Our team at Squire Patton Boggs monitors developments surrounding the heavy-duty vehicle and engine sector. Our last blog post on this topic covered updates on US EPA’s proposed Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards and California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) rulemaking for off-road diesel engine regulations. In this … Continue Reading
Today, US EPA proposed a rule to roll back the Obama Administration’s rule to control methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are equivalent to the emissions of one-quarter of all cars in the US, according to US EPA data. Methane emissions are also known to … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 19-181 (SB19-181) into law. SB19-181 was a controversial bill as it made its way through the Colorado Legislature, and it is now a controversial piece of legislation. Indeed, SB19-181 passed the Colorado Legislature strictly along party lines, and it has now pitted some … Continue Reading
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a statement on May 18, 2018 clarifying that the Agency will only analyze both upstream and downstream environmental effects of pipeline Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions when those effects are “sufficiently causally connected to and are reasonably foreseeable effects of the proposed actions.” The policy statement was part of … Continue Reading
On October 16, 2017, US EPA, under Administrator Scott Pruitt, proposed the repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), and the Agency is accepting comments on the repeal until April 26, 2018. Following a review of the statute’s language, surrounding policy, and legislative history, US EPA proposed to “return to a reading of CAA section 111(a)(1) … as … Continue Reading
As discussed in our recent blog post and client alert, the proposed Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources (ESPS) has now been published in the Federal Register. This publication commences the 120 day comment period. Comments on the proposed rule must be received by US EPA on or before October 16, 2014.… Continue Reading
As detailed in our recent Client Alert, the Obama Administration, in an effort to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, has released a proposed rule that, if finalized, will require 30% reductions of CO2 emissions from 2005 emission levels from existing power plants by the year 2030. The proposed existing source performance standard (ESPS) purports to … Continue Reading
US EPA has its work cut out for it as the Agency begins to review over 10,000 comments submitted concerning its proposed 2013 Clean Air Act New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for new power plants through the close of the comment period on May 9, 2014. US EPA’s work begins just as it plans to release its proposed … Continue Reading
On March 10, 2014, US EPA published proposed revisions to its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting requirements for petroleum and natural gas sources under the GHG Reporting Program. The Program, which was enacted in 2008, collects GHG data from facilities that conduct petroleum and natural gas systems activities, including production, processing, transmission, and distribution and produce … Continue Reading
On February 3, 2014, the US Department of Energy (USDOE) issued a pre-publication version of its final rule on energy conservation standards for external power supplies (EPS). EPS converts household electric current into direct current or lower-voltage alternating current to operate a consumer product, such as a laptop computer or smart phone. There are hundreds … Continue Reading
As a follow up to our previous report, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has extended the public comment period on the Obama Administration’s November 2013 technical support document (TSD) on the social cost of carbon (SCC) by 30 days to February 26, 2014. The extension came in response to requests by industry for more time … Continue Reading
On 5 December 2013 the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Autumn Statement for 2013. The environmental measures it contained had largely been announced in the run up to the budget statement, so there were no real surprises on the day. The main environmental announcements were: Allowance prices for the next round of sales under … Continue Reading
Today the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published notice of its request for comment on the Technical Support Document (TSD) for the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC). While OMB is seeking input on “all aspects of the TSD and its use of integrated assessment models (IAMs) to estimate SCC values to support agency regulatory … Continue Reading
In June, we wrote about the Obama Administration increasing the Social Cost of Carbon. Predictably, people were unhappy about being informed of the increase through a regulatory impact analysis that dealt with energy efficiency standards for microwave ovens. The lackluster reveal attracted so much attention that the Obama Administration recently announced that it will provide … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, October 15, 2013, the Supreme Court agreed to review whether EPA took an unreasonable leap by determining that its regulation of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions from new motor vehicles (the “Tailpipe Rule”) automatically triggered a statutory requirement for EPA to regulate GHG emissions from stationary sources. (See Squire Sanders’ frESH Blog Post discussing … Continue Reading
In a 2-1 ruling last week, the D.C. Circuit said the Environmental Protection Agency had failed to explain why it was treating biogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions differently than other sources, and vacated the rule giving biomass power plants reprieve from carbon dioxide emission standards until July 2014. Squire Sanders Partner Allen Kacenjar discusses … Continue Reading
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week affirmed dismissal of the plaintiffs’ common law tort claims in the case Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.,[1] one of the first cases seeking to impose common law tort liability on emitters of greenhouse gasses for their alleged contribution to global climate change, and a … Continue Reading
On April 19, 2013, a Texas-led state coalition filed a petition with the US Supreme Court requesting review of the D.C. Circuit’s June 26, 2012 decision upholding USEPA’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) rules. That decision (summarized here) upheld the agency’s Endangerment Finding and Tailpipe Rule before determining that state and industry opponents lacked standing to challenge … Continue Reading
