Energy

EPA in a new determination finds the renewable fuel standard (RFS) has a mixed impact on air quality but says there is no need for the agency to mitigate any emissions increases because its separate Tier 3 fuels and vehicles rule largely achieves the air pollution cuts that such mitigation would secure, and no additional air controls are available.

In a major setback for the energy sector and Trump administration, an appellate court has denied an emergency request from the Justice Department (DOJ) and industry to stay a landmark district court ruling that vacated the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) general permit for constructing new oil and gas pipelines.

A federal district court judge has approved a consent decree between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a refiner that requires the company to perform two environmental mitigation projects, showing that courts will back such projects even as DOJ’s policy on them is hazy given its prohibition on similar supplemental environmental projects (SEPs).

A coal mining firm is suing EPA over its just-published final rule scrapping the cost-benefit review underpinning the Obama administration’s landmark mercury and air toxics standards (MATS), a lawsuit that environmentalists and others predicted would be filed and that places the fate of the overall utility emissions regulation in jeopardy.