June 10-16, 2023
In this week's issue:
- NACAA Recommends More Protective Phase 3 GHG Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles and Engines (June 14, 2023)
- EPA Grants NACAA Request For More Time For Power Plant GHG Proposal Comments (June 12, 2023)
- EPA Extends Comment Deadline for Proposed Air Toxics Standards for Plywood and Composite Wood Products (June 12, 2023)
- President Biden Vetoes Congressional Joint Resolution to Disapprove EPA’s Final Rule Setting NOx Standards for Heavy-Duty Trucks (June 14, 2023)
- Joint Resolutions to Disapprove EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan Introduced in House and Senate (June 8 &12, 2023)
- Congressional Republicans Introduce, Reintroduce and Set Hearings on Bills Limiting Federal Environmental Actions (June 13, 2023)
- EPA Publishes Proposed Phase Out of Perc Use for Dry Cleaning and Other Purposes (June 16, 2023)
- CASAC Transmits Final Review of EPA’s Second Draft Policy Assessment for Ozone (June 9, 2023)
- EPA and Growth Energy Agree to One-Week Extension for Agency to Issue Final RFS “Set” Rule (June 13, 2023)
- EPA Announces Proposed Consent Decree Requiring Review of NSPS and Emissions Guidelines for Large Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators (June 14, 2023)
- EPA and Environmental Groups Reach Settlement Agreement to Schedule Review of NSPS NOx Limits for New Stationary Combustion Turbines (June 13, 2023)
- Bay Area Air Director Named to Co-Chair NACAA Emissions and Modeling Committee (June 12, 2016)
This Week in Review
NACAA submitted comments to EPA on the agency’s April 27, 2023, proposed rule, “Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3.” In the comments, NACAA highlights the importance of and need for more robust federal greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles and engines as well as “several dramatic shifts in the [heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle] ‘landscape’ over the past several years [that] have vastly increased the feasibility, availability and cost competitiveness of heavy-duty ZEV technology” and affirm not only that standards beyond those proposed by EPA are achievable but also that the infrastructure needed to support such standards can be put in place in concert with vehicle rollouts across the timeframe of the rule. NACAA recommends that “EPA should, in its final rule, improve upon its proposal by adopting federal Phase 3 GHG emission standards that, at a minimum, are based on values that reflect [Advanced Clean Truck] ZEV sales percentages through MY 2032 but with more rigorous standards for several types of heavy-duty vehicles: 1) transit buses and school buses . . . and 2) refuse and concrete trucks.” NACAA also supports EPA’s proposal to revise its 1986 regulations preempting state regulation of new locomotives to more closely align with the language of the Clean Air Act in order “to remove an impediment to certain state and local actions to address emissions from non-new (i.e., in-use) locomotives,” which NACAA calls “a modest – but important – first step toward fulfilling a much larger federal responsibility” to adopt far more protective federal standards for new, remanufactured and in-use locomotives. NACAA augments its comments with state- and local-specific examples of heavy-duty infrastructure development initiatives and the impact of locomotive emissions.
For further information:
On May 23, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency EPA published a proposal titled, “New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; Emission Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Existing Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units; and Repeal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule” in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 33240), and set a sixty day comment period for the proposal that was scheduled to end on July 24, 2023. NACAA sent a letter jointly with the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) on May 30, 2023, requesting an extension of the comment period, and on June 12, 2023, EPA extended the comment period on the proposed rules by fifteen days. Air agencies, stakeholders, and others now have until August 8, 2023 to submit comments.
For further information:
and
EPA has extended by 15 days the public comment period for the proposed amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Plywood and Composite Wood Products. The comment period, which was to have closed on July 3, 2023, has been extended until July 18, 2023.
The proposal, announced on May 5, 2023 and published in the Federal Register on May 18, 2023, includes standards for processes with unregulated emissions of certain chemicals and calls for emission limitations and work practices applicable to process units and lumber kilns.
