Waste

House lawmakers are pressing the Energy Department (DOE) for answers on its growing environmental liability, estimated at almost $400 billion, particularly as that liability outpaces annual cleanup spending, and are questioning how that liability can be cut when the Trump administration is proposing budget cuts to the cleanup program.

The White House's decision to drop from EPA's groundwater cleanup guide for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) a default threshold above which regulators could order removals is sparking charges that regulators may not pursue some cleanups because they will be harder to justify though EPA says the limit was dropped to avoid confusion.

A federal judge is promising to set “reasonable” deadlines for EPA to implement a long-delayed Obama-era rule to limit methane, the potent greenhouse gas, from existing landfills to account for federal resource constraints while rejecting Trump administration arguments that seek to set a new bar limiting states’ standing to sue over climate rules.

EPA has issued long-delayed draft interim guidelines for cleaning up groundwater contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at levels stricter than what the Defense Department (DOD) and the other agencies have sought, though it is not clear whether DOD and the other agencies will comply at levels recommended by EPA.