East Coast states are warning EPA against finalizing its proposed finding that its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) emissions trading program fully satisfies Clean Air Act requirements to curb interstate ozone pollution, telling the agency the proposal is based on faulty and unlawful assumptions about the problems of ozone transport.

Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) Democrats at an Aug. 1 hearing with acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler urged him to halt many of the Obama-era rule rollbacks launched by former Trump agency chief Scott Pruitt, but Wheeler largely sidestepped the calls and made no firm commitments.

AUSTIN, TX -- Pending litigation from 15 states and environmentalists to force the Trump EPA to issue first-time methane emissions standards for existing oil and gas equipment could, if successful, broadly force the agency to issue tougher Clean Air Act rules for several sectors, according to legal experts.

EPA air chief William Wehrum is said to be close to deciding whether to continue with a Pruitt-era plan to remove the trailers pulled by trucks from the agency's greenhouse gas rule for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, or to take a less-aggressive posture that continues to regulate the equipment while imposing softer requirements than the 2016 phase 2 GHG regulation.

EPA has decided against reconsidering the Obama-era decision to tighten the ozone national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) from the 2008 limit of 75 parts per billion (ppb) down to 70 ppb, opting instead to consider the issue as part of an expedited review of the 2015 standard that the agency is slated to conclude in October 2020.

Environmental groups are opposing EPA's bid to scrap elements of a complex appeals court ruling that vacated several pieces of the agency's rule for states' implementation of the 2008 federal ozone standard, pushing instead for a limited stay of the court's ruling with respect to the affected "anti-backsliding" protections.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is eyeing new talks with the oil and ethanol industries on potential administrative reforms to the renewable fuel standard (RFS) after dropping a reform "package" crafted by former agency chief Scott Pruitt, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers is instead writing legislation for long-term reforms.

President Donald Trump says he is "very close" to allowing year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol (E15) fuel, but the remarks appear to contradict acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler's recent statement that he will not implement a renewable fuel standard reform (RFS) package that included biofuels makers' push for annual E15 sales.

Environmentalists, refiners and the biodiesel industry are leveling a wide range of sometimes contradictory legal accusations over EPA's rule setting biofuel blending volumes for 2018 under the renewable fuel standard (RFS), as refiners and environmentalists seek to scrap or limit the rule, and biofuels interests seek to maximize volumes.

EPA has told federal energy regulators they no longer need to monetize the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when weighing natural gas pipelines' environmental impacts, likely giving the commission cover to defend its recent largely partisan decisions to approve pipelines without broadly quantifying their GHG and climate change impacts.

Environmentalists are asking Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to require opponents of the Obama EPA's Clean Power Plan (CPP) utility greenhouse gas rule to explain why the court's almost two-and-a-half year stay of the rule should remain in effect, noting that the legal challenges to the rule that prompted the stay have halted.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in a new ruling is bolstering EPA's discretion to approve states' applications for Clean Air Act regulatory exemptions for "exceptional events," such as dust storms or wildfires, backing the agency's approval of dozens of requests from Colorado over environmentalists' objections.

The Supreme Court is rejecting an unusual request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to halt a case proceeding in district court that is slated to go to trial this fall where 21 youth plaintiffs are alleging the U.S. government is violating the Constitution by failing to protect them from the harms of climate change.