For further information: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-06-12/pdf/2023-12407.pdf
and
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. vetoed a congressional joint resolution to disapprove EPA’s January 24, 2023, final rule setting more protective NOx standards for new heavy-duty vehicles and engines. S.J. Res. 11 was approved in the Senate on April 26, 2023, by a vote of 50 to 49 and by the House on May 23, 2023, by a vote of 221 to 203. On April 26, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy expressing strong opposition to the resolution and announcing that if the resolution were to clear Congress, President Biden would veto it. In a message on his veto of S.J. Res. 11, President Biden stated, “The rule cuts pollution, boosts public health, and advances environmental justice in communities across the country. It will prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of premature deaths; thousands of childhood asthma cases; and millions of missed school days every year. The resolution would deny communities these health benefits by resulting in weaker emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles and engines, which are significant sources of pollutants that threaten public health. If enacted, the resolution would squander $36 billion in benefits to society – and an opportunity to lead on the defining crisis of our time. Therefore, I am vetoing this resolution.”
For further information:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/11,
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-joint-resolution/53
and
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/HD_NOx_Ruile-WH_SAP_to_Veto_SJRes_11-042623.pdf
Identical joint resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate would disapprove EPA’s “Federal ‘‘Good Neighbor Plan’’ for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The final Plan was published in the Federal Register on June 5, 2023 (88 Fed. Reg. 36,654). H.J. Res. 69 and S.J. Res. 31 were introduced by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), with 39 cosponsors, and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), with 17 cosponsors, respectively; both actions fall under the Congressional Review Act.
For further information:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/31
and
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-joint-resolution/69
Majority members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Minority members of the U.S. Senate have introduced, re-introduced, and set hearings to consider a number of bills aimed at limiting agency discretion, reducing clean vehicle tax incentives, and blocking new EPA regulations. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee introduced a bill titled the “Protect Our Power Plants” (POPP) Act to “prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing a proposed rule with respect to new source performance standards from certain stationary sources” anticipating the finalization of EPAs May 23, 2023 proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from electric generating units. A companion bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV). The U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee will mark up a bill titled the “Build It in America Act” (HR 3938) that would return the electric vehicle tax credit expanded in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to its pre-IRA levels of 200,000 vehicles per manufacturer cap, and eliminate a ramp-up of the critical mineral sourcing requirements for EVs put in place in the IRA. Finally, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Oversight and Accountability Committee has set a hearing to consider the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act,” (HR 277) which would require Congress to approve all major federal rules, including those issued by EPA.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/protect-our-power-plants-act-of-2023.pdf
and
https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/H.R.-3938-Bill-Text.pdf
and
EPA has published in the Federal Register a proposed a 10-year phase out of perchloroethylene (PCE) for most dry cleaning; industrial and commercial uses, including the manufacture, processing and distribution of PCE in commerce for certain prohibited uses; and consumer use (88 Fed. Reg. 39,652). The public comment period on the proposal will remain open until July 17, 2023. The proposal (announced on June 8, 2023), which is under the Toxic Substances and Control Act, also calls for a workplace chemical protection program for PCE, that includes an inhalation exposure concentration limit and prevention of direct dermal contact.
For further information: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/06/16/2023-12495/perchloroethylene-pce-regulation-under-the-toxic-substances-control-act-tsca
Dr. Elizabeth A. (Lianne) Sheppard, Chair of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), transmitted the final “review” summarizing the Committee’s consensus responses to the charge questions related to EPA’s “Policy Assessment (PA) for the Reconsideration of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (External Review Draft Two)” and providing individual comments from members of the CASAC Ozone Panel. In the form of a letter, the final review comes after the Ozone Panel met May 23-24 2023. Among the many comments included in the review is that the Risk and Exposure Assessment (REA), which has been included as an appendix to the PA for the past several NAAQS reviews, should, in the future, be developed as a separate standalone document and reviewed by CASAC before the PA is developed. In addition, EPA did not fully utilize the large amount of data collected and analyzed for the Integrated Science Assessment and as a result all CASAC members but one “are concerned that the approach taken in the PA may substantially underestimate public health risk.” (In this letter, the term “CASAC members” includes members of the Ozone Panel as well.) All CASAC members agree that retaining ozone as the indicator is appropriate and that there is not adequate evidence at this time to support changes to the averaging time or form of the standard. The group does, however, recommend that future reviews examine the impacts of alternate forms and averaging times together with the level. All CASAC members but one conclude that “the scientific evidence indicates that the level of the current primary standard is not sufficiently protective of public health” and that controlled human exposure (CHE) studies “demonstrate adverse effects in healthy adults near or below the current standard of 70 ppb.” To be protective of public health, all CASAC members but one recommend a level in the range of 55 to 60 parts per billion (ppb) – a scientific judgement that “is based on consideration of all of the scientific evidence, including CHE studies, epidemiological studies, and animal studies, and considering the need to protect children, people with asthma, outdoor workers, and other at-risk populations.” The one remaining member of CASAC agrees with the EPA staff’s preliminary conclusion that the primary ozone standard is adequate and “notes that the other CASAC members’ recommendations to lower the level of the ozone standard to 55-60 ppb is not supported by an associated health REA.” In concluding the draft review, Dr. Sheppard writes, “In summary, the CASAC appreciates the thorough review presented in the PA. However, all of the CASAC members, except one, disagree with the EPA’s conclusions about the adequacy of the primary and secondary standards because they do not agree with and have concerns with several pivotal decisions and assumptions in the analysis upon which the conclusions are based.”
