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February 3-9, 2024
In this week's issue:
- EPA Makes Annual Health-Based PM2.5 Standard More Protective, Issues Memo on Initial Area Designations
- EPA Publishes Amended Air Toxics Proposal for Lime Manufacturing/Accepting Public Comment (February 9, 2024)
- Heavy-Duty Leadership Group Asks EPA for Final Phase 3 Rule by March 31 with No Delay of MY 2027 Implementation Date or Infrastructure-Related “Hard-Wired Off Ramp” (February 6, 2024)
- Seventy-Five Climate Mayors Urge Finalization of Strongest Proposed Rule for Phase 3 Heavy-Duty Vehicle GHG Standards (February 5, 2024)
- EPA Announces Availability of Final Integrated Science Assessment for Lead NAAQS Review (February 7, 2024)
- D.C. Circuit Grants EPA Motion for Voluntary Remand Without Vacatur of 2020 Ozone NAAQS (February 2, 2024)
- House UNPLUG EVs Act Would Defund EV Infrastructure Grant Programs Under IIJA (February 7, 2024)
- Bill to Automatically Exempt Monitoring Data Caused by Wildfires Introduced in House of Representatives (February 1, 2024)
- Nine States Agree to Coordinate on Zero Emission Buildings (February 7, 2024)
- Europe Publishes Roadmap For 90 Percent Decarbonization By 2040 (February 7, 2024)
This Week in Review
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EPA announced the Administrator’s final decision to revise the annual primary (health-based) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to 9.0 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) from 12 µg/m3, thus concluding the agency’s reconsideration of the 2020 PM NAAQS decision to retain without revision the standards set in 2015. EPA projects this more protective standard to result in monetized net public health benefits as high as $46 billion in 2032 – “the earliest that states would likely need to come into attainment” – which includes the avoidance of 4,500 premature deaths, 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms and 290,000 lost work days in that year. Based on monitoring data for 2020 through 2022 EPA projects that 119 counties nationwide will exceed the 9.0-µg/m3 standard; this number includes 59 counties that are already nonattainment for PM2.5 and does not take into account data that may be excluded based on exceptional events demonstrations. The agency further projects that 99 percent of the nation’s counties will be in attainment by 2032. In the final rule, EPA also modifies the PM2.5 monitoring network design criteria to direct state, local and tribal monitoring agencies, when siting monitors, to consider the proximity of populations at increased risk of PM2.5-related adverse health impacts to emission sources of concern. In addition, there are provisions intended to improve data quality as well as updates to the Air Quality Index. In a step toward implementing the revised standard, and to help state, local and tribal air agencies recommend area designations and nonattainment area boundaries, EPA has issued a memorandum, titled “ Initial Area Designations for the 2024 Revised Primary Annual Final Particulate National Ambient Air Quality Standard.” Among other things, the memo includes information on the schedule and process for initial designations and identifies factors EPA plans to evaluate when making designation and boundary decisions. This final rule will take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
For further information:
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-02/pm-naaqs-final-frn-pre-publication.pdf
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EPA has published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking for the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Lime Manufacturing Plants. The agency will accept public comment on the proposal until March 11, 2024. The notice supplements EPA’s proposed NESHAP amendments issued on January 5, 2023, which called for emission standards for hydrogen chloride (HCl); mercury; total hydrocarbon, as a surrogate for organic hazardous air pollutants (HAP); and dioxin/furans. The supplemental proposal would revise the proposed emission limits for HCl, mercury, organic HAP and dioxin/furans. The changes are based on information EPA gathered after publication of the January 2023 proposal.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-02-09/pdf/2024-02299.pdf
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An “alliance of the country’s biggest names in truck manufacturing and supply” – dubbed the Heavy-Duty Leadership Group (HDLG) – issued a Statement of Principles in which the member companies call upon EPA to finalize the Phase 3 onroad heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards rule by March 31 of this year and express their support for “EPA’s ongoing efforts to achieve further de-carbonization in the transportation sector through a sound, achievable HD Phase 3 GHG rule that starts in MY 2027. The HDLG companies do not support proposals to delay the start of EPA Phase 3 HD GHG until MY 2030 or later.” Each of the HDLG companies – BorgWarner, Cummins, Eaton and Ford – has publicly committed to reduce its carbon footprint “by aggressively cutting GHG emissions with near-term milestones and long-term net zero goals” and, they say, “[t]hese corporate sustainability principles underpin our support for the finalization of an EPA Phase 3 GHG rule with urgency and not later than March 31, 2024.” They further state that “EPA should make a commitment in the final rule to conduct periodic Technical Assessments of a wide range of factors directly related to the pace of adoption of Zero Emission Tailpipe HD technologies,” but are clear in articulating that “[t]he HDLG companies trust EPA to consider proposing future revisions through new rulemaking, if triggered by any major changes to the factors evaluated in EPA’s Technical Assessments, but the HDLG Companies are opposed to proposals for a ‘hard-wired off ramp’ triggered by an infrastructure development or similar metric.” The HDLG also suggests that EPA include in the final Phase 3 rule a regulatory commitment to propose, in the near term, technical amendments to “streamline” test procedures for hybrid certification. The companies conclude by calling for a “Whole of Government” approach of federal, state and local agencies working with the private sector “to ensure that IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds are wisely invested across the U.S. economy to leverage a commercially viable HD infrastructure, which accelerates the adoption of zero-emission commercial vehicles.”
