ORLANDO, FL -- EPA air chief William Wehrum plans to accelerate the long-delayed national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) review process by reducing some scientific advisory input and accepting data that is “close enough” to justify a review rather than “perfect,” suggesting Supreme Court precedent would allow the changes.

ORLANDO, FL -- EPA air chief William Wehrum is acknowledging that he faces a dilemma over whether to grant calls from utilities and others to scrap the regulatory justification for the Obama-era utility air toxics rule as a “satisfying” move, or retain it as even some of its staunchest industry critics have spent millions in compliance costs.

ORLANDO, FL -- EPA is signaling that, for now, it plans to issue guidance to revise the new source review (NSR) program's definition of when facility changes are “routine maintenance” exempt from the requirements despite West Virginia's petition to adopt the change in a Clean Air Act rule -- a move that would revive a legal fight from 2006.

Top House Republicans are expressing confidence about enacting a nationwide high-octane fuel standard as part of a broader package to “reform” or scale back the renewable fuel standard (RFS), arguing the move could satisfy a range of fuel stakeholders while also giving automakers a relatively cheap compliance option for fuel economy limits.

EPA water chief David Ross is looking for ways to replicate in other rulemakings the type of engagement the agency used with states to discuss changes to the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule, while stressing the need for incremental progress with water policies rather than trying to accomplish everything at once.

EPA water chief David Ross ordered revisions to the proposed repeal of the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction rule in order to bolster the proposal's legal basis in expected litigation, an agency staffer says, giving Ross the chance to “fix” legal flaws in the original proposal which EPA issued before he joined the agency.

EPA is signaling that a just-launched rulemaking process could end limits on wastewater “blending” technology that treatment plants use to mix partially- and fully-treated effluent during wet-weather events like storms in order to avoid a complete overflow, ending years of litigation over whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) lets regulators ban the pratice.

EPA's draft strategic plan for adopting and using new, non-animal testing methods for implementing the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is facing an early challenge as environmentalists and animal welfare groups are split over how quickly the agency should implement the new methods.

Two months before the planned release of a federal strategy for reducing children's lead exposures, EPA and other agencies are wrestling with key policy goals, including a planned schedule for eliminating exposures, whether the strategy will complement pending EPA rules and if EPA plans to account for stricter federal health standards that are slated to be adopted later this year.

Environmental, labor and public interest groups are urging White House officials to preserve and quickly implement the Obama-era rule bolstering EPA's facility accident prevention program, even as the Trump administration prepares to issue a plan that is widely expected to scale back the regulation.

Fearing harms to domestic manufacturing, several House and Senate Republicans have quietly urged EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to rethink his plan to repeal Obama-era rules governing “glider” trucks, an unusual move that highlights opposition to the plan not just by environmental groups but also large swaths of the trucking sector.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's mounting ethics problems are prompting an angry reaction from many agency staff who fear they would be reprimanded, suspended or even removed for conduct similar to Pruitt's, citing in part warnings in annual ethics trainings to avoid even the appearance of improper actions and to not waste government resources.

EPA's enforcement office has followed through with expected plans to back away from an Obama-era policy, known as Next Generation Enforcement (NextGen), that required broad consideration of innovative approaches in civil settlements, though one EPA source harbors doubts the new approach will mark a significant change in practice.