[Source: POLITICO] The first big test of California’s plan to reshape the U.S. truck market is underway on the other side of the country, with New Jersey officials pushing tough new mandates to cut emissions by getting big rigs to ditch diesel engines. The state is trying to replicate new California rules that require automakers Read More…
Tag: Clean Air Act
Biden EPA ponders ‘Hail Mary’ move on greenhouse gas air limits
[Source: Bloomberg Law] The Biden administration likely will face a tough climb in the courts and on the ground if it tries to push for national ambient air limits on greenhouse gases, experts and lawyers say. Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Jane Nishida wrote last week that the agency “did not fully and fairly assess the issues Read More…
California has a new clean air rule: what it costs and how it works
[Source: Sacramento Bee] The California Air Resources Board last week voted to enact a sweeping, complicated series of rules aimed at reducing the pollution output of heavy-duty diesel trucks. It’s air board’s second rule this year aimed at such vehicles, after the board voted in June to require manufacturers of diesel trucks and vans to transition Read More…
Courts say EPA not doing enough to fight cross-state smog
[Source: The Hill] Federal judges dealt a blow to the Trump administration late Tuesday, finding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hasn’t done enough to limit cross-state air pollution. A panel of judges for the D.C. Circuit Court, which includes a Trump appointee, ordered the EPA to come up with a new plan for how to Read More…
The war on Southern California smog is slipping. Fixing it is a $14-billion problem
[Source: Source: Los Angeles Times] The war on smog has been called one of America’s greatest environmental successes. Decades of emissions-cutting regulations under a bipartisan law — the 1970 Clean Air Act — have eased the choking pollution that once shrouded U.S. cities. Cleaner air has saved lives and strengthened the lungs of Los Angeles Read More…
Trump EPA rolls back Obama rule on coal-fired power plants
[Source: Associated Press] The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that gives Read More…
AQMD considers seeking a one-half cent sales tax in four counties for clean-air programs
[Source: Orange County Register] The South Coast Air Quality Management District is pursuing a one-half cent sales tax measure that would raise about $1.4 billion each year to pay for clean-air projects such as zero-emission cars, trucks, trains and cargo equipment. Some compare the proposal to ballot measures recently passed by voters benefitting transportation districts Read More…
Trump has an auto emissions plan, but this negotiator calls it ‘crap’
[Source: Bloomberg] Mary Nichols was in classic blunt mode last week, calling the latest Trump administration’s challenge to Obama-era auto-emission targets “a piece of crap” and dismissing as “nonsense” the industry claims that fighting pollution costs too much. “Give me a break,” Nichols said ahead of a California Air Resources Board symposium in the Los Angeles suburb Read More…
Trump targets smog standards, ordering EPA to make it easier for companies to comply
[Source: Los Angeles Times] President Trump took aim at federal air quality standards Thursday, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to relax restrictions on state governments and businesses that have been key to cutting smog. In a memo, the president instructed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to more quickly review states’ smog-reduction plans, make it easier for businesses Read More…