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Following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf Coast, the Department of the Interior (DOI) bureau in charge of issuing and enforcing environmental and safety regulations acted relatively quickly to release its drilling safety rule (August 2012).
The air regulatory agencies and industries of many states have been frustrated by EPA’s decision to revise its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone in 2015. One of the major complaints is that the 2008 ozone NAAQS are still in effect. Therefore, states now face the prospect of implementing two different ozone standards […]
The next several months should be eventful in the promulgation of both international and U.S. standards for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from commercial aircraft. In February 2016, the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), a body of 170 international experts, convened by the United Nations’ (U.N.) International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), unanimously recommended new CO2 […]
Amendments issued following a March 2014 judicial settlement addressing EPA’s construction and demolition (C&D) rule have been included in the Agency’s draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit for stormwater discharges from construction activities (CGP). General permits under the Clean Water Act (CWA) are typically issued for 5 years; the current CGP is […]
Following through on an August 2015 proposal, the EPA has issued a Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for trichloroethylene (TCE) when manufactured or processed for use in a consumer product (exceptions apply).
Applying what it calls the “latest scientific information,” the EPA has updated its recommended aquatic life water quality criteria for cadmium. This is the fifth time—and the first time since 2001—that the Agency has changed the recommended criteria for cadmium since they were first issued 1980. There are four recommended criteria—two each (acute and chronic) […]
In a final action taken largely in response to a petition it received in 2008, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued a final rule establishing a new section (49 CFR 173.157) in its hazardous materials regulations (HMRs) covering reverse logistics highway shipments of certain hazardous materials hazardous materials.
As expected, the road building and manufacturing industries have come out swinging in response to OSHA’s final silica rule, announced late last month. Find out who’s suing whom, and who’s threatening what.
Consistent with President Obama’s June 2013 Climate Action Plan, the EPA is using its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) to propose restrictions on the end uses of certain hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), approve new alternatives to substances with high global warming potential (GWP), and change the status of other substances already on the SNAP list.
As part of their Clean Air Act (CAA) responsibilities to implement the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), state and local air agencies must monitor for the presence of NAAQS pollutants (formally, criteria air pollutants) in the ambient air and report the monitored data to the EPA. The relevant regulations at 40 CFR Part 58 […]