For further information:
In a letter to President Biden, 75 members of Climate Mayors urge that the administration finalize “EPA’s strongest proposed rule” for Phase 3 onroad heavy-duty (HD) vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards. In their letter, the Mayors highlight the multiple benefits of transitioning from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles and that EPA foresees, depending on the type of vehicle, that the proposed rule would result in 25 to 50 percent of new HD sales being zero emission by 2032. The Mayors also emphasize that the technology to transition medium- and heavy-duty fleets is available and “our infrastructure will be ready”; that the benefits outweigh the costs; and that the rule provides certainty and “a critical opportunity to significantly reduce air pollution, climate and health impacts, and recent developments among States support finalizing the strongest possible EPA proposed rule.” In concluding, the Mayors note the important role of funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and that “[t]he Biden Administration and EPA can and should seize the opportunity to align its own deployments of IRA funds to support electric truck manufacturing and infrastructure expansion, and to aid municipalities in acquiring clean vehicles.”
For further information:
EPA published in the Federal Register (89 Fed. Reg. 8425) a notice of availability of the final Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for lead. The ISA was prepared as part of the review of the primary and secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for lead and updates the ISA prepared in 2013. This document, along with additional technical and policy assessments, will serve as the scientific foundation for EPA decisions related to the adequacy of the current lead NAAQS and, if deemed appropriate, on potential alternative standards.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-02-07/pdf/2024-02427.pdf
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an order granting EPA’s January 3, 2024, unopposed motion for a voluntary remand without vacatur of the agency’s December 31, 2020, decision to retain, without revision, the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The 2020 decision was challenged by multiple parties and, not long before EPA’s motion, a January 5, 2024, deadline was set for the parties to submit proposed schedules for merits briefings. In its January 3, 2024, motion, EPA also requested a stay of that deadline pending the courts’ response to the agency’s request for a remand. EPA’s lawyers wrote in the motion that they consulted with petitioners and intervenors in the consolidated cases and none opposed the motion. On October 29, 2021, under a new Administration, EPA announced it would reconsider the 2020 decision to retain the ozone NAAQS and, at EPA’s request, the D.C. Circuit held the cases in abeyance on December 21, 2021. Reconsideration proceedings were initiated and continued into mid-2023, at which time EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced he had “decided that the best path forward is to initiate a new statutory review of the ozone NAAQS and the underlying air quality criteria and to wrap the EPA’s reconsideration process of the 2020 ozone NAAQS decision into that review.” EPA’s arguments in support of its motion for remand without vacatur included that the agency has initiated a full NAAQS review and is incorporating its reconsideration of the 2020 decision “to support its work addressing ‘significant issues’ identified by the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and the Committee’s Review Panel. “In seeking remand, EPA does not, and need not, confess error. But the Agency is committed to conducting a transparent, scientifically rigorous review that provides opportunities for public input and engagement. EPA will complete review ‘as expeditiously as possible,’ and, indeed, has already commenced it.” EPA also argued that “[r]emanding this case would avoid ‘wasting the courts’ and the parties’ resources’. . . That is particularly true where, as here, no party has yet filed merits briefs supporting or opposing the action under administrative reconsideration.” Thirdly, EPA argued that granting the motion for remand “would not prejudice a non-moving party as no party opposes EPA’s requested relief.” Upon consideration of the motion, the D.C. Circuit remanded the rule to EPA for further proceedings.
