EPA

Subscribe to EPA

Batteries play a fundamental role in energy storage, and currently nearly 99 million lead acid batteries are manufactured each year. This past Wednesday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rule in the Federal Register relating to air emissions controls for lead acid battery manufacturers. Highlights of the proposed rule are more stringent lead emission limits for grid casting, paste mixing, and lead reclamation operations under both the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) (for new and existing sources) and new New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for lead acid battery facilities that begin construction, reconstruction, or modification after February 23, 2022.
…
Continue Reading EPA Issues Proposed Rule Imposing More Stringent Air Emissions Controls for Lead Acid Battery Manufacturing

Loading of cargo airplane

The Biden Administration has indicated that the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will include environmental justice issues among its priorities. EPA defines “environmental justice” as meaning fair treatment and meaningful involvement of people regardless of their race, color, national origin, or income regarding the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws. EPA’s new emphasis on environmental justice means the regulated community should be on alert to identify how their operations potentially affect environmental justice issues.
Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Decision Illustrates the Extent to Which “Justice” Issues Have Entered the Regulation Conversation

On January 11, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that, effective immediately, the Agency’s review of applications for new pesticide active ingredients (AI) pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) will uniformly incorporate analysis under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with the intention of prioritizing protection for listed species as much as possible. The new policy applies to AI applications already submitted for consideration as well as incoming applications, and it does not immediately implicate any pending litigation regarding established AIs. Under the new policy, before registering any new conventional AI, the agency will evaluate the potential effects of the AI on federally listed threatened or endangered species and their designated critical habitats, and initiate ESA consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Services (the Services) as appropriate.
Continue Reading EPA Announces Policy Aimed at Uniformly Incorporating Endangered Species Act Requirements into New Pesticide Registration Determinations

On November 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule involving three separate actions aimed at establishing a comprehensive and more stringent regulatory regime to reduce emissions from oil and gas operations across the United States (the Proposed Rules). The Proposed Rules seek to reverse the Trump Administration’s relaxation of methane standards for new, modified, or reconstructed sources, regulate so-called midstream (transportation and storage) sectors, and impose more stringent new source rules for methane and volatile organic compounds (VOC) (more stringent even than rules under the Obama Administration). We have previously covered the various iterations of methane regulation here, here, here, and here. Under the Proposed Rules, EPA also proposes to regulate existing oil and gas for the first time. Further information on each of these points is provided below.
Continue Reading EPA Proposes Sweeping Rule to Regulate Methane Emissions

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made several announcements regarding its goals for investigating, regulating, and remediating Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), a group of chemicals used in a variety of consumer and industrial products since the early 1940s. In the environment, PFAS can be found in soil, groundwater, surface water, and the air. PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment due to their widespread use, their ability to travel long distances, and the long length of time it takes for them to break down. Although they have been subject to study for some time under the Safe Drinking Water Act, PFAS, known as “emerging contaminants,” are not comprehensively regulated at the federal level. EPA’s announcements demonstrate its intent to develop regulation of this category of chemicals.
Continue Reading EPA Makes PFAS Announcements, Issues PFAS Strategic Roadmap and Planned RCRA Hazardous Waste Designations

Environmental justice remains a top concern for the Biden Administration. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) recently highlighted in its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan (Strategic Plan) that it intends to enhance use of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to “embed environmental justice and civil rights in the Agency’s core work” and to “strengthen civil rights enforcement in communities overburdened by pollution.”
…
Continue Reading EPA Places Environmental Justice Front and Center

Regulated industries pay close attention to how regulators use scientific data, because the stakes are high. While scientific knowledge may evolve rapidly, regulatory processes — and the business decisions that rely on them — tend to proceed more deliberately. As a result, the regulated community has long pushed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to base its decisions only on scientific information that is present in the public domain and thus subject to greater scrutiny.
Continue Reading EPA Releases Late-Term “Secret Science” Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the latest step in implementing its February 2019 “Action Plan” for regulating a group of synthetic chemicals called per- and polyflouroalkyl substances (PFAS) last week. While PFAS have long been used in a wide array of consumer and industrial products, they have recently become an emerging area of focus for environmental law and policy at both the state and federal level. The EPA’s latest Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice) proposes adding PFAS to the list of chemicals for which facilities must report their annual manufacturing, processing, or use under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA).
…
Continue Reading EPA Announced Latest Step in PFAS Action Plan

On August 9, 2019, the EPA plans to publish a proposed rule to codify the current interpretation of New Source Review (NSR) Project Emissions Accounting. The rule would explicitly allow consideration of emissions decreases from a project, alongside any emissions increases, when determining whether the project causes a significant emissions increase from the source. Historically, many state regulators, and even certain EPA applicability determinations, have suggested that only emissions increases (and not decreases) should be considered. Considering emissions decreases in this analysis allows more projects to avoid triggering NSR.
…
Continue Reading Emission Decreases Count: EPA Proposes Rule to Codify Approach to NSR Project Emissions Accounting

Anaconda Smelter Stack

Everyone knows that environmental cleanups are complicated. Sites can be geographically vast and varied, involve operations that have released chemicals over decades, and goal posts for how and what should be investigated, characterized, and – if necessary – remediated can change over time. The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in a case that could potentially throw remediation efforts at Superfund sites around the country – as Atlantic Richfield (the petitioner) put it – into “chaos.”…
Continue Reading SCOTUS Will Review EPA’s Authority to Control Superfund Cleanups at Company’s Request