Streamlining GHG Permits
EPA is facing a potential loss in a lawsuit over its “tailoring” rule raising air permit thresholds for greenhouse gases, but a permit streamlining plan could reduce the fallout from an adverse ruling:
EPA Hurries GHG Permit Streamlining Plan As Hedge Against Lawsuit Loss
EPA is looking to a hastily-arranged workgroup to quickly provide guidance on how to streamline its greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting program, which sources say could provide some relief to permit writers that may face a massive workload of new permits if a federal appeals court vacates EPA's rule that raised GHG permit triggers.
Environmentalists are criticizing the agency's recent proposal to retain existing greenhouse gas permitting thresholds rather than lower them to capture more sources:
Activists Oppose EPA Plan To Retain Existing GHG Permitting Thresholds
Environmentalists are opposing EPA's plan to leave existing greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting thresholds in place, arguing the agency has not provided "sufficient evidence" for its claim that lowering the thresholds and subjecting more facilities to GHG permitting requirements would create major new burdens on permit writers.
State Regulates Biomass
In a move that could put pressure on EPA to adopt a similar plan, Massachusetts has unveiled a strict proposal outlining efficiency requirements for biomass-generated electricity:
Massachusetts Unveils Strict Biomass Carbon Plan, Likely Pressuring EPA
Massachusetts has unveiled its strict biomass greenhouse gas (GHG) plan that limits the carbon credit whole trees can win under the state's renewable energy standard and requires biomass-generated electricity to meet stringent efficiency levels, a first-of-its-kind plan that could pressure EPA to adopt in its biomass GHG accounting framework.
EPA Stalls Stormwater Rule
EPA has again missed a deadline for issuing a construction stormwater rule, prompting some observers to call on the agency to use the delay to revise the rule's cost-benefit analysis:
EPA Again Stalls Stormwater Rule As Group Pushes Cost-Benefit Changes
EPA is seeking a fifth extension to its legal deadline for issuing a novel rule to curb stormwater runoff at development sites once construction is completed, prompting a nonpartisan think tank to suggest EPA use the delay to make tweaks to an analysis of the rule's costs and benefits that the agency is struggling to complete.
Background on the delayed rule from Inside EPA's Water Policy Report:
Grappling With Cost Study, EPA Weighs New Delays For Stormwater Rule
EPA is struggling to estimate the costs and benefits of its first-time proposal for regulating stormwater runoff after construction at housing and other developments is completed, forcing officials into talks with environmentalists over a new schedule for the rulemaking, an EPA spokeswoman said in a statement to Inside EPA.
NRDC Pushing For Retention Standard In New EPA Stormwater Rules
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is urging EPA to set a national stormwater retention standard in upcoming rules, using the standard included in a closely watched municipal stormwater permit for Washington, DC, as a model, even as the group is challenging other aspects of that permit.
EPA Seeks Risk Data
EPA is seeking better data to try and solve a problem agencies have long grappled with -- how to address uncertainty stemming from human variability in risk assessment:
EPA Seeks Better Data For Assessing Human Variability In Risk Studies
EPA officials are calling for more information on human variability to incorporate into its risk assessments, saying that new data on susceptible populations could result in less uncertainty in assessments, but warning that outside researchers need to be more aware of the agency's data needs in order to provide relevant information.
Curbing CWA Enforcement
Republican House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee leaders are considering legislative options for ensuring that the agency limits its use of Clean Water Act enforcement tools:
Congress At Odds Over CWA Fix To Curb EPA Enforcement In Permit Plan
Key House and Senate committee leaders appear to be at odds over whether to amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) to ensure that EPA's forthcoming plan for integrating municipal stormwater and wastewater permitting relies more on permits than enforcement as the primary compliance tool.
Bid For TRI Rule Stay
EPA is rejecting claims that a recent toxics reporting rule curtails state powers, but a conservative group is pushing back and calling for a Justice Department opinion on the rule:
EPA Urged To Stall TRI Rule Pending DOJ Opinion On Curtailed State Powers
The conservative Heritage Foundation is urging EPA to delay implementing its recent final rule expanding tribes' oversight authority for the agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and to seek a Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinion on whether the rule unlawfully transfers powers from states to tribes.
Meanwhile, the agency is preparing to add new Toxics Release Inventory and census data to a key risk screening model:
EPA Adds New TRI, Census Data To Update Key Risk Screening Model
EPA is slated to update its Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model with recent census, toxicity and pollution release data in an effort to revise a tool that agency programs, states and others use to develop "a chronic human risk score" that is used for risk management and other decisions, such as monitor placements.
Sparring Over Water Fees
In an ongoing lawsuit, cities and EPA are sparring over whether a Clean Water Act amendment requiring federal facilities to pay local stormwater fees mandates payments retroactively:
U.S. Fights Cities' Bid To Require Retroactive Payment Of Stormwater Fees
The Justice Department (DOJ) is arguing that a 2011 Clean Water Act (CWA) amendment requiring federal facilities to pay local stormwater fees does not require payments retroactively, charging in the first test of the legislation that Congress only provided for a narrow waiver of sovereign immunity for assessing such fees prospectively and did not provide explicit language requiring payments retroactively.
