![](https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/nacaa-internal-banner-1024x210.jpeg)
May 4-10, 2019
In this week's issue:
- NACAA Submits Written Testimony to Senate on FY 2020 Appropriations (May 6, 2019)
- Federal District Court Orders EPA to Act on State Plans to Address Landfill Methane Emissions (May 6, 2019)
- EPA Proposes to Deny New York Petition Seeking Emission Reductions from Upwind Sources (May 6, 2019)
- EPA Publishes Proposed RTR for Engine Test Cells/Stands (May 8, 2019)
- Environmental Groups File Suit Against EPA over 2008 Ozone Non-Attainment Areas (May 7, 2019)
- National Parks Conservation Association Finds 96% of National Parks Threatened by Air Pollution (May 7, 2019)
- Washington Governor Signs Four Clean Energy and Climate Bills (May 7, 2019)
- New York Adopts Regulations to Phase Out Coal-fired Power Generation (May 9, 2019)
- International Monetary Fund Paper Estimates Annual U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidy at $649 Billion (May 4, 2019)
- Groups Will Use Satellite Imagery to Quantify Emissions from Every Power Plant in the World (May 7, 2019)
This Week in Review
![](https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Lincoln-Memorial-1-510x328.jpeg)
NACAA submitted written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies regarding FY 2020 appropriations. NACAA’s testimony requests that Congress 1) increase federal grants to state and local air pollution control agencies by $82 million above FY 2019 levels, for a total of $310 million (i.e., $158 million above the Administration’s FY 2020 request); 2) provide flexibility to state and local air quality agencies to use any additional grants to address the highest priority programs in their areas; and 3) retain grants for monitoring fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under the authority of Section 103 of the Clean Air Act, rather than shifting it to Section 105. NACAA submitted similar testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies on March 14, 2019.
For further information: http://www.4cleanair.org/sites/default/files/Documents/NACAA_FY_2020_Senate_Testimony-May_2019.pdf
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered EPA to implement long-delayed methane emission guidelines for municipal solid waste landfills. EPA has until September 6, 2019 to approve or disapprove five state plans that the agency has already received and until November 6, 2019 to develop a federal plan for states that fail to submit an approvable plan. The court declined to issue any new deadlines for states that have not yet submitted implementation plans. In August 2016, EPA finalized landfill methane emission guidelines that included respective state plan submittal and EPA approval deadlines of March 30, 2017 and September 30, 2017. The rule also set a November 30, 2017 deadline for EPA to develop a federal plan. Five states – California, New Mexico Arizona, Delaware and West Virginia – subsequently submitted plans to implement the emission guidelines, and EPA took no action to approve or disapprove them. The litigation pitted the agency against a group of nine state petitioners led by California and including Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Though EPA conceded that it had failed to meet the rule’s regulatory deadlines, it argued that the state petitioners lacked standing to bring the lawsuit and rejected their proposed court-imposed deadlines as infeasible due to limited agency resources. The district court disagreed, finding that the state petitioners had standing to sue EPA and criticizing the agency’s attempt to further delay the landfill rule. “EPA seeks additional time to complete a nondiscretionary duty it failed to meet until ordered to act by the Court, because it faces other court orders to perform other unmet nondiscretionary duties. The Court finds EPA’s self-inflicted inconvenience, by itself, does not satisfy the ‘especially heavy’ burden necessary to warrant more than six months to promulgate a federal plan,” the court stated.
For further information: http://www.4cleanair.org/sites/default/files/Documents/California_v_EPA_No-18-CV-3237_May-6-2019_Order.pdf
EPA is proposing to deny a petition submitted March 12, 2018 by the State of New York under Section 126(b) of the Clean Air Act. The petition requested that EPA make a finding that emissions from hundreds of sources located in nine upwind states significantly contribute to nonattainment and interfere with maintenance of the 2008 and 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in Chautauqua County and the New York Metropolitan Area, in violation of the CAA “good neighbor” provision (section 110(a)(2)(D)(i)(I)). If EPA were to make such a finding, continued operation of those sources would be permitted only if they comply with emission limits and compliance schedules designed to ensure emission reductions as soon as possible, and no later than three years from the date of the finding. The more than 350 sources at issue are located in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. EPA proposes to conclude that New York has not met its burden to demonstrate that the named sources emit or would emit ozone-forming emissions in levels that violate the good neighbor provision. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed denial of the petition through July 15, 2019. It will also hold a public hearing on the proposal on June 11, 2019 in Washington, D.C.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/ground-level-ozone-pollution/new-york-section-126-petition
EPA published in the Federal Register the proposed Risk and Technology Review (RTR) standards for Engine Test Cells/Stands (84 Fed. Reg. 20,208). RTR standards are designed to address the risks remaining after the implementation of Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards and add new cost-effective controls that have been developed since MACT was implemented. The agency is proposing to determine that the risks from the source category are acceptable and that there are no new cost-effective controls. EPA is proposing to amend the provisions that apply to periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction to be consistent with recent court decisions, to amend provisions regarding electronic reporting and to make clarifying and technical corrections. The comment deadline for the proposal is June 24, 2019.
