United States v. Eastman Chemical Resins, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-00867-MJH (W.D. Pa. May 24, 2023). Settling CWA, CAA, and RCRA defendants must perform injunctive relief, including conducting a third-party environmental audit, implementing effluent limit violations response requirements, performing facility specific work and repairs, completing comprehensive stormwater and groundwater control plans, and implementing a RCRA-based training program and daily inspection requirements; as well as pay a $2.4 million civil penalty in connection with alleged violations at a hydrocarbon resins manufacturing facility in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office expanded the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program to include innovations in any economic sector that are designed to make progress toward achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, increased the filing limitations for petitions under the program, and extended the duration of the program. 

FWS proposed to list the Sira curassow and southern helmeted curassow as endangered under the ESA.

EPA entered into a proposed consent decree under the CAA in California Communities Against Toxics v. Regan, No. 1:22-cv-03724 (D.D.C.), that would establish a deadline for the Agency to sign a final rule in connection with its alleged failure to perform its non-discretionary duty to “review, and revise as necessary” the NESHAPs: Ethylene Oxide Emissions Standards for Sterilization Facilities, at least every eight years.

EPA made available for comment the draft document Draft Policy Assessment for the Review of the Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Sulfur and Particulate Matter – External Review Draft, prepared as part of the current review of the secondary NAAQS for nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and particulate matter.

SIP Approval: Ohio (revisions to sulfur dioxide regulations).

SIP Approval: Illinois (second maintenance plan for the 1997 ozone NAAQS through 2032 in the St. Louis, MO-IL area).

DOE issued an interim final rule establishing regulations necessary to implement the Energy Implementation Reinvestment Program and other categories of projects authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for Energy Policy Act Title XVII loan guarantees; revising provisions directly related to DOE’s implementation of the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program as expanded by the IRA; amending provisions to conform with the broader changes to the program; and revising certain sections for clarity and organization.

FEMA seeks input on implementation of the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022, including updates to the methodology and data used for the National Risk Index and any other hazard assessment products; potential improvements to FEMA’s provision of hazard data; the process used to designate community disaster resilience zones; financial and technical assistance for resilience or mitigation projects primarily benefitting community disaster resilience zones; and the community disaster resilience zone project application and certification process.

EPA found that California failed to submit SIP elements to implement the 2012 fine particulate matter NAAQS in the Los Angeles-South Coast Air Basin.

EPA proposed amendments to the new chemicals procedural regulations under TSCA; the amendments would reduce the need to redo all or part of the risk assessment by improving information initially submitted in new chemicals notices, as well as amendments to the regulations for low volume exemptions and low release and exposure exemptions, which include requiring EPA approval of an exemption notice prior to commencement of manufacture, making per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances categorically ineligible for these exemptions, and providing that certain persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic chemical substances are ineligible for these exemptions.

EPA proposed to enter into 49 individual settlements with 53 parties under CERCLA to address recovery of costs for a cleanup that was performed at the Bennett Landfill Fire site in Chester, South Carolina.

SIP Approval: Idaho (state board composition requirements).

EPA Region 9 proposed to reissue a general NPDES permit for water discharges from facilities classified as low threat located in the Navajo Nation.

SIP Approval: California (revisions concerning provisions for Clean Fuels for Fleets for the 2015 ozone NAAQS in the Riverside County, Sacramento Metro, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles–South Coast Air Basin, Ventura County, and Los Angeles–San Bernardino Counties nonattainment areas).

EPA proposed to list certain substitutes under the Significant New Alternatives Policy program in refrigeration and air conditioning.

SIP Proposal: Alaska (revisions and repeal of state regulations to limit water vapor emissions that may contribute to ice fog and to address the use of high-sulfur marine fuels near the communities of St. Paul Island and Unalaska).

United States v. BP Products North America, No. 2:23-cv-166 (N.D. Ind. May 17, 2023). A settling CAA defendant must perform injunctive relief, including the installation of a permanent benzene stripper; spend $5 million to implement a supplemental environmental project intended to reduce diesel emissions in the surrounding communities; and pay a total financial penalty of $40 million, comprised of a $31,424,000 civil penalty and $8,576,000 in stipulated penalties for violations of an earlier consent decree, in connection with alleged violations of NESHAPs for benzene waste operations and new source performance standards for volatile organic compound emissions from refinery wastewater systems, as well as the general requirement to use good air pollution control practices at its refinery in Whiting, Indiana.

