Category: Environmental

The Controversial Coke Oven Rule

A coalition of environmental groups filed suit against the EPA on September 3, 2024, challenging the Agency’s final emissions rule for coke ovens and coke oven batteries. The coalition includes the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution (GASP), the Clean Air Council, the Hoosier Environmental Council, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, PANIC, PennFuture, and the Sierra Club […]

EPA Announces More Permian Basin Flyovers

The EPA recently announced it’s conducting another round of helicopter flyovers to survey oil and gas facilities in the Permian Basin region. Approximately 40% of the United States’ oil supply is produced in the Permian Basin, which includes large Texas cities such as Midland and Odessa.  The EPA uses flyovers to locate “super emitters,” which […]

Label Program Announced for Cleaner Construction Materials

The EPA recently announced it’s implementing a new label program to boost clean American manufacturing by helping federal purchasers and other buyers find and buy cleaner, more climate-friendly construction materials and products. “The label program is made possible by a $100 million investment in the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and aims to cut […]

EPA and Detroit Announce Progress in Removing Lead from Drinking Water

Officials from the EPA, the City of Detroit, and the Detroit Water & Sewage Department (DWSD) gathered on August 9 to celebrate the city’s progress in removing lead from its drinking water. “Since 2022, Detroit has received $90 million in federal funding to help replace lead pipes, including $85 million distributed by the Michigan Department […]

EPA Proposes Five Harmful Chemicals for Risk Evaluations

The EPA recently announced a proposal to designate five chemicals as high-priority substances (HPS) for risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation’s chemical safety law. If the designations are finalized as proposed, the Agency will immediately move forward with risk evaluations on the chemicals. “Studying the safety of these harmful chemicals […]

EPA Axes Dacthal by Issuing FIFRA Emergency Ban

The EPA recently announced it issued emergency orders to suspend all registrations for the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA or Dacthal) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). “This is the first time in almost 40 years EPA has taken this type of emergency action, following several years of unprecedented efforts by the Biden-Harris […]

White House Announces Plastic Pollution Plan

The Biden-Harris administration recently announced a new strategy to tackle plastic pollution called ”Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities.” According to the White House Fact Sheet about the strategy, this action marks the first time the federal government has formally acknowledged the severity of U.S. plastic pollution and the scale of […]

Reducing Methane Emissions from Landfills

According to EPA data, methane emissions from landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 14.4% of these emissions in 2022. “These emissions heat the atmosphere at about 80 times the rate of carbon dioxide over 20 years, but the methane that rises from the decomposing food […]

Power Companies Lose Suit to Avoid Coal Ash Cleanup

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a win for the EPA on June 28, 2024, when it decided to dismiss Electric Energy Inc. (EEI), et al., v. EPA, et al. In the suit, a group of power generating companies sued the EPA, challenging its interpretation of its 2015 coal combustion […]

EPA Updates Safer Choice Standard

On August 8, 2024, the EPA announced it finalized updates to strengthen the Safer Choice and Design for the Environment (DfE) Standard, which identifies the requirements that products and their ingredients must meet to earn the Agency’s Safer Choice label or DfE logo. These updates increase the criteria products must meet to qualify for the […]