For further information: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-05-08/pdf/2019-09119.pdf and https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/proposed-amendments-air-toxics-standards-engine-test-cellsstands
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club (represented by EarthJustice) filed a lawsuit against EPA to force decisions on the compliance status of areas currently in violation of the agency’s 2008 ground-level ozone standard. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that EPA was legally bound to make those decisions by January 2019. Affected areas include the metropolitan areas of Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas; San Diego, Nevada, and Imperial counties in California; metropolitan Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; Baltimore, Maryland; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; the New York City metropolitan area and the entire state of Connecticut. Under an EPA proposed rule published last November, Baltimore would be deemed in compliance with the 75 ppb limit. Many of the other areas, however, would be downgraded to “serious” nonattainment. The lawsuit is in addition to a separate case that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in March 2019 by WildEarth Guardians seeking to compel EPA to decide the status of the Denver and Front Range areas of that state under the 2008 standard. The 2008 ozone standard of 75 parts per billion (ppb) was tightened by a 2015 update lowering the standard to 70 ppb.
For further information: https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/2008%20Ozone%20NAAQS%20bump%20ups%20complaint_05-07-2019.pdf and http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/2019-03-26-Colorado%201-complaint.pdf
A report from the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) finds air pollution problems at 96 percent of U.S. national park sites. To develop this finding, the NPCA evaluated four environmental indicators based on data collected from about 417 national park service sites. Park units were flagged as suffering from a significant air pollution problem if they scored poorly on at least one indicator. The NPCA’s full analysis finds that 85 percent of national parks experience unhealthy air quality, 88 percent experience damage to sensitive species and habitat from air pollution, 89 percent suffer from haze pollution and 80 percent have significant concerns related to climate change. Ninety-seven park units, including Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park and California’s Sequoia and Kings National Parks, triggered concerns on three or more indicators.
For further information: https://www.npca.org/reports/air-climate-report
Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) signed into law a package of four clean energy and climate bills to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the power sector, the transportation sector, and buildings and to transition away from the use of GHG super-pollutants. The power sector legislation maps out a “100 percent clean energy” goal with requirements to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2025, achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and decarbonize the state’s power system by 2045. A separate law addressing the transportation sector aims to reduce GHG emissions by deploying more electric vehicles. It creates state tax incentives to purchase electric vehicles, a grant program for transit agencies to make green transportation investments, and includes funding for electric-hybrid ferries. The building emissions law establishes incentives for efficiency retrofits at existing buildings, sets efficiency requirements for the appliances and equipment used in buildings and creates incentives to reduce natural gas use. Finally, the GHG super-pollutants law requires manufacturers to use lower global warming potential (GWP) alternatives to hydrofluorocarbons with GWPs thousands of times higher than carbon dioxide.
For further information: https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/washington-powers-new-path-toward-clean-energy%C2%A0future
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation finalized a CO2 emission rate standard for electric generating units that, according to a press release from state Governor Andrew Cuomo, will eliminate New York’s remaining coal-fired power plants. The regulation establishes an 1,800 lbs CO2/MWh performance standard for all existing power plants effective December 31, 2020. Neither of the state’s two remaining coal-fired power plants is anticipated to be able to meet the emission rate target. “As our federal government continues to support the dying fossil fuel industry, deny climate change, and roll back environmental protections, New York is leading the nation with bold climate action to protect our planet and our communities,” said Cuomo.
For further information: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-adoption-final-regulations-make-new-york-power-plants-coal-free-end
A new working paper published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that there is a global gap between existing prices for energy consumption and economically efficient pricing of $5.2 trillion in 2017, with the U.S. figuring into second place (behind China) at $649 billion. Although the IMF’s calculations of direct subsidies are lower, these estimates of efficient pricing take into account health and indirect economic harms. For example, “right-pricing” fossil energy consumption would lower mortality caused by air pollution by 46 percent, looking at deaths from exposure to particulates and ozone. The working paper also argues that eliminating direct and indirect subsidies of fossil fuels (primarily petroleum and coal) would increase global economic output and lower carbon emissions by 28 percent, while increasing government revenues globally by 3.8 percent.
For further information: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Global-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Remain-Large-An-Update-Based-on-Country-Level-Estimates-46509
Three nonprofit organizations were awarded a $1.7 million grant from Google.org to use satellite imagery to quantify pollutants, including carbon emissions, from every large power plant on Earth and make the information public. The project, a joint effort of a nonprofit artificial intelligence firm called WattTime (a subsidiary of the Rocky Mountain Institute), the London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative and the World Resources Institute, was one of 25 selected from among thousands of applications to the “Google AI Impact Challenge,” which invited organizations around the world to submit ideas for how they could use artificial intelligence to help address societal challenges. Led by WattTime, the project will observe power plants from space using publicly and commercially available satellite data. Artificial intelligence will use image processing algorithms to detect signs of power plant emissions, and will cross-validate the information with other indicators including thermal infrared imaging. The goal is to create, within two years, a globally accessible, open-source monitoring platform that allows users to obtain emission data on any power plant in the world. Carbon Tracker says the data will be used “to hold polluting plants accountable to environmental standards and to enable advanced new emissions reduction technologies.”
For further information: https://www.watttime.org/