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March 2-8, 2024
In this week's issue:
- Congress Adopts EPA Appropriations for FY 2024 (March 7, 2024)
- EPA Publishes Final PM NAAQS Reconsideration Rule, Legal and Congressional Challenges Immediately Follow (March 6, 2024)
- Oil and Gas Methane Rule Published in the Federal Register; Texas Regulators File Legal Challenge in D.C. Circuit (March 8, 2024)
- Securities and Exchange Commission Finalizes Climate Reporting Rules for Financial Sector; Faces Immediate Lawsuit (March 8, 2024)
- EPA Issues Amendments to Chemical Accidental Risk Management Program Requirements (March 1, 2024)
- EPA Publishes Air Toxics Rule for Taconite Iron Ore Processing Plants (March 6, 2024)
- Five Democratic Senators Object to Recent Air Toxics Standards for Steel Industry (March 4, 2024)
- House Panel Advances Air Quality Standards Bill (March 7, 2024)
- Senators Introduce Bill to Award RFS Compliance Credits for Biofuel Used in OGVs (February 27, 2024)
- EDF-Led Team Launches Methane Tracking Satellite (March 4, 2024)
- Renewable Power Plant Additions Set Record In 2023 (March 7, 2024)
- Warmest February in History Continues Nine Month Streak Of Consecutive Temperature Records (March 7, 2024)
- EPA Invites Nominations, by April 3, of Scientific Experts to Be Considered for Appointment to CASAC (March 4, 2024)
This Week in Review
![](https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/US-Supreme-Court-1-492x328.jpeg)
Congress has adopted H.Res. 1061, which is a $460 billion, six-bill appropriations package containing FY 2024 funding for EPA and several other federal agencies, thus averting a partial government shutdown beginning March 8, 2024 and providing funding for affected agencies through the remainder of the fiscal year (ending September 30, 2024). The bill calls for cuts to state and local air grants from FY 2023 levels. Specifically, it includes the following provisions (page references to the bill and accompanying report language follow each entry):
- $9.159 billion for EPA’s total budget, compared to $10.135 billion in FY 2023 ( 34 of report);
- $235.9 million for state and local air grants under Sections 103 and 105, compared to $249 million in FY 2023 ( 221 of report);
- $90 million for DERA grants, compared to $100 million in FY 2023 ( 557 of bill and p. 218 of report);
- $67.8 million in Targeted Airshed Grants, compared to $69.9 million in FY 2023 ( 558 of bill and p. 218 of report);
- $7 million for Wildfire Smoke Preparedness Grants (competitive grant program), which is equal to the FY 2023 amount ( 560 of bill and pp. 44 and 220 of report); and
- Retention of PM5 monitoring grants under Section 103, thus avoiding matching requirements, similar to previous years (p. 562 of bill).
The final bill does not include most of the controversial riders contained in the House bill (H.R. 4821) that was passed on November 3, 2023.
For further information:
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240304/HMS31169.PDF – Bill language (EPA begins on p. 540)
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240304/FY24%20INT%20Conference%20JES%20scan%203.1.24.pdf – Report language (EPA begins p. 34, charts begin p. 213 of PDF with grants beginning p. 218)
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/FY-2024-chart-1.pdf NACAA Comparison Chart of House and Senate bills, the Administration’s request and FY 2023 levels
EPA published in the Federal Register (89 Fed. Reg. 16,202) its final rule, titled “Reconsideration of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Particulate Matter.” In the rule, EPA revises the primary annual PM2.5 standard from 12 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) to a more protective level of 9 µg/m3 and adopts changes to several other important aspects of the PM NAAQS, including monitoring requirements and the Air Quality Index. This final rule, which was announced by EPA on February 7, 2024, takes effect May 6, 2024. Immediately upon publication, petitions challenging the rule were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Twenty-four state petitioners joined together and wrote that they “will show that the final rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.” The states are Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming. A twenty-fifth state, Texas, filed its own petition challenging the rule. A coalition of eight industry groups – the Chamber of Commerce, American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association, American Petroleum Institute, American Wood Council, National Association of Manufacturers, National Mining Association and Portland Cement Association – also filed suit. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Rep. Rick W. Allen (R-GA) introduced a Joint Resolution under the Congressional Review Act to disapprove the final PM NAAQS reconsideration rule rendering it without force or effect. Cosponsors include Reps. Jim Baird (R-IN) and Ben Cline (R-VA).
