EPA is proposing to deny five Clean Air Act petitions from Delaware and Maryland seeking direct agency regulation of power plants in several upwind states that the two petitioning states claim are compromising their ability to meet federal ozone standards, marking the latest setback for East Coast states' quest to curb interstate air pollution.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has set a July 31 deadline for EPA to report on the progress of its designations of which parts of the country are attaining or in nonattainment with its 2015 federal ozone standard, as the agency tries to meet court-ordered deadlines to complete the delayed process.

Several environmental groups are suing EPA over Administrator Scott Pruitt's guidance memo "streamlining" the Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting process by allowing applicants to consider predicted emissions decreases as well as increases when deciding what level of analysis is required in a permit application.

California Air Resources Board (CARB) officials are seeking a meeting with the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to work on a compromise over light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards, in hopes of moderating the Trump administration's forthcoming regulatory proposal that is expected to significantly roll back the Obama-era rules.

Key observers are criticizing claims by Hill Republicans that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should not require a regulatory impact analysis (RIA) when reviewing EPA's plan to scrap production limits on high-emitting "glider" trucks because it is deregulatory, saying there is no such exception.

NEW YORK -- New York's environment commissioner is crafting "contingency plans" to promote environmental protection to help balance out potential pollution increases associated with EPA rule rollbacks, including a state push for zero-emission and electric vehicles (ZEVs) to counter any weakening of federal mobile source standards.

Michael Honeycutt, the new chair of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB), dodged tough questions from reporters on EPA's "secret science" policy, review of major EPA rulemakings and related issues at the first panel meeting since his appointment, but he reaffirmed his skepticism of the Obama administration's decision to tighten the ozone ambient air standard.

EPA advisers have voted to review the science underlying agency rules aimed at rolling back a suite of Obama administration greenhouse gas and emissions regulations, as well as a controversial proposal to require that major rules be based on publicly available science, decisions that environmentalists say amount to a "sharp rebuke" of Administrator Scott Pruitt's deregulatory agenda.

Major biofuels groups are petitioning EPA to reconsider a 2010 rule and the agency's renewable fuel standard (RFS) fuel blending volumes in order to compensate for the impact of what they call an "unprecedented" number of waivers EPA has granted relieving refiners of their fuel blending obligations under the program.

EPA and industry groups are urging a federal appeals court to reject environmentalists' petition for rehearing of a ruling that partially upheld the agency's maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule for industrial, commercial and institutional boilers, saying the ruling definitively resolved the legal fight over the rule.

EPA is formally launching a rulemaking that has the potential to overhaul how the agency considers regulatory costs and benefits across a wide range of air, water, toxics and other statutes, arguing the effort could address the "perceived inconsistency and lack of transparency" in prior cost-benefit reviews.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld EPA's rule saying its regions do not have to adhere to adverse appellate rulings from circuit courts outside of a particular region, rejecting an industry coalition's suit over the "nonacquiescence" policy and correcting prior precedent in an earlier similar case.