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/CASAC_Review-Ozone_PA_Draft_2-060923.pdf
Facing a Wednesday, June 14, 2023, court-ordered deadline to issue its final rule setting Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for 2023, EPA and Growth Energy filed a joint notice agreeing to a one-week extension for EPA to take final action. Under a July 22, 2022, consent decree between EPA and Growth Energy, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, EPA was to propose the 2023 RVOs by November 16, 2022, and finalize them by June 14, 2023. On November 7, 2022, EPA and Growth Energy agreed to extend the November 16, 2022, proposal deadline to November 30, 2022. The rule, dubbed the RFS “Set” Rule, will set volumes and percentage standards for 2023 through 2025 for cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel. The Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) accepted the final rule for interagency review on May 15, 2023. According to OIRA’s online “dashboard” the final meeting under Executive Order 12866 took place on June 13, 2023, and the rule was still undergoing OIRA review.
For further information:
and
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202304&RIN=2060-AV14
EPA announced in the Federal Register that it has negotiated a settlement agreement with environmental groups that would establish deadlines for the agency to issue proposed and final rules to review, and if necessary, revise, New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and emissions guidelines (EGs) for Large Municipal Waste Combustors (LMWCs). The agreement would resolve a CAA citizen suit filed January 13, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by plaintiffs East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Ironbound Community Corporation and Sierra Club. It would also resolve a separate petition filed by the plaintiffs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking a writ of mandamus relating to a 2008 order of that court remanding to EPA performance standards for LMWCs. Under the settlement agreement, EPA would be required to sign a proposed action to review, and if appropriate, revise the NSPS and EGs by December 31, 2023, and to sign a final action by November 30, 2024. Public comments on the proposed consent decree are due by July 14, 2023.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-06-14/pdf/2023-12671.pdf
EPA published notice in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 38,507) of a proposed consent decree that would establish a schedule for the agency to review, and if necessary, revise, the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) setting nitrogen oxide (NOx) limits for new stationary combustion turbines (40 C.F.R. part 60, subpart KKKK). The agreement would settle a lawsuit filed on December 22 by Environmental Defense Fund and Sierra Club in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit alleges that EPA failed to perform its nondiscretionary duty to review and revise the NSPS for this source category at least every eight years. If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree would require EPA to either (1) sign a determination that review of Subpart KKKK “is not appropriate in light of readily available information on the efficacy of the standard,” or (2) review the standard and either sign a proposed rule to revise it, or a proposed determination not to revise it, by November 7, 2024. It would also require EPA to sign a final rule containing revisions to the standard or a final determination not to revise it by November 12, 2025. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed consent decree until July 13, 2023.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-06-13/pdf/2023-12626.pdf
NACAA Local Co-President Mark Buford of the Northwest Clean Air Agency in Washington State has appointed Dr. Philip Fine, the Executive Officer the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in California, to co-chair NACAA’s Emissions and Modeling Committee. Before being named Bay Area’s Executive Officer, Dr. Fine was EPA’s principal deputy associate administrator for policy, where he served as EPA’s Environmental Justice Officer. Before EPA, he served 15 years at the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California and was a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in Environmental Science & Engineering, and his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Fine joins Angela Marconi, the Air Director for the State of Delaware and State Co-Chair of the Committee, in its leadership. We’re excited to work with you, Phil!