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-06/pdf/2024-02637.pdf
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https://allen.house.gov/uploadedfiles/allega_017_xml.pdf_pm2.5_cra.pdf
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https://allen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=6166
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EPA published in the Federal Register (89 Fed. Reg. 16,820) its final rule governing emissions from new and existing oil and gas production. The rule, “Standards of Performance for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Oil and Natural Gas Sector Climate Review,” includes New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for methane and VOCs from new, modified and reconstructed sources and Emission Guidelines (EGs) for state plans governing methane from existing sources. It was signed by EPA Administrator Michael Regan on November 30, 2023 and announced on December 2nd at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 28th Conference of the Parties (COP 28) in Dubai. The rule aims to prevent 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038, a nearly 80 percent reduction below the future methane emissions expected without the rule. EPA estimates the final rule will also protect public health by avoiding 16 million tons of VOCs from 2024 to 2038, along with 590,000 tons of toxic air pollutants such as benzene and toluene. The rule includes a two-year phase-in for eliminating routine flaring from new oil wells and a one-year phase-in of zero-emissions standards for new process controllers and most new pumps outside of Alaska. It also adds new monitoring and repair requirements, including for compressor stations and smaller wells. The rule also enables owner/operator use of low-cost and innovative methane monitoring technologies in addition to proven strategies. The new NSPS, added at 40 C.F.R. part 60, subpart OOOOb, will apply to sources that came online after December 6, 2022; those online prior to that date are considered existing sources and will have later compliance dates under state plans in a new Subpart OOOOc. The rule gives states two years to propose performance standards for existing sources, and operators have three years after that submission deadline to comply. Standards in the state plans must be as strict as “presumptive standards” set by EPA in the EGs. The final rule preserves but strengthens EPA’s role and the data requirements in its “Super Emitter” program for identifying and addressing significant methane leaks from production facilities, including avenues for qualified third parties to alert EPA of pollution events. The rule will take effect on May 7, 2024. Immediately upon its publication, a petition for review challenging the rule was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the State of Texas, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-08/pdf/2024-00366.pdf
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https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Texas-v.-EPA-24-1054-PFR.pdf
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted a final rule with climate reporting standards that will require publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Under the new SEC rule (SEC Reg. Nos. 33-11275; 34-99678), companies will be required to disclose GHG emissions to investors along with other climate-related risks. In a 3-2 vote, the members of the SEC approved disclosure requirements for both direct and indirect emissions, so-called Scope 1 and Scope 2, so long as those emissions are material. The final rule dropped provisions to mandate so-called Scope 3 disclosures, which would include data from companies on the emissions of their suppliers. These provisions were included under previous versions of the proposal offered in 2021, but were dropped for the final rule. The new requirements have a multi-year phase in with finalized rules expected to go into full effect in 2033. However, the rule was met with an immediate lawsuit led by the West Virginia and Georgia attorneys general in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11 Circuit with support from Alabama, Alaska, New Hampshire, Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wyoming and Virginia.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/1809000-1809533-climate-disclosures-final-rule.pdf
https://ago.wv.gov/Documents/SEC%20Climate%20Disclosure%20Petition%20for%20Review.pdf
EPA has issued final amendments to the Risk Management Program (RMP) requirements pursuant to Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, which are designed to reduce risks from chemical accidents. The rule will affect over 11,000 regulated facilities around the country; EPA estimates there are 131 million people that live within three miles of an RMP-affected facility, many of whom are in overburdened communities. The provisions of the amendments call for:
- requiring a safer technologies and alternatives analysis and, for certain facilities, implementation of safeguard measures;
- increasing employee participation, training and opportunities for decision-making in accident prevention (e.g., anonymous reporting of specific unaddressed hazards or allowing partial or complete process shutdown when faced with a potential catastrophic release);
- mandating third-party compliance audits and root cause analysis incident investigations at facilities with prior accidents;
- ensuring chemical release information is shared with local responders in a timely manner and a community notification system is in place to warn the public of an impending release;
- requiring facilities to evaluate risks of natural hazards and climate change, including associated losses of power; and
- providing access to RMP facility information for nearby communities.
In addition to updating the rule, EPA has developed a query tool that allows the public to access information about RMPs in their communities.
For further information:
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EPA has published in the Federal Register the final amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Taconite Iron Ore Processing Plants, which were announced on January 31, 2024. The rule establishes the first air limits on mercury from taconite plants and addresses emissions of acid gases, such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride. There are currently eight taconite iron ore processing plants in the country (located in Minnesota and Michigan). The amendments fill gaps remaining after the risk and technology review standard for the source category was issued in July 2020 and complies with a court mandate that EPA must address unregulated HAPs when it conducts the eight-year technology review.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-06/pdf/2024-02305.pdf
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A group of five Democratic senators has written to President Biden expressing concern about the costs for the steel industry to comply with several recent air toxics regulations and urging the administration to “reassess each of these rules and use its discretion to work with impacted stakeholders” to issue regulations that “preserve the economic competitiveness of American steel.” According to the letter, written by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), John Fetterman (D-PA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), these regulations pursue “marginal increases in air quality” but reduce the capital required for steel production and for the industry to remain competitive against foreign companies. They state that the benefits from these rules can be achieved through other means. Specifically, the senators state that the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) for the following source categories “undermine American steel production”: Integrated Iron and Steel Manufacturing Facilities; Coke Ovens: Pushing, Quenching, and Battery Stacks, and Coke Oven Batteries; and Taconite Iron Ore Processing. They noted that stakeholders have provided additional data to EPA and are available to work with the agency to develop rules that ensure the viability of the steel industry and result in environmental benefit.