FWS designated approximately 1,869 acres in Miami-Dade County, Florida, as critical habitat for the Miami tiger beetle under the ESA.

EPA proposed revised new source performance standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new fossil fuel-fired stationary combustion turbine electric generating units (EGUs) and for GHG emissions from fossil fuel-fired steam generating units that undertake a large modification; emission guidelines for GHG emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired steam generating EGUs, which include both coal-fired and oil/gas-fired steam generating EGUs; emission guidelines for GHG emissions from the largest, most frequently operated existing stationary combustion turbines, and is soliciting comment on approaches for emission guidelines for GHG emissions for the remainder of the existing combustion turbine category; and to repeal the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.

NMFS announced its 90-day finding on a petition to list the smalltail shark as threatened or endangered under the ESA, finding that listing may be warranted and commencing a status review of the species.

EPA seeks comment on two sets of amendments to the California Air Resources Board's Small Off-Road Engine regulation.

EPA issued a supplemental proposal to amend provisions in the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule to improve the quality and consistency of the rule, by providing for the collection of improved data that would better inform and be relevant to a wide variety of CAA provisions.

The Army Corps of Engineers finalized a rule implementing a new credit assistance program for safety projects to maintain, upgrade, and repair dams identified in the National Inventory of Dams with a primary owner type of state, local government, public utility, or private.

SIP Proposal: Missouri (removal of provision that allows the burning of illegal and waste pharmaceutical drugs in crematories and animal incinerators).

SIP Approval: Nevada (partial approval and partial disapproval of revisions regarding the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of the 2015 ozone NAAQS and reclassification of a region of the state for emergency episode planning purposes with respect to ozone).

SIP Proposal: New Jersey (revisions related to the 2008 eight-hour ozone NAAQS, including a 2017 calendar year ozone precursor emission inventories for volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide for the Northern New Jersey portion of the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island NY-NJ-CT nonattainment area and the Southern New Jersey portion of the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-MD-DE nonattainment area).

United States v. Bank of America, No. 3:23-cv-02598 (D.N.J. May 15, 2023). A settling CERCLA defendant must perform remedial action relating to vapor intrusion and groundwater at the White Swan Cleaners/Sun Cleaners Area Ground Water Contamination Superfund site in Wall Township, New Jersey; pay the United States $10.8 million for past and future response costs and up to $1.5 million for future oversight costs; and pay a total of $6.5 million to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Department Commissioner, and the Administrator of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund to resolve its liability for past and future costs and for natural resource damages.

EPA determined that the Detroit, Michigan, nonattainment area attained the 2015 ozone NAAQS.

EPA determined that the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, fine particulate matter nonattainment area attained the 2012 fine particulate matter NAAQS by its December 31, 2021, “moderate” area attainment date.

EPA finalized its redesignation of the Detroit, Michigan area to attainment for the 2015 ozone NAAQS.

EPA proposed to establish regulatory requirements for inactive surface impoundments at inactive coal combustion residuals (CCR) facilities (legacy CCR surface impoundments); establish groundwater monitoring, corrective action, closure, and post-closure care requirements for all CCR management units (regardless of how or when that CCR was placed) at regulated CCR facilities; and technical corrections to the existing regulations.

EPA proposed amendments to NESHAPs for plywood and composite wood products, including hazardous air pollutant (HAP) standards for processes currently unregulated for total HAP.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed regulatory amendments that implement congressional mandates in the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2020 to reduce methane emissions from new and existing gas transmission lines, distribution pipelines, regulated gas gathering pipelines, underground natural gas storage facilities, and liquefied natural gas facilities.

HUD and USDA announced and seek comment on a preliminary determination regarding energy efficiency standards for new construction of HUD- and USDA-financed housing as a first step to require compliance with these standards in HUD and USDA housing covered by the Energy Independence and Security Act.

United States v. American Biltrite Inc., No. 1:23-cv-11044 (D. Mass. May 11, 2023). Settling CERCLA defendants must perform the final remedial action for Operable Units 1 and 2, and the interim remedial action for Operable Unit 3, identified in EPA's March 2021 Record of Decision relating to the Olin Chemical Superfund site in Wilmington, Massachusetts; pay the United States’ past and future site-related response costs; and pay the Commonwealth's future site-related response costs.

