October 14-20, 2023
In this week's issue:
- NACAA Elects Washington State, South Coast to New Leadership at Fall Membership Meeting in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia (October 19, 2023)
- EPA Makes Endangerment Finding for Aircraft Lead Emissions (October 20, 2023)
- EPA Revises Schedule for Final Action on Phase 3 HDV GHG Standards and Multipollutant LMDV Standards, Will Move Forward with Final Action on Locomotive Preemption (October 21, 2023)
- Three States Submit Emergency Application to SCOTUS for Stay of Federal Good Neighbor Plan for All 23 Affected States (October 16, 2023)
- House Republicans’ Letter Questions IRA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Spending by EPA (October 18, 2023)
- EPA Publishes Quantified Climate Measures Directory (October 18, 2023)
- New EPA Reports on Food Waste Highlight Methane Implications (October 19, 2023)
- Department of Justice Issues First Progress Report on Environmental Justice Progress (October 14, 2023)
- EPA Proposes Revisions to the Guideline on Air Quality Models (October 12, 2023)
- New York DEC Expert Selected as Member of Chartered CASAC (October 10, 2023)
This Week in Review
At its 2023 Fall Membership Meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, NACAA elected new state and local leadership to lead the association. Wayne Nastri, Executive Officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California, is NACAA’s new local co-president of the association; the new state co-president is Kathy Taylor of the Washington State Department of Ecology. The association elected Chris LaLone from New York to be state co-vice president; the new local co-vice president is Latrice Babbin of Harris County, Texas. Francisco Vega of Washoe County, Nevada, was elected NACAA’s local co-treasurer and Kendal Stegmann from Oklahoma was elected state co-treasurer for the association. Mark Buford from Northwest Clean Air Agency in Mount Vernon, WA, and Tracy Babbidge of Connecticut round out the NACAA Executive Committee as immediate past co-presidents. In addition to these Executive Committee members, NACAA’s state board of directors will include Angela Marconi from Delaware, Stephen Hall from Missouri, Edie Chang from California, Michelle Walker Owenby from Tennessee and Michael Ogletree from Colorado. Bill Hayes from Boulder, CO, Richard Stedman from Monterey Bay, CA, and Erik White from Placer County, CA will continue to be members of the association’s local agency board of directors. All terms are for one year, starting at the conclusion of this week’s meeting. Thanks to Tracy and Mark for a great year of leadership and service, and congratulations and welcome to our new leaders and directors!
EPA published in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 72,372) its final action, announced earlier this week, finding that lead emissions from aircraft engines that operate on leaded fuel cause or contribute to lead air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare under Clean Air Act section 231(a). The basis of this finding is the comprehensive review and consideration by agency experts of extensive scientific evidence that has been accrued over decades and peer-reviewed by EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Among other things, this scientific evidence demonstrates that low levels of lead in children’s blood can have harmful effects on children’s cognitive function, including reduced IQ and decreased academic performance. As EPA reiterates in the final action, ‘‘there is no evidence of a threshold below which there are no harmful effects on cognition from [lead] exposure.’’ Further, “[e]vidence suggests that while some neurocognitive effects of lead in children may be transient, some lead-related cognitive effects may be irreversible and persist into adulthood, potentially contributing to lower educational attainment and financial well-being.” Although this finding does not prohibit or place restrictions on leaded fuel, or establish new control measures for aircraft lead emissions, it does obligate EPA to fulfill is statutory duty to propose and promulgate federal emission standards, under section 231(a), applicable to covered aircraft, the majority of which are piston-engine powered. Likewise, the Federal Aviation Administration is obligated to fulfill its statutory duty “to prescribe standards for the composition or chemical or physical properties of an aircraft fuel or fuel additive to control or eliminate aircraft emissions which the EPA has found endanger public health or welfare.” This final action takes effect November 20, 2023. In January 17, 2023, comments, NACAA supported EPA’s October 17, 2022, proposed endangerment finding.