For further information:
https://www.brown.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2262024epasteelrulesletter.pdf
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing and Critical Minerals voted 10-9 along party lines to advance without amendments a bill that would change provisions of the Clean Air Act governing the setting of criteria pollutant standards, among other reforms. The “Air Quality Standards Implementation Act of 2024” was the subject of a hearing on February 16, 2024 (see related story in the February 10-16, 2024 edition of NACAA’s Washington Update). Its provisions include changing the criteria for designating non-attainment areas to consider cost and other factors, redesignates seats on a standard setting committee to expand the number for state officials, requires rules to not take effect until they are accompanied by implementation guidance, and adds provisions related to exceptional events exemptions. During the hearing, Democratic lawmakers proposed amendments that would expand the advisory panel so that seats given to states would not come at the expense of seats available for health scientists and other experts; to consider environmental justice, and to remove cost and “attainability” considerations in the bill; each was rebuffed. The bill is labeled a “discussion draft” and has not been formally introduced yet; it goes next to the full U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has not yet announced a date to take it up.
For further information:
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Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced S. 3818, the “Renewable Fuel for Ocean-Going Vessels Act,” to expand the definition of “additional renewable fuels” under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to include fuel used for ocean-going vessels (OGVs). Doing so would allow refiners and blenders to generate and use or sell Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) – which are credits use for compliance with the RFS program – associated with biodiesel and renewable diesel used in OGVs. Currently, refiners and blenders are required to retire RINs generated from biodiesel or renewable diesel used in OGVs.
For further information:
https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s3818/BILLS-118s3818is.pdf
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A new satellite backed by Google, the New Zealand Space Agency, Harvard University and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has launched on a SpaceX rocket from California with a mission to pinpoint oil and gas industry methane emissions from space. The satellite, MethaneSAT, will initially focus on detecting methane emissions from the oil and gas industry with a scope that broadens over time. MethaneSAT will orbit the Earth 15 times a day at an altitude of over 350 miles. It will monitor both high-emitting methane sources and small sources spread over a wide area. The data gathered by the satellite will be analyzed to connect emissions with specific sources using algorithms developed and hosted by Google and the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Science, its Center for Astrophysics, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Its data will start bemoaning broadly available to the public later this year, EDF said.
The U.S. power sector installed a record 33.8 gigawatts (GW) of solar, wind, and battery storage projects in 2023, a new record, according to the American Clean Power Association. The U.S. now generates 16 percent of its electricity from wind and solar. The record year brought the total U.S. clean energy operating capacity to nearly 262 GW. While high interest rates stymied the funding for new clean energy projects that would have yielded even faster paced growth, incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act and other policy drivers like state clean power mandates and portfolio standards were sufficient to help propel construction starts for an additional 41 GW of new projects that broke ground in the final months of 2023, bringing the level of permitted and in-construction clean energy projects to 170 GW. “Nonetheless, the record-setting pace of annual installations still lags behind what is needed for the country to achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050,” the American Clan Power Association said. Natural gas-fired power plants continue to be the largest slice of the power generating fleet, providing 43 percent of electric generation in 2023.
https://cleanpower.org/resources/clean-power-annual-market-report-2023/
February 2024 was the planet’s warmest February on record and the ninth consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures, according to a report by the European Union’s Copernicus Center, which tracks and reports climate change indicators. February was more than 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than an average February between 1850 and 1900. The global average surface air temperatures during the month was 13.54°C (56°F). “This is the ninth month in a row that is the warmest on record for the respective month of the year”, Copernicus said. The daily global temperature was exceptionally high during the first half of the month, reachi ng 2°C above 1850-1900 levels between February 8 and 11. Although the El Niño system continued to weaken in the equatorial Pacific average extrapolar global sea surface temperature for February 2024 was 21.06°C (70°F), the highest for any month recorded. The report’s findings come after a record warm 2023; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that 2023 was the hottest single year ever recorded.
https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-february-2024
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202313
EPA published in the Federal Register (89 Fed. Reg. 15,572) a notice inviting nominations of scientific experts for the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). CASAC – a charted Federal Advisory Committee – is an independent scientific review panel appointed by the EPA Administrator to, among other things, review air quality criteria and National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and recommend to the Administrator, as appropriate, any new NAAQS and revisions to existing criteria and NAAQS. The Clean Air Act stipulates that among the seven members of CASAC there must be at least one person representing state air pollution control agencies, one member of the National Academy of Sciences and one physician. This year, EPA seeks nominees for the physician’s seat and two other “at large” seats. Nominees should have expertise in one or more of the following disciplines: air quality, biostatistics, ecology, environmental engineering, epidemiology, exposure assessment, medicine, risk assessment and toxicology. EPA is especially interested in those with such expertise who also have knowledge and experience related to criteria pollutants (i.e., carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulate matter and sulfur oxides). Terms are for two or three years. Nominations must be received by EPA by April 3, 2024. After nominations are made, EPA will post a list of qualified nominees and their bios on the CASAC website (https://casac.epa.gov) to allow the public to provide “relevant information or other documentation on nominees that the [EPA Science Advisory Board] Staff Office should consider in evaluating candidates.”
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-04/pdf/2024-04497.pdf
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