The Department of State and NOAA seek public comment on the proposed scope for the upcoming United States Ocean Acidification Action Plan, which will highlight leadership in reducing carbon emissions; strengthening monitoring, research, and coordination research efforts; and investing in adaptive measures.

The Rural Utilities Service solicited letters of interest for loan applications to finance power generation projects for renewable energy resource (RER) systems or energy storage systems that support RER Projects, announced the application process for those loans, and provided deadlines for applications from eligible entities under the Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program.

EPA proposed amendments to NESHAPs for Taconite Iron Ore Processing Plants, including proposing emission standards for mercury and revising existing emission standards for hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride.

FWS revised the Mitigation Policy and the ESA Compensatory Mitigation Policy; the former establishes fundamental mitigation principles and provides a framework for applying a landscape-scale approach to achieve, through application of the mitigation hierarchy, no net loss of resources and their values, services, and functions resulting from proposed actions; the latter adopts the mitigation principles established in the Mitigation Policy, establishes compensatory mitigation standards, and provides guidance for the application of compensatory mitigation through implementation of the ESA.

EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement agreement under CERCLA for recovery of response costs incurred at the Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund site in Los Angeles, California.

EPA announced the availability of Volume 3 of the Integrated Review Plan for the Lead National Ambient Air Quality Standards, which is the planning document for quantitative analyses to be considered in the policy assessment, including exposure and risk analyses.

NMFS found that Pacific sardine is still overfished.

SIP Approval: California (revision concerning emissions of volatile organic compounds from solvent cleaning and degreasing operations in the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District).

EPA seeks comment on the accuracy and completeness of the data, ease of use, graphics, and recommendations on future updates for its interactive map of recycling markets that highlights existing recycling infrastructure, per capita generation and recycling of post-consumer materials, and other relevant market factors.

NMFS proposed to designate and authorize the release of nonessential experimental populations of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon in the McCloud and Upper Sacramento Rivers upstream of Shasta Dam, California, and established a limited set of take exceptions for the experimental populations under the ESA.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed to implement §307 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act and amend Regulation Z to address how the Truth in Lending Act applies to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) transactions to account for the unique nature of PACE.

EPA and NOAA proposed to find that Michigan has satisfied all conditions the agencies established as part of their 1997 approval of the state’s coastal nonpoint pollution control program under the CZMA.

FWS initiated five-year status reviews under the ESA for 67 animal and plant species, and requested the submission of scientific and commercial data that has become available since the last review of the species.

FWS reclassified Furbish’s lousewort from endangered to threatened under the ESA and finalized a rule under §4(d) of the Act to provide for conservation of the species.

SIP Approval: Colorado (approval of revisions related to the 2008 eight-hour ozone NAAQS for the Denver Metro/North Front Range serious nonattainment area, and limited approval and limited disapproval of reasonably available control technology revisions).

EPA finalized amendments to the new source performance standards for Automobile and Light-Duty Truck Surface Coating Operations pursuant to the review required by the CAA. 

EPA authorized South Carolina’s changes to its hazardous waste management program under RCRA.

United States v. 3V Sigma USA, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-01832-DCN (D.S.C. May 3, 2023). A settling CAA defendant must perform injunctive relief and pay a $731,250 civil penalty in connection with violations of the NESHAP for Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing at its specialty chemical manufacturing plant in Georgetown, South Carolina.

EPA proposed to authorize changes to South Carolina’s hazardous waste management program under RCRA.

SIP Approval: California (revisions to nonattainment new source review requirements for the 2015 eight-hour ozone NAAQS in the Bay Area Air Quality Management District).

SIP Proposal: West Virginia (updates to incorporation by reference of NAAQS and associated monitoring reference and equivalent methods).

EPA seeks comment to inform the availability of zero emission technologies in the heavy-duty vehicle and port sectors to support development of potentially multiple funding programs under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

SIP Proposal: Missouri (administrative revisions to the Confidential Information Rule).

SIP Proposal: Florida (revisions to provisions that regulate emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and visible emissions for stationary source emission standard applicable to certain fossil fuel steam generators).

SIP Approval: California (revisions to provisions for clean fuels or advanced control technology for boilers for the 2015 ozone NAAQS in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles–South Coast Air Basin nonattainment areas).

