EPA's plan to develop new rules to limit nitrogen oxide (NOx) from heavy-duty trucks could provide the sector leverage to negotiate flexibilities with California, which is planning its own rules, but the plan is also prompting cautious praise from environmentalists and others who suggest the effort may avoid the kind of clash occurring in the light-duty sector.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has agreed to hear arguments from states and environmentalists who are challenging the Trump-EPA's threshold finding that it must weaken Obama-era vehicle greenhouse gas standards, raising doubts about ongoing administration efforts to rewrite the standards.

EPA is touting the success of its partnership with Mexico to reduce air, water and waste pollution along the southern border, including a push to curb truck air emissions by dramatically reducing truck idling at border crossings.

As firefighters continue to work on extinguishing two devastating wildfires in California, leaders in the Golden State, Washington and British Columbia are preparing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to take steps to make forests more resilient to such fire risks and to pursue carbon sequestration projects across the West Coast.

Pennsylvania and a refiner based in the state are petitioning EPA to grant a state-wide waiver from renewable fuel standard (RFS) fuel blending mandates for 2018 and 2019 based on economic hardship, though biofuels sector supporters of the program are pushing back against requests for waivers and claiming they are unjustified.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) is joining seven other states and the District of Columbia in filing an amicus brief supporting New York City's appeal that aims to reverse a federal district court's dismissal earlier this year of its climate nuisance suit against major oil companies.

A coalition of states and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are urging an appellate court to scrap an EPA guidance document that "effectively rescinds" an Obama-era rule limiting refrigerant chemicals that act as potent greenhouse gases, even though the rule at issue was only partially vacated by a prior court ruling.

EPA is proposing to delay full implementation of Obama-era emissions limits for some wood-burning heaters through May 2022 and seeking input on potentially delaying implementation of other limits for similar devices, while also eyeing a possible broader delay or weakening of emissions limits that are slated to take effect in 2020.

A plan by likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to recreate a special climate change panel is the latest flash-point in the divided Democratic caucus, with a key committee chairman indicating he sees no need for the panel while an incoming freshman is calling for the panel's jurisdiction to be expanded to allow it to write legislation.

EPA says it will within "weeks" propose to scrap the Obama-era designations of five Texas counties as out of attainment with the agency's 2010 sulfur dioxide (SO2) national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS), a move which could end litigation filed by the Lone Star state contesting the designations.

Local government policy advisers are urging EPA to grant broad Clean Air Act regulatory exemptions for emissions from "prescribed burning" of land that compromise attainment of federal air quality standards, echoing the view of some regulators in the West where increasingly severe and frequent wildfires are worsening air pollution.

A wide variety of interested groups have reached consensus that a group of 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states should impose a regional carbon price to cut transportation greenhouse gases, which is similar to how the region limits utility emissions through a cap-and-trade program, though the states have not said they are ready to move on the concept.