Western Business Roundtable
The Western Business Roundtable today applauded Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) for his action in filing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution of Disapproval regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act Utility MACT Rule (“Utility MACT”).
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Washington Post
President Obama unveiled his federal budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year on Monday. Here is an agency-by-agency breakdown of the plan. Read More ...
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Legal Newsline
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced a multistate lawsuit seeking to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to revise air quality standards for pollution involving soot. The 11 state coalition took action after the EPA was unable to meet a deadline set for October to revise existing standards, as required by the Clean Air Act. Read More ...
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Courthouse News Service
Texas and Wyoming challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's effort to "immediately impose greenhouse gas regulations" on the states. On appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit, the two states claim the Clean Air Act gives states the primary role in adopting and revising implementation plans, but the EPA has imposed regulations as part of its "greenhouse gas regulatory agenda." Read More ...
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Greenwire
All but four Senate Republicans today backed an upper-chamber plan to undo President Obama's rejection of a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and immediately begin construction of the $7 billion link between Canada's oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries.
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E&E News
President Obama confronted a deeply divided and sluggish Congress last night and pledged to increase clean energy development on public lands. "The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change," Obama said during his State of the Union address. "But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."
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Greenwire
In a move that is angering environmental and public health groups, U.S. EPA is delaying setting new standards for fine particles that come from power plants, automotive tailpipes and factory smokestacks until June 2013. EPA is required to review current science and set standards for fine particle pollution every five years under the Clean Air Act. The agency was supposed to complete its review of fine particles, or soot, by last October, but failed to meet the deadline. Read More ...
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Washington Post Opinions
On Tuesday, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel.”
It added that regulatory “and permitting obstacles that could threaten the development of some energy projects, negatively impact jobs and weaken our energy infrastructure need to be addressed.” Mr. Obama’s Jobs Council could start by calling out . . . the Obama administration. Read More ...
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Bloomberg Businessweek
U.S. Supreme Court justices voiced concern that the Environmental Protection Agency is overreaching in enforcing federal statutes, signaling that they may blunt a favorite agency enforcement tool. Hearing arguments today in a case involving an Idaho couple seeking to build a new home, the justices suggested they are likely to rule that people accused by federal regulators of violating environmental laws have a right to immediately take their case to a federal judge. Read More ...
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Greenwire
A federal judge has blocked a California program aimed at lowering the carbon content of transportation fuels, saying the rule violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause. Judge Lawrence O'Neill of the U.S. District Court in Fresno issued a preliminary injunction Thursday against the low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS), one of the state's major policies aimed at curbing emissions of greenhouse gases. The program, ordered by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in 2007, requires fuel providers to lower the average carbon content of their fuels by 10 percent by 2020 (Greenwire, Aug. 15, 2011). Read More ...
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