This guidance used to be just a glimmer in the commission’s eye. But as of May 17th, it’s official. That’s when FERC released its Policy Statement on the Commission’s Role Regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The Policy Statement specifically explains how FERC will provide advice to the EPA for it [...]
Archive for the ‘EPA’ Category
30 Mar
Shell a Step Closer to Arctic Drilling
On Wednesday, the Department of the Interior announced approval of Shell’s oil spill response plan for its Arctic drilling plans, another milestone in the oil giant’s years-long efforts to drill in the Arctic. For now, Shell has its eyes on two sites for Arctic drilling. Off the north coast of Alaska lie the shallow waters [...]
20 Mar
EPA Sued Over Nutrient Pollution in the Mississippi River Basin and Northern Gulf of Mexico
Law Firm Faegre Baker Daniels sent out a Legal Update this week detailing two complaints filed simultaneously against the EPA over actions (and inactions) taken in regards to nitrogen and phosphorus runoff in the Mississippi River. One complaint (Gulf Restor’n Network v. Jackson, E.D. La., No. 2: 12-cv-00677), filed March 13 in the U.S. District [...]
12 Mar
EPA to End Support of Voluntary Disclosures?
This just in from Seyfarth Shaw: The U.S. EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance has issued its draft guidance on the Fiscal Year 2013 enforcement program [...] The FY 2013 Draft Guidance identifies EPA’s intent to significantly cut back traditional federal enforcement strategies across all major federal environmental programs, and to eliminate the voluntary [...]
9 Mar
Back to the Drawing Well: EPA Calls for Further Sampling of Pavillion, WY Monitoring Wells
In December 2011 came the controversial draft report on ground water contamination near Pavillion, Wyoming. Responding to complaints of “objectionable taste and odor problems” in area well water, the EPA launched an investigation of Pavillion’s water quality. Many of the town’s private wells overlie the Pavillion gas field, on which 169 production wells extract gas [...]
31 Jan
FERC Waxes Poetic on Advising EPA about MATS Extensions
The same day that the EPA released the final rule on Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants, it also published a Policy Memorandum outlining how it intended to handle requests for extensions in complying with the new rule. Yesterday, FERC announced how they intended to give the EPA a hand. Section 112(i)(3) [...]
26 Jan
Does Your Environmental Impact Statement Raise Environmental Objections from the EPA?
Many Knowledge Mosaic subscribers are probably intimately familiar with SEC Comment Letters, in which SEC staff review and comment on selected EDGAR filings. But did you know there’s a similar review process for environmental impact statements filed with the EPA? The EPA reviews and rates draft EISs in two main ways: the environmental impact of [...]
6 Jan
D.C. Circuit Puts Cross-State Air Pollution Rule on Hold
Implementation of the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”), requiring states to reduce power plant emissions that contribute to air pollution in other states, has been put on hold by a December 30th ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Until the court’s review of the rule’s validity is complete, [...]
5 Jan
Superfund Spotlight: Gowanus Canal
On Tuesday, the EPA announced the release of a draft feasibility study assessing the options for cleaning up the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. The Gowanus Canal has been on the EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List since March of 2010. After hosting on its banks manufactured gas plants, mills, tanneries and chemical plants for several [...]
6 Dec
EPA Initiates Proposed Rulemaking Process to Obtain Fracking Fluid Data
On November 23, 2011 the EPA issued a letter partially granting a petition from the environmental group Earthjustice requesting disclosure and evaluation of the fluids and chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Earthjustice had submitted the petition in August 2011 on behalf of more than 100 public health, environmental, [...]
