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Last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a petition for review brought by environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) challenging EPA’s conclusion that the Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona metropolitan area, which had been designated nonattainment for a National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone, had met that standard by the applicable deadline.  Bahr v. Regan, No. 20-70092, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 22333 (9th Cir. July 28, 2021).  Failure to have met the standard would have had implications in terms of additional air emission controls required in the area.
Continue Reading EPA’s Finding that Wildfires Did Not Preclude NAAQS Attainment is Upheld

Unwilling to wait for further federal action, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island are joining a group of other states (e.g., California, Vermont, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware and New York) that have either resuscitated or announced their intent to revive EPA’s ban on the end use of some HFCs at the individual state level.
Continue Reading Ozone’s Cure is Climate’s Scourge—Northeast States to Ban Use of Hydrofluorocarbons

State environmental regulators are beginning to develop plans designed to meet more stringent air quality standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA), including standards to protect against unhealthful levels of ground-level ozone. In doing so, many states are looking more closely at a factor that contributes to their air quality problems but that they lack any authority to address: the phenomenon of air pollution carried by prevailing winds into their jurisdictions from emission sources located not only outside their own state borders but outside the US itself. The issue of international contributions to air quality concerns has gained currency in part due to the many challenges states face in meeting the stringent nationwide air quality standards for ground-level ozone that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted in 2015.
Continue Reading The Foreign Factor: Accounting for International Emissions in Air Quality Planning

In October 2015, EPA reduced the level of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (“NAAQS”) for ozone from 75 parts per billion (“ppb”) to 70 ppb. What is happening concerning implementation of those NAAQS?

Although litigation over EPA’s decision to lower the ozone NAAQS remains in abeyance as the Trump Administration continues to consider whether the Agency should reconsider the rule or some part of it, the 2015 standard itself has not been stayed. Thus, the Clean Air Act requires that implementation of the standard proceed. One key step in implementation is promulgation by EPA of a list of areas where the standard is violated, including areas that contribute to standard violations in nearby areas. EPA’s identification of these “nonattainment” areas is a trigger for many of the Act’s control requirements.
Continue Reading What’s Up with Air Quality Standards for Ozone?

In a series of orders this week, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit granted motions by EPA to pause cases challenging several Obama-era regulatory actions while the new administration reviews those rules. With those cases on hold, the dispute over the fate of those rules will move out of the courts and into the administrative process.
Continue Reading DC Circuit Pausing Challenges to Obama Environmental Rules Pending Trump Administration’s Review

Litigation concerning the ozone air quality standards that EPA adopted in 2015 has been placed in abeyance, as the Trump administration decides whether to reconsider the standards. The standards remain in effect, however, and statutory implementation deadlines are approaching. What are those deadlines and what options exist for staying the standards until after any reconsideration proceedings are completed?
Continue Reading National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: With Litigation in Abeyance, What Now?