While environmental justice (EJ) concerns continued to drive policymaking in early 2024, EJ efforts increasingly faced headwinds coming from various and sometimes unexpected directions. Below, we will summarize recent...more
I. Background. On February 7, 2024, EPA issued a final rule lowering the annual health-based air quality standard for fine particulates (pm 2.5) to 9 ug/m3 from 12 ug/m3. The Rule will impact industries and many...more
The United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) issued an Order on April 25th denying the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Motion to Transfer the State of Arkansas’s petition...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a final rule in the October 1st Federal Register approving the State of Arkansas’s Regional Haze Five-Year Progress Report. See 84 Fed. Reg. 51986. EPA...more
On May 30, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final memorandum on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) precursor demonstration guidance. Memorandum from Scott Mathias, Acting Director, EPA Air Quality...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published an August 8th Federal Register notice containing a direct final rule that approves revisions to the Arkansas State Implementation Plan (“SIP”). See 83 Fed....more
The United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit addressed a Motion to Stay related to litigation involving application of the Clean Air Act Regional Haze requirements to Arkansas. The Order was issued on March 7th....more
A 2015 EPA rulemaking required 36 states to revise their State Implementation Plans (“SIPs”) to eliminate provisions exempting air emission exceedances during periods of startup, shutdown, or malfunction (the “SSM SIP Call...more
Time to Pay More: EPA Increases Maximum Civil Penalties - Remember the days when the maximum civil penalty EPA could assess for a violation of environmental law was $25,000 per day? Those days disappeared 26 years ago...more