Environmental Trends

Topics discussed this week:

• A wave of litigation begins as both supporters and opponents of the Trump administration’s repeal of the Obama-era Clean Water Rule file suit
• D.C. Circuit declines to review EPA’s revised midterm evaluation of auto GHG standards but reminds agency of need to provide reasoned explanation to revise the standards
• Interior Department finalizes FOIA rules

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Topics discussed this week include:

• EPA issues first of three revisions to coal ash regulations
• EPA supports request to formally end Clean Power Plan litigation
• States sue NHTSA over rule reducing CAFE penalties
• EPA proposes to revise New Source Review standards
• EPA moves to dismiss claim seeking asbestos rulemaking under APA

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Topics discussed this week include:

• Interest groups kick off challenges to EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy rule
• D.C. Circuit upholds EPA decision not to impose new financial assurance requirements on hardrock mining operators
• Fourth Circuit vacates Atlantic Coast Pipeline permit
• EPA declines to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos
• Maryland high court holds that state agency supersedes county zoning boards on solar zoning

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Topics discussed this week:

• EPA finalizes Clean Power Plan repeal and promulgates Affordable Clean Energy rule
• U.S. Senate passes defense bill with PFAS requirements
• Council on Environmental Quality issues draft guidance on considering GHGs in environmental impact reviews
• Solicitor General asks for Supreme Court review of Atlantic Coast Pipeline decision
• EPA air chief steps down

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Topics discussed this week include:

• EPA to allow sales of higher ethanol fuel in the summer
• EPA finalizes guidance on PM2.5 requirements
• Clean Water Rule remanded by one federal court, held in effect by another
• EPA Administrator issues memo on cost-benefit analysis in rulemakings

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Topics discussed this week include:

• U.S. House and Senate hold hearings on per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
• D.C. Circuit issued two decisions related to small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)
• California Department of Pesticide Regulation moves to ban chlorpyrifos in California
• Carbon capture and storage technology receives greater political support with new bill in the U.S. Senate

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Topics discussed this week include:

• Clean Water Act groundwater case settlement proposed, potentially ending Supreme Court review
• EPA issues draft interim cleanup guidelines for PFAS in groundwater
• EPA reaffirms its stance that glyphosate does not pose risk to human health and is not carcinogenic
• Virginia will not join Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issues certificate for natural gas pipeline expansion in Northeast

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Topics discussed this week include:

• EPA releases FY 2020-21 national program guidance.
• Third Circuit denies Navy’s rehearing request for PFAS ruling.
• State Attorneys General challenge EPA MATS proposed rule.
• Fifth Circuit vacates 2015 EPA wastewater regulations.

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