetland permit requirements under the Clean Water Act, with the Corps arguing that it is yet to make a final decision on the issue that would be ripe for litigation.851 words

The Defense Department (DOD) is warning EPA that its just-issued risk assessment of dioxane, a chemical found in industrial solvents and personal care products, is vulnerable to a Data Quality Act (DQA) challenge because EPA completed the assessment without external review of a revised version of a key study the agency relied on.661 words

A new federal appellate ruling has clarified a high court decision on the extent to which federal pesticide law preempts claims against chemical manufacturers for crop damages brought under state law, providing industry with new legal guidance on what information must be included on pesticide labels to avoid state law claims, one legal source says.653 words

A joint study conducted by EPA and other researchers shows harmful developmental effects from exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the ubiquitous chemical found in manufactured protective coatings, and appears poised to drive strict new EPA and state regulatory limits on the substance, sources say.521 words

A key former EPA official is questioning whether a House bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) would be "workable and effective," citing concerns about the bill's "over-heavy and impractical" approach to chemical testing, data requirements, and the ability of EPA to fulfill a slew of mandates with tight deadlines in the bill.813 words

A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel reviewing EPA's strict draft formaldehyde risk study is weighing whether to ask EPA to perform a "meta-analysis" to review the link between health effects and exposure to the chemical, a move that could address industry criticism that an external meta-analysis EPA used overestimates the chemical's risks.455 words

A host of major industry groups are calling for EPA to significantly revise its controversial draft risk assessment of arsenic -- and allow an expanded public and peer review process because agency deviations from its generally accepted public process when crafting and reviewing the document make it scientifically indefensible.523 words

EPA has released a proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rule to require industry to submit a wider set of information about chemical production, a plan that has already drawn industry concerns about the burdensome scope of new data the rule would require and whether they would have enough time to comply with the rule.511 words

EPA's pending first-time proposal to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks is expected to require the use of easily available off-the-shelf technologies, such as low-resistance tires, many of which already are required in EPA's voluntary SmartWay truck efficiency program, sources familiar with the plan say.821 words

EPA is proposing to require that more than a dozen states revise their Clean Air Act permitting programs to include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so they will be able to implement the agency's first-time GHG permitting requirements starting in January.406 words

A major natural gas company is urging EPA not to require oil and gas facilities to aggregate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its pending final GHG reporting rule for the sector, arguing at a recent White House meeting that the requirement violates the Clean Air Act and will increase compliance costs far beyond what EPA forecast.679 words

Energy giant Peabody Energy has filed a formal petition under the Data Quality Act (DQA) challenging the temperature data supporting EPA's climate change endangerment finding, reiterating many arguments the company made in a separate Clean Air Act (CAA) petition asking EPA to reconsider the finding but which the agency just denied.387 words

EPA is poised to hold a series of meetings with officials from other federal agencies to discuss a series of cross-cutting science policy issues, such as application of its cancer guidelines when setting safety limits for chemicals, that the agencies and industry groups have raised but which have complicated EPA efforts to complete a host of pending risk assessments.801 words

EPA is considering changes to a controversial draft guidance for estimating the dose at which a chemical or pollutant poses a risk, a method known as benchmark dose modeling (BDM), with federal agencies providing comment on a revised version of a 2000 draft document that the agency has never issued in final form.815 words

EPA has dropped key health data from a screening tool that could be used to target enforcement efforts in environmental justice communities, saying that although health impacts could be the screening tool's most significant measure of disproportionate impacts, federal privacy laws prevent use of the data.685 words

A key academic group is proposing that regulators adopt a new "plausibly safer" standard for quickly reviewing and approving alternatives to controversial chemicals such as dioxin, which the group argues could help bypass EPA's stalled risk assessments for a number of substances that are mired down by uncertainty and industry data challenges.794 words

States fear that EPA's conductivity benchmark for mountaintop mining water permits in Central Appalachia could apply in other states with similar water quality characteristics as the region, and California water officials are already urging EPA to clarify that the benchmark should not be used by regulators beyond Appalachia.1012 words

EPA is crafting a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with federal mining agencies and Kentucky that offers to streamline issuance of controversial permits for mountaintop mining operations in exchange for industry minimizing the fill material discharged, providing a model that could resolve disputes over pending projects in several other states.738 words

A key appellate court is strongly underscoring an earlier ruling that effectively blocked private parties from appealing remand orders issued by district courts until EPA or any other agency subject to the remand takes final action required by the order, a ruling that one legal expert says could lead to significant delays in judicial resolutions.755 words

A recently created task force in EPA Region III is exploring options to use existing tools such as targeted enforcement and permit objections to impose stricter environmental protection standards on fossil fuel extraction in the key energy states of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia -- which include growing natural gas drilling operations and a heavy coal mining presence.887 words

Mounting public concern over possible water and air pollution from hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas drilling process, is prompting new tort claims against extraction companies and could pressure the industry to seek new EPA or state regulations to help head off any potential future civil liabilities.751 words

The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) in a new report is warning that a failure by Congress to boost EPA categorical grants to states in the agency's pending fiscal year 2011 spending bill will exacerbate state budget problems, possibly triggering a need by some states to overhaul and pare back their environmental budgets later this year.711 words

Supporters of Senate efforts to increase the cap on tax-exempt bonds for water infrastructure projects -- an alternative to EPA loan funds -- are gaining bipartisan support for their efforts, overcoming deficit concerns from some Republicans and opposition from some environmentalists who oppose such private sector subsidies.732 words

House Republicans are considering ways to reverse EPA and other regulatory hurdles that they believe may pose obstacles to private sector investment in water infrastructure after a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that EPA and state rules may hamper privatization efforts, a GOP congressional source says.464 words