DOJ, on behalf of DOI, entered into a proposed settlement agreement under OPA that requires the settling party to pay $400,000 for past assessment costs and implementation of natural resource restoration projects related to the January 23, 2010, discharge of sour crude oil into the Sabine-Neches Waterway in the city of Port Arthur, Texas, at or from the T/V Eagle Otome as a result of its collision with the towboat Dixie Vengeance.

SIP Proposal: Florida (revisions concerning excess emissions during startup, shutdown, and malfunction events and source-specific sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission limits).

The U.S. Geological Survey announced that it, in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Mexico’s La Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, will undertake a two-year regional assessment of biodiversity and climate change, culminating in the first-ever assessment report addressing these two challenges together for the United States, Canada, Mexico, U.S. territories, and Freely Associated States.

EPA proposed new, more stringent emissions standards for criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHG) for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles that would phase-in over model years 2027 through 2032; GHG program revisions; and new standards to control refueling emissions from incomplete medium-duty vehicles, and battery durability and warranty requirements for light-duty and medium-duty plug-in vehicles.

EPA proposed to establish federal water quality standards (WQS) for Indian reservation waters that currently do not have WQS in effect under the CWA, with limited exceptions.

CEQ requested information on Columbia River salmon and other native fish restoration, as well as other relevant information to an ongoing mediation.

EPA proposed to withdraw the existing Texas Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Trading Program provisions and in its place proposed a federal implementation plan that establishes SO2 limits on 12 electric generating units located at six Texas facilities to fulfill requirements of the Regional Haze Rule for the installation and operation of best available retrofit technology requirements for SO2.

FWS designated approximately 78,009 acres in Idaho as critical habitat for slickspot peppergrass under the ESA.

EPA proposed to approve revisions to Louisiana's Underground Injection Control Program that would allow permits for and ensure compliance of geologic carbon sequestration facilities as Class VI wells for primacy under the SDWA.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) proposed to amend and update its regulations for implementing NEPA to better align with its current and near future actions, adjust the level of NEPA review and documentation required for certain actions, and provide more concise descriptions of NASA actions, as well as incorporate updates to existing categorical exclusions.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission promulgated amendments to the sentencing guidelines, policy statements, commentary, and statutory index for federal courts.

EPA proposed measures to address the unreasonable risk of injury to human health presented by methylene chloride under its conditions of use as documented in the Agency's June 2020 Risk Evaluation and November 2022 revised risk determination prepared under TSCA.

United States v. Tesoro Refining & Marketing Co., LLC, No. SA-16-cv-00722 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 27, 2023). Under a proposed first material modification to a 2016 consent decree concerning a petroleum refinery in Martinez, California, a settling CAA defendant must pay a penalty of $27.5 million dollars, implement various injunctive relief to assure compliance with specified emissions standards whether it engages in petroleum refining or renewable fuel production at the facility, and retire emissions credits to mitigate the harm from its violations.

NRC issued Revision 2 to Regulatory Guide 1.89, “Environmental Qualification of Certain Electric Equipment Important to Safety for Nuclear Power Plants,” which provides guidance that the staff of NRC considers acceptable to meet regulatory requirements for environmental qualification of certain electric equipment important to safety.

EPA announced the availability of and seeks comment on the Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution to reduce plastic waste and other post-consumer materials in waterways and oceans, as directed by Congress in §301 of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act.

NMFS initiated a five-year status review under the ESA for the Taiwanese humpback dolphin, and requested submission of any new scientific and commercial data that has become available since the species was listed in 2018.

EPA announced the availability of data on emission allowance allocations to certain units under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule trading programs.

United States v. WES DJ Gathering LLC, No. 1:20-cv-01931-RMR-MEH (D. Colo. Apr. 20, 2023). A settling CAA defendant that allegedly violated leak detection and repair requirements at three natural gas processing plants it owns and operates in Weld County, Colorado, must perform injunctive relief to address the violations, implement mitigation projects to help offset excess emissions caused by the violations, and pay a $3,500,000 civil penalty.

FWS proposed regulations that would codify the process by which the Service establishes drain tile setbacks in wetland easement contracts pursuant to the National Wildlife Refuge Administration Act.

EPA entered into a proposed administrative settlement agreement under CERCLA that requires a settling defendant to pay $5.25 million as partial payment for Agency response costs associated with the ITC Tank Fire Superfund site in Deer Park, Texas.

