Author: Daniel L. Klein

Solar and wind energy farm
President Biden / Regulations
Posted by:

Everything Clean is New Again

The pendulum of policy on the environment was sent pounding back toward regulation again when the Biden administration issued new directives for greenhouse gas emissions.

The Interim Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change (“Interim Guidance”) seeks to:

  • Clarify best practices for assessing greenhouse gases under the National Environmental Policy Act;
  • Fast-track evaluation of renewable energy projects, and;
  • Recommend reduction of harmful greenhouse gases by federal agencies. (One of the ways it does this is by requiring federal interaction and engagement with
… Continue Reading
Man inserts a power cord into an electric car for charging
Electric Vehicles / President Biden
Posted by:

New Environmental Auto Regs Running on Empty?

The Biden administration in April gave a large boost to vehicle-fuel-economy standards when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced its intention to increase Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (“CAFE”) standards by 8 percent for the 2024 and 2025 model years, and 10 percent in 2026.

This aggressive initiative took a large step in reversing the Trump administration’s rollback of regulations targeting gas mileage and pollution reduction put in place during the Obama era. However, this large step also may have just tripped over the …

Continue Reading
batteries
Emerging Issues
Posted by:

The Future’s So Bright…Because My Tech Just Lit on Fire

The principals of electrochemical power have been known for more than 200 years. Two specific chemicals are stored in a battery, separated by a third chemical called an “electrolyte.” When placed in a closed circuit (the device needing power), one of the chemicals reacts with the electrolyte and produces a higher concentration of electrons at the negative terminal, the “anode,” than at the positive terminal, the “cathode.” The electrons then run from the anode, through the device powering it, to the cathode, until the concentration …

Continue Reading
EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / Litigation
Posted by:

Federal Lawsuit claims the US EPA has become ‘inert’ when it comes to judging pesticide ingredients

Last week, four environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing  to assess the hard-data consequences of pesticides in its approval process. 

 Back in 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) created lists of pesticides, dividing inert ingredients into four categories based on their toxicological concern; List 1-Inerts of toxicological concern, List 2-Potentially toxic inerts/high priority for testing, List 3-Inerts of unknown toxicity, and List 4-Inerts of minimal concern. 

 Despite this list clearly demonstrating that the EPA has been aware—for decades—of the potential for …

Continue Reading
Fracking / Pennsylvania
Posted by:

PA GOP Can’t Crack Anti-Frack

The Delaware River Basin Commission (“DRBC”), the first government-and-state joint venture in river basin planning since the birth of the nation, itself, won a substantial—but narrow—victory on Friday when the 3rd Circuit ruled that individual state senators did not have standing to challenge the fracking ban in Northern PA inacted by DRBC in February of 2021.

The DRBC was created in 1961 when the governors of New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania joined President Kennedy and signed concurrent legislation creating a regional legal …

Continue Reading
Clean Air Act / EPA
Posted by:

The Pendulum Swings Back Again on Clean Air

In June 1989, then-President George H. W. Bush proposed revisions to the Clean Air Act designed to reduce what were perceived as three of the largest threats to the environment at the time: toxic air emissions, acid rain, and urban air pollution.

More specifically, Section 112r of what became the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 required the EPA to publish guidance and regulations for chemical accident prevention by entities using compounds that posed the greatest risk of harm from accidental releases. These regulations were …

Continue Reading
Emissions / EPA
Posted by:

DC Circuit asked to say “ethaNO” to biofuel increases

Anything that reduces fuel emissions has to be good for the environment, right? WRONG!

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is facing precisely this seeming anomaly, being asked by the Center for Biological Diversity (“CBD”) this past Wednesday to “review” (read: “halt” or “stop”) the Biden administration’s fuel blending standards, which they claim are a risk to endangered species.

For context, we go back 17 years to when the EPA enacted the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which required transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel …

Continue Reading
CERCLA / EPA
Posted by:

Superfund: An Unsung Victim of COVID

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) — commonly known as “the Superfund” — was enacted in December 1980 in response to growing awareness of, and concern over, the catastrophic environmental impact of unregulated and largely unrestricted dumping of toxic waste into the ecosystems and communities around dump sites.

Executed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund represented the first federally regulated attempt to address these environmental issues — principally through short-term removal actions, such as properly disposing of partially empty drums of toxic …

Continue Reading
Clean Air Act / EPA
Posted by:

EPA Puts Ethanol Back in Play to Keep Gas Prices at Bay

On April 29, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially suspended the ban on sales of gasoline blends with a higher concentration of ethanol. This suspension came two weeks after President Biden’s vow to lift the ban in order to counteract the increased gas prices attributed to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. The suspension went into effect on May 1.

E15, or fuel with 15% ethanol, is traditionally banned during the warmer months—June through October—in an effort to combat the production of smog. In the current …

Continue Reading
EPA
Posted by:

EPA Seeks to Drive Down Heavy Truck Emissions

The last time the EPA tightened standards for truck emissions like this, the century was barely a year old and Bill Clinton was still President; in December of 2000 the EPA issued rules dramatically limiting particulate matter (PM) emissions and Nitric Oxide (NOx) on heavy duty trucks to go into effect for 2007-2010. PM has been shown to cause eye, nose, lung, and throat irritation, as well as exacerbating existing breathing problems. NOx, has similarly been linked to chronically-reduced lung function and increased risk of …

Continue Reading