Tag Archives: EPA

On September 21, 2023, the Biden administration outlined plans to expand federal agencies’ consideration of the social cost of carbon—a metric for the economic cost of each additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere. This announcement tilts the balance of cost-benefit analyses in favor of activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it could have widespread effects for entities that receive federal funding or are subject to federal regulation.… More

On May 25, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which significantly narrowed the Clean Water Act’s (“CWA”) test for determining whether wetlands are protected “waters of the United States” and the federal permitting requirements for development projects in covered wetlands areas.

The Court’s Ruling

The Supreme Court’s ruling has two basic parts:

1. It adopts Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion in Rapanos v.…

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On April 12, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new pollutant emissions standards for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles and heavy duty vehicles.  The proposed rules set new, aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits for all three vehicle classes and criteria pollutant standards for light and medium duty vehicles.

Big picture: Both proposed rules are premised on a sweeping shift from internal combustion vehicles to electric vehicles as well as,… More

Last month’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”) from the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed significant changes to the RFS Program, which we summarized in a prior post.  One of the major changes in the proposed rule is its treatment of biogas and renewable natural gas (“RNG”): the rule would open up new potential RIN generation from biogas through changes to the eRIN program and the establishment of RNG as a biointermediate. … More

On December 1, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed a sweeping new rule for the Renewable Fuel Standards (“RFS”) Program, the federal government’s flagship program for facilitating the production of renewable transportation fuels to offset fossil fuels. Administered correctly, the Program could be a critical tool to combat climate change, including by incentivizing needed low-carbon fuels for air travel and other difficult-to-electrify sectors.

The proposed rule is significant in many ways.… More

Federal agencies continue to roll out plans to address environmental justice issues, which has become a focal point in the Biden administration’s agenda. Now that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) is in effect, federal agencies are now able to access more funds to address environmental justice concerns. As discussed in a prior blog post, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its “Equity Action Plan” in April 2022 and on September 30,… More

In an effort to “redress inequities in [Federal] policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity,” the Biden administration has set forth an agenda to identify areas of improvement and advance equity across the Federal Government. On January 20, President Biden issued Executive Order 13985 which requires agencies to produce “Equity Action Plans” that are agency sponsored reports to assess whether underserved communities face systemic barriers in accessing benefits and opportunities available based on an agency’s policies and programs.… More

The biofuels industry has had a challenging season in the courts. Several weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that had limited EPA’s ability to grant waivers to small refiners that allow them to escape compliance obligations under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program. Then, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the D.C.… More

Yesterday, the Supreme Court stayed EPA’s Clean Power Plan rule.  No matter how much EPA and DOJ proclaim that this says nothing about the ultimate results on the merits, the CPP is on very shaky ground at this point.

Everyone, supporters and opponents alike (and yours truly), thought that there was no possibility that the Court would grant a stay.… More

On Friday, in Center For Biological Diversity v. EPA, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down EPA’s rule deferring regulation of GHG emissions from “biogenic” sources.  EPA had promulgated the rule, delaying regulation of emissions from biogenic sources from July 20, 2011, to July 21, 2014, on the ground that the carbon cycle is sufficiently complex that EPA is not yet in a position to judge what the actual carbon impact of different biogenic sources might be. … More