On December 15, 2016, EPA issued a pre-publication version of new regional haze regulations. The Agency’s regional haze program regulates emissions affecting visibility in national parks, or “Class I” areas. EPA promulgated the regulations in 1999 with the goal of achieving natural visibility conditions by 2064. Under the program, states must create plans to control visibility-impairing emissions, and must update these plans every “planning period” of ten years.  The new regulations are intended to apply to the second planning period, but will become effective 30 days after the recently released rule is published in the Federal Register, which is scheduled for January 10th.

A number of states, industry groups, companies and environmental groups have filed petitions for review with the D.C. Circuit challenging EPA’s final Cross State Air Pollution Update Rule.  The petitions assert that EPA exceeded its statutory authority and that the rule is arbitrary and capricious.

On Wednesday, December 21, 2016, EPA issued a final rule that overhauls its Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility accident prevention program. A 2013 executive order issued by the Obama Administration following a chemical release at a Texas fertilizer facility required EPA to promulgate the rule.

In a December 19, 2016 Order, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals delayed oral argument in the Ozone NAAQS litigation. Originally scheduled for February 16, 2017, oral argument is now scheduled for April 19, 2017. The court did not explain its reason for the delay, but some have speculated it…

Yesterday, November 2, 2016, EPA released a pre-publication version of proposed regulations that spell out how the Agency’s 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) will be implemented. The proposed regulations apply to states with areas that are classified as nonattainment for the 2015 standard of 70 parts per billion (ppb), as well as to states in an Ozone Transport Region.

EPA’s update to the Cross State Air Pollution Rule is designed to address interstate transport issues under the 2008 ozone standard. The rule establishes Federal Implementation Plans (FIPs) for 22 states in the eastern half of the U.S. (see map below) and requires ozone season NOx reductions directly from fossil fuel fired Electric Generating Units (EGUs) in those states. The rule is styled as an “update” to the Cross State Air Pollution Rule because it uses the same regulatory frameworks, with some updates, as EPA’s original Cross State Air Pollution Rule, which was finalized in 2011, vacated by the DC Circuit but ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court. Most of the states subject to the CSAPR Update rule were also subject to the original CSAPR rule with the exception of Kansas, which will be new to the ozone season NOx program under the CSAPR Update Rule. The rule establishes new, more stringent ozone season NOx emissions budgets for each state subject to the rule, and those budgets take effect in May 2017. While the rule was signed and posted on EPA’s website on September 7, 2016, the final rule was published in the Federal Register today and a copy of the Federal Register version can be found here. EPA has also separately published the unit-specific allowance allocations for the affected EGUs under the rule. The allowance allocations were issued in final form, without public review and comment, in a NODA published in the Federal Register on September 30, 2016.