EPA listed certain substitutes under the Significant New Alternatives Policy program in refrigeration, air conditioning, and fire suppression.

EPA entered into a modified proposed cashout settlement agreement under CERCLA for recovery of response costs at the Delta Shipyard Superfund site in Houma, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.

FWS determined threatened species status for the Big Creek crayfish and the St. Francis River crayfish under the ESA, designated approximately 1,069 river miles in Missouri as critical habitat for the Big Creek crayfish and 1,043 river miles in Missouri as critical habitat for the St. Francis River crayfish, and finalized a rule under §4(d) of the Act that provides measures that are necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of both species.

United States v. MPLX, LP,  No. 2:23-cv-00252-RJS (D. Utah Apr. 20, 2023). A settling CAA defendant must take specified actions to come into compliance with the CAA, pay a civil penalty of $2 million, and take several pollution mitigation actions to reduce volatile organic compound emissions in connection with alleged violations of the Leak Detection and Repair provisions and other requirements in the Act's new source performance standards and NESHAPs.

United States v. Williams Cos., Inc., No. 1:23-cv-00994-KLM (D. Colo. Apr. 20, 2023). Settling CAA defendants must take specified actions to address alleged violations, pay a civil penalty of $3,750,000, and take several pollution mitigation actions to reduce volatile organic compound emissions in connection with alleged violations of the Leak Detection and Repair provisions and other requirements in the Act's new source performance standards and NESHAPs.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service announced its intent to issue a series of revised conservation practice standards in the National Handbook of Conservation Practices (NHCP), and seeks comment on specified conservation practice standards in the NHCP.

EPA proposed to promulgate new greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for heavy-duty highway vehicles starting in model year (MY) 2028 through MY 2032 and to revise certain GHG standards for MY 2027, including updating discrete elements of the Averaging Banking and Trading program; to add warranty requirements for batteries and other components of zero emission vehicles; to revise certain highway heavy-duty vehicle provisions and certain test procedures for heavy-duty engines; and to revise regulations addressing preemption of state regulation of new locomotives and new engines used in locomotives.

EPA proposed amendments to the work practice standards for pressure relief devices, emergency flaring, and degassing of floating roof storage vessels in connection with the Generic Maximum Achievable Control Technology, Organic Liquids Distribution (Non-Gasoline), Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing, and Petroleum Refineries NESHAPs.

FWS determined endangered species status for the South Llano springs moss under the ESA.

SIP Approval: Michigan (revisions to air pollution control rules concerning definitions and air use approval, and removal of rules that are part of Michigan’s Title V Renewable Operating Permit program and that have been moved to other sections of the Michigan Administrative Code).

DOE seeks comment regarding the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s methane mitigation technologies and point source carbon capture research and development activities and regulation of natural gas imports and exports; specifically, the Department seeks information on strategies and technologies that natural gas and liquefied natural gas companies are deploying or could deploy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.

SIP Approval: Oklahoma (revisions related to excess emissions during startup, shutdown, and malfunction events).

The president issued Executive Order No. 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice For All; among other things, the Order reaffirms a commitment to and sets steps for a governmentwide approach to environmental justice, and creates the White House Office of Environmental Justice within CEQ.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management seeks comment on possible commercial wind energy leasing on the outer continental shelf in the Gulf of Maine.

EPA Region 2 entered into a proposed cost recovery settlement agreement under CERCLA concerning the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York.

SIP Proposal: Missouri (partial approval and partial disapproval of revisions to 2016 administrative order for controlling sulfur dioxide emissions at the Lake Road power plant).

FWS determined threatened species status for the Wright’s marsh thistle under the ESA, designated approximately 156.8 acres in New Mexico as critical habitat, and finalized a rule under §4(d) of the Act to provide for conservation of the species.

EPA proposed amendments to new source performance standards that apply to the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry (SOCMI) and to NESHAPs that apply to the SOCMI and Group I and II Polymers and Resins Industries.

United States v. LLOG Exploration Offshore, L.L.C., No. 2:23-cv-01301-WBV-KWR (E.D. La. Apr. 19, 2022). A settling OPA defendant must pay the United States $3.1 million in connection with a crude oil spill that occurred at the Mississippi Canyon Block 209 subsea oil production system in the Gulf of Mexico beginning on or about October 11, 2017.