OpenMarket: Air Quality

In two separate actions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week put California on notice that the state is violating federal air and water quality standards, and must clean up its act.

On Wednesday, I submitted comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to rescind its justification for the 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. MATS established first-ever maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from coal- and oil-fueled power plants.

In trying to please both the supporters and the critics of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Trump administration may end up pleasing neither.  

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is taking comment on the air quality impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and will complete a study of such impacts by 2020. This agency action, in response to a lawsuit from the Sierra Club, may finally result in the EPA meeting statutory duties whose deadlines have long passed.

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held its confirmation hearing for acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler on January 16th. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was a significant part of the discussion. Several corn-belt senators—Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—focused particularly on two RFS issues: year-round sales of E-15 and small refinery exemptions. Both sought administrative changes by EPA that would favor corn growers and ethanol producers.

On December 28th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to rescind the Obama EPA’s justification for its 2012 Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. MATS established first-ever maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from coal- and oil-fueled power plants. MATS is among the most expensive regulations in the history of the Clean Air Act.

The Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency cranked out so many bad major rules that it was hard to pay attention to all the also-bad, but relatively small, rules. One such measure set emissions standards for wood heaters. Thankfully, the Trump administration has proposed some useful revisions.    

Yesterday the Competitive Enterprise Institute published Steve Milloy’s new policy brief on the impact of revised federal rules for auto mileage and emissions, “Will the Trump Fuel Economy Reform Proposal Create Deadly Air Pollution?” This reform to the Obama-era policy on corporate average fuel economy standards is one of the current administration’s biggest (de-)regulatory initiatives, so the debate over what effects it’ll have on Americans is particularly important. 

Several of the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s most expensive and far-reaching Clean Air Act regulations are back in the news now that the Trump administration is trying to scale them back. While there is little doubt that potential changes to the Clean Power Plan, Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology, and Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules could save billions of dollars and countless jobs, they are far from the only Obama EPA rules in need of review.

Maryland, New York, and Connecticut are following California’s lead in proposing restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the class of refrigerants widely used in home and car air conditioners as well as the refrigeration equipment in millions of small businesses like restaurants and convenience stores. State legislators and governors are doing so on the grounds that HFCs contribute to global warming.