Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is hinting that he would vote to strike down the Obama EPA's Clean Power Plan (CPP) utility greenhouse gas rule, attacking agencies for relying on ambiguities in “old law” to justify novel new policymaking efforts after they fail to convince Congress to approve legislation to authorize the policies.
EPA is facing criticism for rejecting co-firing coal with natural gas and biomass as strategies states must consider under its recently proposed “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule to limit power plant greenhouse gases, with sources arguing the agency is intentionally constraining itself from achieving meaningful GHG reductions from co-firing.
States and environmentalists that support the Obama EPA's Clean Power Plan (CPP) utility greenhouse gas rule are renewing their calls for an appellate court to issue its long-delayed ruling on the merits of the policy, a move that likely would create hurdles for Trump EPA efforts to replace the rule with a much narrower measure.
As the Trump administration moves to roll back and streamline agency requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), environmentalists are pursuing litigation against EPA that industry groups say could set a “negative precedent” expanding those requirements by barring EPA from using another agency's analysis.
STOWE, VT -- EPA is launching an effort to revise its Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 program that governs states' approval of federally permitted pipelines and other projects, but is facing major pushback from state regulators, including at least one GOP official, who question the need for changes and oppose any diminution of their power.
STOWE, VT -- Oklahoma's top regulator says state officials are hoping Senate Republicans revise their bill limiting states' authority under Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401, seeking to ensure that it preserves current state authority to consider impacts of “activities” related to a project rather than simply “discharges.”
EPA Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) judges at Aug. 30 oral argument wrestled with the extent to which the Clean Air Act requires permit applicants to apply novel emissions controls to satisfy best available control technology (BACT) mandates, with environmentalists seeking to establish battery power storage as BACT for a gas-fired power plant.
STOWE, VT -- State regulators are highlighting uncertainties surrounding reuse of “produced” wastewater from oil and gas drilling, including difficulties accurately assessing its contents, variability in samples, and liability issues, as EPA embarks on a “holistic study” of how federal, state and industry officials regulate or manage the reuse that is already occurring in some states.
EPA's proposal to ease the emissions test for triggering new source review (NSR) requirements to install modern pollution controls as part of its power sector climate rule, is reviving a decades-old fight and putting EPA on the opposite side of the issue when it was last litigated early in the Bush administration.
EPA air chief William Wehrum once opposed adopting an eased emissions test for triggering Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting requirements that his office is now proposing to adopt for coal-fired power plants as part of its narrow replacement for Obama-era utility greenhouse gas standards.