The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control proposed amendments to regulations governing the Title V State Operating Permit Program. The amendments would remove emergency affirmative defense provisions and references to maintain consistency with current federal requirements. A hearing will be held April 25, 2024. Comments are due the same date.
The Structural Pest Control Board proposed amendments to regulations governing fumigation and pesticide use standards and record requirements. The amendments would streamline reporting requirements for structural pest control applications by relocating information into a new standardized form, incorporating industry standards such as time of application and pesticide identification, clarifying supervision requirements for non-certified applicators, and making non-substantive edits for clarity. Comments are due May 14, 2024.
The Energy Commission proposed amendments to regulations governing building energy efficiency standards. The amendments would, among other things, introduce and update prescriptive heat pump requirements for various building types, update standards for solar photovoltaic systems and energy storage, increase efficiency standards for building envelopes and conditioning systems, improve indoor air quality requirements, establish electric-ready requirements for domestic water heating systems, and increase efficiency standards for laboratories.
The Air Resources Board proposed amendments to the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation and the Zero Emission Powertrain Certification test procedure.
United States v. Abex Aerospace, No. 2:16-cv-02696 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 29, 2024). Under a third amendment to a proposed consent decree, additional settling CERCLA defendants must pay $20,500,000 toward cleanup of environmental contamination at the Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund Site in Los Angeles County, California.
United States v. Intercontinental Terminals Co., LLC., No. 4:24-cv-01207 (S.D. Tex. Apr. 2, 2024). Under a proposed consent decree, a settling CERCLA defendant must pay $6,645,000 to restore, replace, rehabilitate, or acquire the equivalent of those resources injured by the releases of hundreds of thousands of barrels of a mixture of petrochemical products and firefighting foam and water into the environment as a result of a fire that ignited at a terminal facility in Deer Park, Harris County, Texas.
SIP Approval: District of Columbia (removal of requirements for gasoline vapor recovery systems installed on gasoline dispensers).
FWS revised its regulations concerning protections of endangered and threatened species under the ESA by reinstating the general application of the "blanket rule'' option for protecting newly listed threatened species pursuant to §4(d) of the Act, with the continued option to promulgate species-specific §4(d) rules, and extending to federally recognized tribes the exceptions to prohibitions for threatened species that the regulations currently provide to the employees or agents of FWS and other federal and state agencies to aid, salvage, or dispose of threatened species.
FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §4 of the ESA, concerning procedures and criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species on the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants and designating critical habitat.
FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §7 of the ESA concerning interagency cooperation procedures.