For further information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-10-20/pdf/2023-23247.pdf
and
https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/regulations-lead-emissions-aircraft
and
EPA has advised NACAA that it has revised its schedule for final action on rules to establish Phase 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) and multipollutant emission standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles (LMDVs), proposed on April 27 and May 5, 2023, respectively. Until now, EPA has said it would finalize the Phase 3 Rule by the end of this calendar year and the LMDV Rule in spring 2024. EPA will now spend additional time on the Phase 3 Rule while accelerating its work on the LMDV Rule and take final action on both rules in early March. In addition, EPA is separating from the rest of the Phase 3 Rule its proposal “to revise its [1998] regulations addressing preemption of state regulation of new locomotives and new engines used in locomotives, to more closely align with language in the Clean Air Act.” The Office of Management and Budget has agreed to expedite its review of EPA’s decision on the locomotive piece and EPA will issue a final action on that piece by the end of this calendar year.
The Attorneys General of Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia filed in the U.S. Supreme Court an Emergency Application for a Stay of Administration Action on EPA’s June 5, 2023, federal Good Neighbor Plan (a Federal Implementation Plan, or FIP) in all 23 states named in the plan. EPA promulgated the federal Good Neighbor Plan to address interstate transport pollution under section 110(a)(2)(D) – the “good neighbor provision” – of the Clean Air Act. The plan put in place requirements to address the obligations of a total of 23 states to eliminate significant contributions to nonattainment or interference with maintenance of the 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard in other states. Prior to issuing this FIP, EPA fully or partially disapproved the 23 states’ individual State Implementation Plans (SIPs) intended to fulfill their obligations. Many parties have challenged the Good Neighbor Plan in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In addition, numerous affected states have challenged EPA’s disapproval of their SIPs and 12 (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia) have won judicial stays of the disapprovals. EPA subsequently put in place two Interim Final Rules (on July 21, 2023 and September 29, 2023) staying the effectiveness of the federal Good Neighbor plan in these 12 states until litigation on the SIP disapprovals plays out. At this time, the Good Neighbor Plan continues to apply in 11 states: California, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In their emergency application to the Supreme Court the three applicant states support their argument for a full stay of the Good Neighbor Plan by stating, among other things, that the federal plan, “purports to establish emission-reduction standards for ‘23 upwind states.’ But due to a combination of litigation and interim rulemaking, a dozen of those States and over three quarters of the emissions that the plan sought to regulate, are already exempt from the plan. Nonetheless, the EPA insists that its federal plan should still apply in the remaining States.” The three applicant states further write that those challenging the Good Neighbor plan in the D.C. Circuit, “are likely to succeed on their claims under the Administrative Procedure Act. That Act requires federal agencies to reach decisions in a considered matter, so as to avoid arbitrary and capricious government action. In promulgating the federal plan, the EPA did not meet that threshold. Tellingly, in just a few months, the federal plan is down to a sliver of what the EPA intended. And the federal plan’s failures were both foreseeable and inevitable. Most glaringly, the EPA’s rulemaking ignored obvious problems with its attempt to twist the Clean Air Act into a system of top-down regulation instead of the system of cooperative federalism that Congress intended.” The applicants also argue that “[t]he states, their industries, and their citizens will be irreparably harmed without a stay” and that “[s]taying the federal plan will promote the public interest and will not substantially harm others.”
For further information:
In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan led by Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rogers, (R-WA) Republican members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee posed questions and raised concerns about the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) funded under the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The GGRF supports lending and funding for clean energy projects, including the $7 billion Solar for All fund, the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund that will capitalize green banks, and the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator for community lending aimed at clean energy projects benefitting disproportionately impacted communities. “With billions of dollars on the line, an unusually accelerated timeline for disbursement, and a new and complex funding structure, this program warrants close scrutiny and rigorous oversight,” the letter reads. It seeks details about oversight and a staff-level briefing by EPA by November 1, 2023.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/10_18_23_Letter_to_EPA_re_GGRF_f7e60c7201.pdf
EPA has released a technical assistance resource that provides examples and quantification for measures that local and state governments can use as they finalize their plans under the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG). The Quantified Climate Action Measures Directory includes a state volume and a local volume that has searchable tables of examples of quantified GHG emission reduction measures as well as the tools used to estimate the GHG emission impacts of each measure. EPA will offer a webinar on November 2nd, 2023 to describe the research methods used to develop the directory, present summary findings about the examples within the directory, and demonstrate how to use the directory.
