Energy

The White House regulatory office has begun reviewing EPA’s draft proposal to ease aspects of the Obama EPA’s Clean Water Act (CWA) power plant effluent rule, though the plan’s rationale may be undercut by a series of court losses the agency has suffered over the effluent rule and a related waste rule governing coal ash.

EPA is endorsing changes West Virginia made to its Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality certification for an Army Corps of Engineers general permit allowing construction of two high-profile natural gas pipelines through the state, clearing the way for the Corps to reissue the permit after a federal appeals court vacated it last year.

Oil and gas industry groups are cautiously welcoming EPA’s tentative plan to establish a novel emissions trading program for oil and gas drilling operations in Utah’s Uinta Basin to curb high ozone levels, but local leaders warn the plan should not distract from pursuing what they say are other urgent measures to reduce pollution.

California and other states with market-based programs to cut power sector greenhouse gas emissions charge in a new suit that EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which replaces the broader Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), is unlawful under the Clean Air Act and penalizes states that try to work together to cut emissions.