April 15-21, 2023
In this week's issue:
- Midwest Ozone Group Asks D.C. Circuit to Reconsider Decision Upholding 2021 CSAPR Update (April 17, 2023)
- Petitioners Opposing EPA’s Revised Light-Duty Vehicle GHG Emission Standards File Reply Briefs in D.C. Circuit (April 18, 2023)
- ALA’s 2023 State of the Air Report Details Clean Air Progress, Growing Challenges (April 19, 2023)
- GHGRF Framework Released, Offering Glimpse of EPA’s Plans for IRA Billions (April 20, 2023)
- New Executive Order Expands Biden Administration Environmental Justice Ambitions (April 21, 2022)
This Week in Review
The Midwest Ozone Group (MOG), an affiliation of power companies and other industry organizations, filed a petition for panel or en banc rehearing of the March 3 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejecting the group’s challenge to EPA’s April 30, 2021 Final Revised Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) Update. In its March 3 panel decision, the D.C. Circuit held that the Revised Rule was an appropriate exercise of EPA’s statutory authority under the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor Provision,” and denied MOG’s petition on the merits. In its rehearing petition, MOG argues that the court’s opinion focused on only one of several arguments raised in its petition – whether EPA conducted appropriate air quality modeling – and neglected to address its other critical issues that the group had briefed and argued. Most significantly, MOG asserts, the panel overlooked the “absence of legal authority supporting EPA’s failure to align the upwind state obligations imposed by the Revised Update Rule to the downwind regulatory requirements related to the applicable nonattainment deadline.” The panel had an obligation to address this argument on its merits, MOG argues. “The impact of the Panel Opinion not to address the balance of upwind and downwind sources of regulated air pollution creates a path forward for the EPA to ignore the balance issue for regulated entities and all states. Accordingly, a rehearing is needed,” MOG asserts, and the rule should be vacated.
For further information:
Sixteen states, alongside organizations representing petrochemical and biofuels industries and conservative interests, filed reply briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in support of their petitions for review challenging EPA’s 2021 revised greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for light-duty vehicles. As in their opening briefs, both sets of petitioners continue to rely heavily on the “major questions doctrine” articulated by the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA, arguing that EPA unlawfully enacted standards that with enormous economic and political ramifications without clear statutory authority. The state petitioners emphasize that the rule will, in their view, “undermine both electric grid reliability and national security.” The industry petitioners characterize the standards as “effectively mandating electrification,” and argue that EPA lacks clear authority to do that. The petitioners also argue that the standards are arbitrary and capricious, and they rebut arguments put forth by EPA that they lack standing to challenge the rule.
For further information:
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Texas-v.-EPA-State-Petitioners-Reply-Brief-4-18-23.pdf
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/Texas-v.-EPA-Private-Pets-Reply-Brief-4-18-23.pdf
The American Lung Association (ALA) has issued it’s 24th annual “State of the Air” report detailing ozone and particulate pollution exposures in the United States. It finds improvements in air quality that have led to 17.6 fewer Americans being exposed to unhealthy levels of ozone and particulates since the previous year’s report was issued. However, the report also notes that nearly 36% of Americans—119.6 million people—still live in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of these pollutants. By one measure – daily particulate exposures – progress had reversed from prior years, with 63.7 million living in counties with failing grades from ALA, the most ever reported under the current national standard. Using data from 2019, 2020 and 2021, ALA calculated daily ozone and both daily and annual particulate levels for metropolitan areas and counties and then assigned grades to these areas. Eleven counties received failing grades for all three measures of pollution, ten in California and one in Arizona. ALA noted that climate change is making it more difficult to ensure clean air for Western areas, with heat, drought and wildfires exacerbating pollution problems.
For further information: https://www.lung.org/research/sota
EPA has released the framework by which it intends to offer over $23 billion in funding for clean energy and climate change spending made available by the passage of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This IRA funding will be delivered through competitive solicitation in three programs under the overall Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF). First, $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund competition will fund 2–3 national nonprofits that will partner with private capital providers to deliver financing at scale to businesses, communities, community lenders, and other. Second, the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator competition will fund 2–7 hub nonprofits to fund public, quasi-public and non-profit community lenders, credit unions, green banks, housing finance agencies, minority depository institutions, and others. Finally, the $7 billion Solar for All competition will provide up to 60 grants to states, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits to fund residential and community solar in low-income and disadvantaged communities. EPA will accept comment on these programs until May 12, 2023 via email at ggrf@epa.gov. Thereafter, EPA will also convene six public listening sessions between April 24 and May 4.
For further information:
https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund
and
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/GGRF%20Implementation%20Framework_730am.pdf
and
https://www.epa.gov/greenhouse-gas-reduction-fund/engagement-opportunities
In a new Executive Order (EO), President Joe Biden has expanded the requirements and expectations for the federal Governments efforts to advance environmental justice (EJ). The order increases Federal obligations to notify communities and take remediative steps for pollution events occurring at Federal facilities. It establishes a White House Office of Environmental Justice, led by the Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer, to coordinate implementation of environmental justice policy across the federal government. The EO establishes a new Environmental Justice Subcommittee, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, to engage new research to fill gaps in understanding about disparate pollution impacts. The EO creates an national Environmental Justice Scorecard for federal agencies, and charges them with conducting new assessments of their environmental justice efforts and developing, implementing, and periodically updating an environmental justice strategic plan with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The order also expands the Justice40 program to cover three new agencies: the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
For further information: