Clean air issues get a good look at Biden group priorities

Photographer: Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg

President Joe Biden raised several issues out of clean air and carbon as key environmental priorities for his administration in a new regulatory order signed this week.

Biden on January 21st he instructed organizations to study dozens of Trump-era rules, including carbon emissions, clean air rolls, and Clean Air Act rules on science and costs.

Any heavy standards that Biden intends to block emissions from industry through the Clean Air Act are almost certainly being challenged in court.

The endless cycle of making rules and then a year-long lawsuit is a sign that the Clean Air Act needs to be changed to give the agency more direct authority, said Schiff Hardin LLP environmental partner Jane Montgomery.

“We hope that, with Biden’s experience in Congress, he will recognize that litigation is the result of bad law,” she said.

But Biden may have to choose between innovative actions or traditional regulation of “nuts and bolts” under the legislation to avoid the case in Supreme Court 6-3 reservations about skeptical broad powers, New Orleans Law Professor at Loyola University, Robert Verchick.

“It is going to be much harder to make more flexible, ambitious and innovative programs under these old laws because the court, I think, is not going to take the plunge,” he said.

Here are the closest air issues on Biden’s to-do list:

Carbon Machine Power Regulations

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia gave Biden a big hand January 19 win when he suspended President Donald Trump’s carbon rule for coal-fired power plants. The new White House has now made a fresh start crafting greenhouse gas standards for existing stores.

The DC Circuit idea confirmed an Obama-era justification for regulating carbon power plants under the Clean Air Act, but Hana Vizcarra, a staff lawyer at Harvard Law School’s Environment and Energy Program, does not expect a Clean Energy Plan 2.0 .

“Even the ambitions of the Clean Energy Plan were limited by the aims of this administration,” she said.

Companion performance standards for new plants were released by the administration that was due out earlier this month. While the standards were left unchanged from the 2015 levels, the Trump administration added a new one a threshold that sources must meet in order to be regulated under the rule.

States and groups launched legal protests against the making of rules last week, saying the new threshold was illegally added without proper public support.

Clean Air Act Analysis

Biden called on the EPA to swiftly review Trump’s rules scientific consideration and cost-benefit analyzes under the Clean Air Act.

Both rules limit how scientific research and cost and benefits are measured under the legislation, which critics are concerned may contribute to Biden’s ability to create new air rules.

The new cost-benefit rule finalized at the end of last year would require organizations to examine the key targeted benefits of a separate rule from co-benefits such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The newly completed science rule limits the extent to which weight groups can provide non-public scientific data in rules analysis.

‘Once in, always in’

Also on the foam block is a rule that breaking decades-old policy enforcement locking in toxic air pollution controls for large utilities.

The Clean Air Act requires large refineries and other facilities to be regulated at all times under the highest levels of toxic air if they are eligible as a primary source. Trump’s EPA created a rule that would allow these sources to take the hook if they could reduce their emissions.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Environmentalists are urging Biden to raise ambient air quality standards, also known as NAAQS, after the previous administration refused to protect against dangerous levels of soot and smog pollution.

Organizations say stronger NAAQS and the “once-in-a-lifetime rule” are particularly important in halting the burden of unbalanced air pollution that communities carry on a resource fence line. business – often made up of people of color.

Vehicle emissions

Still caught in a long legal battle, the Trump administration is reducing rules on greenhouse gas emissions also on Biden’s radar.

The two-part Fuel Efficient Vehicle (SAFE) Regulation repealed California’s historic bid to set its own vehicle emissions standards, and restored fuel efficiency levels for car manufacturers from 5% to 1.5%.

Biden’s order states that organizations should “consider the views of representatives from trade unions, States, and industry” when evaluating the rule.

Methane

Finally, the new EPA is ready to examine emissions regulations for the oil and gas sector on methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.

The Trump administration last year abolished the 2016 methane leak inspection requirements. The move was marked by smaller producers, although some major oil and gas companies in line with Obama-era requirements criticized their return.

Judges refused to put the rule on ice after environmentalists called for the rule to be enforced. Legal challenges currently awaiting Trump’s methane, tailpipe, and other emissions rules could be announced when Biden begins making new rules.

To contact the reporter of this story: Jennifer Hijazi in Washington at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rebecca Baker at [email protected]