In late January, EPA issued a guidance memorandum related to major sources under § 112 of the Clean Air Act that will likely reduce participation in the program. The new guidance actually withdrew a previous guidance policy in which EPA took the position that, if a source emitting air pollutants under § 112 ever attains "major source" classification, it would always retain that classification. (EPA Reclassification Notice). This original once-in-always-in policy meant that a source would always remain classified as a major source even if subsequent changes in operations allowed ...
In mid-December, EPA issued its semi-annual regulatory agenda reflecting rulemaking activities scheduled for 2018 and beyond. The overall announcement is reflected in the EPA press release and detailed explanations are available the Agency's Statement of Priorities posted on the Office of Management and Budget's website and a more specific individualized rule assessment provided at regulations.gov.
The Agency's Statement of Priorities includes a statement of its general goals. As to its regulatory responsibilities, the Statement indicates, among other things, that EPA ...
President Trump has promised that his Administration will resolve any continuing debate on climate change. On the front line of the effort, the President's EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, has moved to eliminate climate change as a basis for regulatory actions. (USA Today). As an example, Pruitt has made a concerted effort to eliminate any significant restriction or limitation on the use of coal. Although interestingly, the chief of Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal mining company in the U.S., has previously advised Trump against promising a comeback for the coal ...
The issue of climate change has become the focus of air emission regulations and prompted deep division in the process. The last Presidential election brought the issue to the fore in the sense that those who are now involved with developing environmental policy are skeptical of human impacts on climate, and most official discussion of the issue is being eliminated. (EPA Scientists Prevented from Discussing Climate Change: NYT & CNN). Nonetheless, investigations of the impacts of air pollution continue and results are being published on an ongoing basis. Notably, the British ...
Hurricane Maria left the entire island of Puerto Rico without power. About fifty-five percent of the nation's transmission towers were destroyed, but about 90 percent of the entire distribution network is out of operation. (Power Blackout). The problems could be compounded because the island's electrical provider, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) has previously filed for bankruptcy in July. However, the destruction caused by the storm might prompt a privatization of PREPA, giving the opportunity for greater efficiencies. (Slate)
Statistics aside, some see the ...
In late August, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an extension of the public comment period for a proposal to recodify a pre-existing rule defining the scope of waters of the United States. The recodification is an interim step in a process intending to write a new definition for the term "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS). (EPA Rulemaking Process). The comment period, which was originally scheduled to end on August 28, 2017, is now extended 30 days and will end on September 27. (Federal Register 8/22/17). In a separate, but related matter, EPA has also announced a ...
Attorneys General for eleven states filed a challenge in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to vacate a recently announced 2-year delay in implementation of chemical safety rules. (Reuters). EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt initially announced a delay in the rule in March and then promulgated a rule modification announced in June which provides that the rule will not become effective before February, 2019. (The Hill). In the interim, the Agency will assess the rule's potential impact on businesses.
The rule was finalized at the end of the Obama ...
Last Thursday, National Public Radio reported on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which offers evidence that air pollution continues to kill thousands in the United States every year. (NPR). An abstract can be viewed at the New England Journal of Medicine website here.
The study, conducted by a team from Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, concludes that approximately 12,000 lives could be saved every year by reducing the emission level of fine particulate matter by 1 microgram per cubic meter of air below current U.S. standards. While air quality has ...
The commissioners of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) recently responded to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's request to States for comments regarding the definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS). In particular, the Administrator sought input as to how to define "relatively permanent" waters and "wetlands with continuous surface connections" consistent with the Plurality Opinion by Justice Scalia in Rapanos v. U.S. The request by Administrator Pruitt is consistent with President ...
President Trump is expected to announce this afternoon his decision whether to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. (Reuters) Several news sources yesterday indicated that President Trump has decided to withdraw. (The Hill, Reuters). The expected decision follows a significant public and private lobbying effort attempting to persuade the President's thinking on the issue. (N. Y. Times).
While much of the initial intrigue may involve speculation regarding the President's motivation and what this may mean for the relative influence of different advisors ...