For further information:
https://www.epa.gov/statelocalenergy/quantified-climate-action-measures-directory
https://usepa.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJIsce6hrzkqElqqrFTD3RRr3K0GGOJQsKs#/registration
Two new reports from EPA identify the methane impacts of food waste in municipal solid waste landfills and identify recommendations for reducing that waste stream. More food reaches MSW landfills than any other material and generates about 58 percent of the methane coming from landfills, according to the reports, and over one-third of the food produced in the United States is never eaten. This effort represents the first time the climate impacts of waste food have been identified. Its analysis estimates annual methane emissions from landfilled food waste from 1990 to 2020 and found that while total emissions from municipal solid waste landfills are decreasing, methane emissions from landfilled food waste are increasing. EPA suggests that addressing this methane source may be a highly cost-effective climate change mitigation strategy, with source reduction being the most environmentally beneficial approach.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/land-research/quantifying-methane-emissions-landfilled-food-waste
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) has released the first report since the May 5, 2022, issuance of a Comprehensive Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy for the Department. The first annual report is organized around four workstreams in that strategy, including Civil Rights, Community Outreach, Environmental Enforcement Taskforces, Incorporating EJ in the Department’s Defensive Practices, Investigating EJ Impacts in Civil and Criminal Cases, Training, and Tribal Environmental Justice. The report details the work done by each of the workstreams, including specific cases. It also includes a number of recommendations for future steps, including increasing training of local and state agencies regarding the implications of not enforcing laws pertaining to environmental and public health issues.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/epa2023_1880ENRD.pdf
EPA issued a proposed rule to revise the Guideline on Air Quality Models, 40 C.F.R. Part 51, Appendix W (commonly referred to as “Appendix W”). Appendix W specifies EPA’s preferred models and modeling techniques for use in new source permitting, state implementation plan submittals and other applications. It was last updated in 2017. EPA’s proposed revisions are primarily technical in nature. They include enhancements to the formulation and application of EPA’s near-field dispersion modeling system, AERMOD, updates to the recommendations for the development of appropriate background concentration for cumulative impact analyses, and various typographical updates to the existing regulation. The proposal was signed by the EPA Administrator on October 12; it will be subject to a 60-day public comment period upon publication in the Federal Register. EPA’s Thirteenth Conference on Air Quality Modeling, which will take place November 14-15, 2023 at the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, will focus on the proposed Appendix W revisions and AERMOD enhancements; it will also serve as a public hearing on the proposal.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/scram/13th-conference-air-quality-modeling
Henry (Dirk) Felton, an air monitoring expert and research scientist at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), was selected by EPA Administrator Michael Regan as a new member of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), the chartered Federal Advisory Committee that provides independent advice to the Administrator on the technical bases for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. He will fill the required CASAC spot for a member representing state air pollution control agencies. Dirk is a longtime member of NACAA’s Monitoring Steering Committee, as well as a member of the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management Monitoring Assessment Committee. In addition to his work at NYSDEC, he has participated on the Board of Science Counselors review of the EPA Office of Research and Development’s Clean Air Research program and was a two-term member of the CASAC Ambient Air Monitoring and Methods subcommittee as well as a member of the 2015-2018 CASAC PM Panel. EPA also announced the selection of Dr. Kimberly L. Jones, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Howard University, as chair of the Science Advisory Board (SAB), as well as several new SAB members.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-selection-charter-members-science-advisory-board-and-clean-air