Author: Sarah B. Mangelsdorf

EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / PFAS
Posted by:

EPA Continues Removing Confidential Business Info and De Minimis Exemptions for PFAS Chemicals

While ringing in the New Year, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the addition of nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances to the list of chemicals covered by the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) pursuant to the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), making them the latest PFAS that can no longer be claimed as confidential business information. 

These chemicals include the following:

  • Ammonium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA NH4) (3108-42-7)
  • Sodium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA-Na) (3830-45-3)
  • Perfluoro-3-methoxypropanoic acid (377-73-1)
  • 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate acid (27619-97-2)
  • 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate anion (425670-75-3)
  • 6:2
… Continue Reading
Smoke-stacks-view-from-above
Emissions / EPA
Posted by:

Waste Not, Charge Not: EPA Finalizes Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries

The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Nov. 12 its final rule to further reduce methane emissions from oil and gas industries as required under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

In particular, Congress established a Waste Emissions Charge for high-emitting oil and gas facilities once emissions exceed 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Coupled with the final Clean Air Act standards issued in March, the Waste Emission Charge is a central component of EPA’s efforts to reduce methane …

Continue Reading
Freight train on the railroad at sunrise. Aerial view
NEPA
Posted by:

What’s Next For NEPA?

The U.S. Supreme Court last week scheduled oral arguments for December 10 in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, a highly anticipated case that focuses on whether a federal agency should be required to consider environmental effects that it does not have direct authority to regulate and that do not occur near the project itself. 

In other words, the court will determine whether the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires a federal agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the …

Continue Reading
Servers. Servers room data center. Backup, mining, hosting, mainframe, farm and computer rack with storage information. 3d rendering
Clean Power
Posted by:

Big Tech’s Investment in Geothermal Energy Continues to Heat Up

On August 26, Sage Geosystems announced an agreement to supply Meta with 150 MW of geothermal power. Sage will use its proprietary Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) to provide carbon-free power for Meta’s data centers. This makes Meta the latest tech giant to invest in geothermal energy.  In June 2024, Google negotiated a similar deal with NV Energy for 115 MW of geothermal energy to help Google power its Nevada data center.

Data centers typically require ever increasing amounts of energy around the clock, which alternate …

Continue Reading
Hazy morning pollution and dusty smoke and smog atmosphere in Bangkok
EPA
Posted by:

In Aftermath of Supreme Court Decisions in Ohio and Loper, EPA’s Defense of ‘Good Neighbor Plan’ Persists

The Environmental Protection Agency’s implementation of the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards “Good Neighbor Plan” (GNP) was met with a fury of legal challenges (see ELM’s previous coverage of EPA’s GNP here).   

Then, on June 27, the Supreme Court in Ohio v. EPA (Ohio) issued a 5-4 opinion granting a temporary stay of EPA’s implementation of its Good Neighbor Plan (see ELM’s recent coverage of Ohio v. EPA here). However, in another landmark 5-4 decision that same day, the Supreme …

Continue Reading
Supreme_Court
Regulations
Posted by:

Living in a De Novo World – Life after Chevron

On June 28, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. Raimondo Secretary of Commerce, et al., held that federal courts must exercise independent judgment in deciding whether a federal agency has acted within its statutory authority. This decision upends 40 years of precedent set forth by the court’s prior finding in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (“Chevron”). 

Until now, it was well known that Chevron was the legal standard in administrative law for determining …

Continue Reading
AI background graphic
Emerging Issues
Posted by:

AI – Environmental Friend or Foe?

Recently, there’s been much discussion about the potential benefits that artificial intelligence can bring to climate change regulation. 

For example, advanced technology, such as satellite data, is being used to identify large emission events — (see ELM’s recent methane rule finalization coverage here and ELM’s previous AI coverage here). AI also is being used to monitor rising sea levels along the United States’ coastlines — (see ELM’s previous sea level coverage here). 

Less consideration, however, has been given to the potential adverse impacts …

Continue Reading
Smoke emerging from chimneys
Emissions / EPA
Posted by:

Greenhouse Gas Regulation Heats Up as EPA Finalizes Rule for Reducing & Reporting Methane Emissions

After much anticipation, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its final rule this week aimed at cutting methane emissions as well as strengthening and updating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reporting for the oil and gas industries.

Methane is a “super pollutant” that is many times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane also contributes to approximately one third of the global warming from GHGs today, and the oil and natural gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States.  Toward that end, …

Continue Reading
Ecological catastrophe
Emissions / EPA
Posted by:

EPA Finalizes New Rule Requiring More Than 200 Chemical Plants to Reduce Toxic Emissions

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced April 9 a set of final rules under sections 111 and 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to significantly reduce toxic air pollution from more than 200 chemical plants in the United States.

The plants affected make products such as synthetic organic chemicals, plastics, paints, synthetic fabrics, pesticides, petrochemical products, and various polymers and resins, including neoprene. The new rules strengthen protections for communities living near these industrial facilities, especially along the Gulf Coast, and it is anticipated …

Continue Reading
Flames rise from the flare stack towers in South Africa
Emissions
Posted by:

Minimizing Methane: New Studies Find Methane Emissions Significantly Higher than Previously Thought

A new report by the International Energy Agency, released on March 13, found that for the third year in a row, methane released by the fossil fuel industry rose to an almost record high in 2023. 

Methane emissions are a significant contributor to global warming, second only to carbon dioxide. Although methane is better at trapping heat into the atmosphere, trapping almost 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a two-decade period, it is relatively short-lived, making it an attractive way to more efficiently …

Continue Reading