For further information:
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Representatives Eric Burlison (R-MO) introduced a bill to rescind all unobligated funds from two electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure grant programs established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL). Under H.R. 7273, the Undoing Nationwide Programs and Limiting Unnecessary Grants for Electric Vehicles Act (UNPLUG EVs Act), unobligated balances from the $2.5-bilion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grants program and from the $5-billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program of the IIJA would be rescinded and deposited in the general fund of the Treasury “for the sole purpose of deficit reduction.” Co-Sponsors of this bill include Reps. Harriet M. Hageman (R-WY), Andrew Ogles (R-TN), Roy E. Nehls (R-TX), Scott Perry (R-PA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Chip Roy (R-TX), Randy K. Weber (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Matthew M. Rosendale Sr. (R-MT) and Chuck Edwards (R-NC).
For further information:
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https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7273?s=1&r=1
Congressman John Curtis (R-UT) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would amend the Clean Air Act to allow for air quality monitoring data caused by wildfires to be automatically excluded from use in determinations of exceedances or violations of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). H.R. 7193, the “Wildfire Air Quality Act,” would amend Section 319 of the Clean Air Act to add the following provision: “In the event of a catastrophic or beneficial use wildfire determined by the [EPA] Administrator to have a significant impact on air quality, the Administrator shall exclude air quality monitoring data that is directly due to such wildfire from use in determinations by the Administrator with respect to exceedances or violations of the national ambient air quality standards.” It would also require EPA to publish a final rule to implement this provision within 30 days of the legislation’s enactment. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT), was introduced on February 1 and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. In a press release, Rep. Curtis described the bill as “legislation to prevent states from being punished for wildfire emissions.” He stated, “Western States are disproportionately effected by wildfires, skewing data that comes from air quality monitors and leading to undo [sic] penalties from the federal government. … Utah experiences this firsthand and this legislation will remove the bureaucratic red tape to ensure we can focus on recovery and rebuilding, not EPA waivers and legal jargon.”
For further information: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7193?overview=closed
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Convened by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), nine states (including states that are not on NESCAUM) have signed on to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging coordination to advance zero-emission residential buildings. The MOU sets a goal for highly efficient heat pumps to make up 65 percent of residential heating, cooling and water heating equipment sales by 2030 across participating states, growing to and 90 percent by 2040. The agreement calls for promoting installation of zero-emission, grid-interactive technologies in existing state buildings, and for states to direct at least 40 percent of efficiency and electrification investments to benefit low-income households. It also emphasizes collaboration with key stakeholders, including heat pump manufacturers and HVAC installers. Signatories include the directors of environmental agencies from California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.
For further information:
https://www.nescaum.org/documents/buildings-mou-final-with-signatures.pdf
The European Union (EU) has released a new roadmap for complying with the Bloc’s climate law, which calls for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90 percent below 1990 levels by 2040. The new roadmap, released by the European Commission, will require an expanded and emissions-free power system within 16 years and an 80 percent reduction in the use of fossil fuels for energy. Through changes in power generation, transport, agriculture and industry in Europe, GHG emissions would need to fall to 850m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), while up to 400MtCO2e would be removed from the atmosphere using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and “land-based” solutions such as tree planting, with a net result 90 percent below 1990 levels. Fossil fuels used for power currently amount supply 36 percent of European electricity needs, and the roadmap states that the power sector should be fully decarbonized by 2040, depending largely on renewables and nuclear energy. Transportation measures will also decrease that sector’s GHG emissions by 80 percent in 2040, with electric vehicle growth increasing the share of electricity in the EU’s final energy consumption from 25 percent to 50 percent. The EU should invest in “sustainable industry and competitiveness” through its Green Deal industrial plan, released last year. Specific proposals in the agriculture sector have been removed, as Europe faces protests from farmers across the bloc. Reducing emissions in line with the proposed 2040 target would entail investments of €1.5 trillion in the energy and transport sectors, offset by €2.4 trillion in annual climate-related economic losses during 2031-2050 and reduced fossil fuel imports of €2.8 trillion over the same period. The proposal is required under the European climate law. It is an interim target on the way to the EU’s wider goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. The EU is currently on track to reduce emissions by 48 percent by 2030, instead of meeting its existing emission reduction target of cutting emissions by 55 percent by 2030. The new 2040 targets would require additional climate laws and policies in member countries. Emissions are currently projected to fall 60% by 2040 and 64% by 2050.
For further information: