PA Environment Daily

NOVEMBER 3, 2024

Here are 108 new stories in the PA Environment Digest about individuals, groups, local governments, farmers, businesses, watershed groups and many more working all across Pennsylvania to restore and protect the environment and show others the beauty that surrounds us. Thank you for your leadership! -- Penn State Ag Council Recognizes Cong.

Conservation

Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 21, 2025

The report provides renewed evidence of the consequences for our health of using fossil fuels In 1970 the Clean Air Act and the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were given authority by Congress to regulate pollution from passenger cars and other forms of transportation. From 2000 to 2020, national PM 2.5

Ozone

PA Environment Daily

JUNE 26, 2025

On June 25, Appalachian Voices and a coalition of nonprofits, Tribes and local governments sued the Trump administration for unlawfully terminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant programs despite a congressional directive to fund them.

Government

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 24, 2024

Standards for cars should be set by the Department of Transportation alone; EPA should limit itself to regulating emissions from automobile air conditioning systems. 627-629] And the federal government should stop funding mass transit. [p. California should not be allowed to limit CO2 from cars either. [pp. Download as PDF

2025

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

A: The Clean Air Act gives EPA the power to regulate emissions from new cars and trucks. But theres an exemption for states that were already regulating vehicle emissions before the Clean Air Act was passed – which only California was doing. Q: That explains EPAs role.

Clean Air Act

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 1, 2025

This would ensure that manufacturers are only compliant with the least protective regulation in any given year, including a provision that would actually allow manufacturers to simply buy their way out of compliance with the Clean Air Act, something that is explicitly disallowed under current law.

Clean Air Act

Law Columbia

JANUARY 22, 2025

EPA (concerning light- and medium-duty vehicle emission standards), that bring the unique perspective of cities and other local governments before the courts. In particular, we discuss the severe adverse effects that heavy-duty vehicles have on local air pollution and public health in cities, and especially in disadvantaged communities.

Clean Air Act

Legal Planet

JANUARY 13, 2025

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar delivered the federal governments official response in December. Shell on behalf of all the companies responded that the Solicitor General had effectively reversed the governments position that the Clean Air Act preempts claims in these climate cases. 7401 et seq. 7401 et seq.

Clean Air Act

Legal Planet

APRIL 24, 2025

ISRs are especially powerful because local air districts dont have very many effective ways to tackle pollution from mobile sources, which is typically the province of the federal government. The ISRs of both San Joaquin Valley and South Coast withstood legal challenges in both state and federal courts.

Air Pollution

Legal Planet

MAY 1, 2025

My hypothesis is that if Zeldin and NAM are right, the biggest environmental decisions should nudge the unemployment rate up or down by half a point or more, both because of their direct economic impact and because they signal the governments commitment to increasing or decreasing regulation more broadly.

Regulations

Legal Planet

APRIL 11, 2025

The Constitutionas an 18th Century text, notoriously silent on energy and climate policyexplicitly reserves to the states all rights not granted to the federal government. Indeed, federal law and the Constitution can and do restrict the ability of state and local governments to conduct very specific aspects of energy policy.

Law

Vermont Law

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

This framework allows state environmental laws passed pursuant to a federal environmental law, like the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) or Clean Air Act (“CAA”), to have the force and effect of federal law if the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) approves the state implementation plans.

Law

Law Columbia

JULY 7, 2025

The OBBB Act ushers in a consequential shift for local governments and community groups building clean energy projects, investing in electric vehicles (EVs) and, in some instances, navigating IRA grant programs. This post focuses on developments and considerations specific to local governments and community partners.

2026

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 17, 2025

We can rebuild it—we have the technology (and lax regulations) Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency sets emissions standards for engines in new locomotives. But it isn’t just the waiver request where the federal government has been missing in action. For example, the rail industry leads to $3.3

Regulations

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Californias power under the federal Clean Air Act to cut pollutants from cars and trucks is unquestionable and longstanding. And thats exactly what the Advanced Clean Car II rule would do for cars and light trucks. Without the ACC II rule, Southern California will be that much further out of compliance with federal law.

Clean Air Act

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 21, 2025

Decades of government vehicle standards to improve vehicle efficiency and cut down on tailpipe pollution have saved car and truck drivers trillions of dollars at the pump, saved countless lives from reduced exposure to toxic air pollution , and avoided the extraction and burning of billions of barrels of oil. In the U.S.,

Nitrogen Oxides

PA Environment Daily

NOVEMBER 3, 2024

4 - Repurposing Underutilized Lands For Energy - Marginal Farmlands, Abandoned Mine Sites, Brownfields [PaEN] -- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Highlights Upcoming Events, Programs In November -- PA Resources Council To Hold Nov. 12 [PaEN] -- PA Assn. . -- PA Forestry Assn. 138th Annual Symposium - What Makes A Healthy Forest; Awards Program Nov.

Air Pollution

PA Environment Daily

NOVEMBER 24, 2024

Here are 156 new stories in the PA Environment Digest about individuals, groups, local governments, farmers, businesses, watershed groups and many more working all across Pennsylvania to restore and protect the environment and show others the beauty that surrounds us. DEP Announce $5.275 Million In Penalties, Plus $1.4

Conservation

Circle of Blue

APRIL 21, 2025

The agencies and institutions that sustained Americas program of environmental protection are being pulled into the government-wide purge of people and policies viewed as a threat to Trumps authoritarian impulses, and what his aides call the woke and weaponized bureaucracy.

Earth Day

Legal Planet

JUNE 30, 2025

The Constitution typically empowers (though doesn’t require) Congress to preempt state law in areas where the federal government has and exercises prime authority. Simultaneously barring states from taking action in the vacated arena is comically misaligned with our federal system and basic principles of government.

Regulations

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

Heres what governments can do. Cleaning up the ports Nearly 80% of cargo entering the U.S. Ports and governments can facilitate the change through incentive programs , charging a per-container fee on polluting drayage trucks, and taking advantage of federal and state grants.

Electricity

Law Columbia

JANUARY 24, 2025

Still, they set in motion a range of near- and medium-term actions that the Trump administration will take to undercut the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), eliminate the Justice40 commitment, and roll back other federal climate and clean energy programs. Still, broader uncertainty around tax credits remains. In addition to EO No.

Paris Agreement

National Law Center

JUNE 10, 2025

The term “final agency action” comes from the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal law that governs agency procedure, and is defined as an agency action that is “made reviewable by statute” or “for which there is no other adequate remedy” other than in a court of law. 5 U.S.C. § The plaintiff in CTM Holdings, LLC v.

2013

Legal Planet

MAY 19, 2025

Senate may vote this week to revoke California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to cut pollution from cars and trucks. The Senate vote is on a resolution to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn three separate waivers EPA granted California to cut pollutants from cars and trucks.

Ozone

PA Environment Daily

MARCH 25, 2025

Read more here ] The Grand Jurys two-year investigation uncovered systematic failure by government agencies in overseeing the fracking industry and fulfilling their responsibility to protect Pennsylvanians from the inherent risks of industry operations. million in restitution for Pennsylvania landowners. Read more here.]

2014

Circle of Blue

JULY 8, 2025

Led by new public concern about the consequences of industrialization, landmark environmental legislation in the 1970s steadily assured protections for air, water, and wildlands. The collateral damage of nation-building was paid little heed by the federal government and larger public. ” Before 2024, experts at the U.S

Endangered Species Act

Legal Planet

JULY 29, 2025

Trump and Zeldin should be careful what they wish for: if the Clean Air Act can’t be used to regulate greenhouse gases, then states may be free to do so on their own without any risk of preemption,” Carlson says. My colleagues Ann Carlson, Mary Nichols, and Cara Horowitz have been talking with media about what this means.

Fossil Fuels

Circle of Blue

MARCH 19, 2025

This month, in a series of despicable announcements, the EPAs newest senior leader set out to end the federal governments essential role in conserving natural resources and scrubbing poisons from air and water. The statutes that form the foundation of the program, like the 1972 Clean Water Act, dont seek to close polluting plants.

Clean Air Act

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 26, 2025

Over the past few months, we have witnessed a massive dismantling of science and scientific processes in the federal government, and especially at the U.S. Government Accountability Offices (GAO) High-Risk Series. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is a mischaracterization of the challenges faced by IRIS.

Toxic Substances Control Act

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 7, 2025

It’s galling to watch the US government so thoroughly debase itself as it sacrifices the public good to boost the bottom line of fossil fuel executives,” my colleague Julie McNamara said in a statement on the proposals. We need EPA to act to limit this health-harming pollution and stop looking for ways to evade that responsibility.

Climate Change

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

government no lomger cares whether its actions impose disproportionate health burdens on poor or minority communities. Trump has launched a frontal assault on the government agencies charged with protecting the environment. He also abolished all environmental justice offices. Political action is key here. Kneecapping Agencies.

Paris Agreement

Law Columbia

OCTOBER 18, 2024

The Sabin Center’s two briefs highlight (1) the crucial role that local governments play in responding to the climate crisis and how EPA’s Power Plant Rules support local climate action; and (2) the maturity of CCS technology which will allow EPA’s standards to be met at power plants. billion metric tons of carbon pollution through 2047.

2024

Legal Planet

MARCH 13, 2025

The statute governing efficiency standards provides that: The Secretary [of Energy] may not prescribe any amended standard which increases the maximum allowable energy use, or, in the case of showerheads, faucets, water closets, or urinals, water use, or decreases the minimum required energy efficiency, of a covered product.

Clean Air Act

National Law Center

JULY 24, 2025

The new law includes several provisions typically associated with the Farm Bill, the omnibus spending bill that governs various agricultural and food programs in the United States. The OBBBA includes provisions related to agricultural commodity programs, nutrition programs, tax policies, and conservation programs.

2013

Legal Planet

MARCH 10, 2025

In West Virginia , the Court rejected an argument by state governments that they were ultimately in charge of setting emission standards for individual plants. First, its unlikely that the Trump EPA will be able to give the states so much control of setting standards for individual plants.

Carbon Emissions

Law Columbia

APRIL 30, 2025

The first 100 days of the second Trump administration have proved volatile for local governments working to advance ambitious climate action. Several preliminary injunctions may apply to grants and other forms of federal financial assistance that flow to or impact local governments.

Government

Legal Planet

APRIL 15, 2025

Meanwhile, EPA has posted a roster of nearly 50 coal-fired power plants that took the administrations offer on the Email us for a free pass on compliance with the Clean Air Act. (That could backfire on the administrations own goals for energy dominance and AI agenda even the Washington Examiner reported. Deep breath.

Law