A motion (#375) passed by the Joint Finance Committee (12-4) limiting the ability of environmental groups to challenge high-capacity well permits will help reduce regulatory uncertainty and create jobs, while continuing to protect the environment.

The Heritage Foundation has released a new white paper, “Red Tape Rising: Regulations in Obama’s First Term,” which analyzes the number and cost of regulations enacted during Pres. Obama’s first term.

EPA has proposed to significantly reduce emissions of conventional air pollutants from cars and trucks while at the same time reducing the amount of sulfur in the nation’s gasoline supply. The new rules, which are known as “Tier 3” emissions and fuel standards, attempt to harmonize federal emissions requirements with California state requirements, creating one national market for automobiles.

The EPA has formally proposed revisions to its effluent guidelines for stormwater discharges from construction and development point sources. The proposed rule would make several revisions to the non-numeric requirements of the existing rule, as well as withdraw the numeric discharge standards.

On March 28, EPA finalized revisions to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS (also known as “Utility MACT”) for new power plants, which were originally promulgated in February 2012.

A new blog post by Will Haun on the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review, Suing, Settling, and the Separation of Powers, outlines the path some federal agencies are taking to avoid the formal rulemaking process and Congressional oversight. The blog takes an academic look at "'sue to settle' – an effort led by activist groups and some state governments to sue federal agencies in the hope of a settlement to enact rules favorable to the plaintiff’s goals. These settlements, some assert, sometimes exceed the underlying legal authority of the involved federal agency."

The EPA has released its long-awaited proposed rule for regulating pollution discharges into waters of the United States from 1,200 power plants nationwide, as well as from any new plants.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released its draft 2013 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Regulations, covering regulatory activity through the end of fiscal year 2012. Susan E. Dudley, Director of the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University, questions some of the report’s methodology.

The EPA, Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), and various co-defendants and co-plaintiffs, have entered into a settlement agreement which will significantly alter Wisconsin’s energy generation portfolio and cost over a billion dollars. This action is part of a larger EPA plan to “eliminate or minimize emissions from coal-fired power plants, cement plants, glass plants and acid plants, which have been shown to seriously affect human health and the environment, by ensuring that there are no under-controlled coal-fired electric generating units, cement, acid, or glass plants.”

The Federalist Society has unveiled a new website aimed at sparking debate on executive overreach.

Sofie E. Miller, a policy analyst at George Washington University's Regulatory Studies Center, exposes the failure of the federal retrospective review of rules to generate benefits for the regulated community. Miller's analysis, summarized in Reducing Burdens? Tier 3 Tells Another Story, found that agencies may be adding new regulatory hurdles under the cover of the review program.
 

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has been a critic of government over-reach since taking office in 2011, now he is taking on excessive regulation as a specific target for reform with his new Victims of Government Project.

A recent report prepared the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the request of the EPA explores how government officials should make regulatory decisions when they lack perfect answers to key questions.

In his State of the Union address, Pres. Obama exhorted Congress to adopt a “bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change” and warned that if “Congress won’t act soon” he will direct his Cabinet to come up with “executive actions.” Various analyses of what the President's options might be are now being released.

The Obama administration issued $236 billion worth of new regulations last year, according to a report from American Action Forum.

The EPA has filed its response brief in White Stallion Energy Center, LLC v. EPA, defending its Utility Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (Utility MATS) Rule from challenges from both industry and environmental groups that charge it is too strict and not strict enough, respectively.

The EPA has sent its draft proposal for effluent guidelines for power plants to the OMB. The guidelines will regulate wastewater discharges from steam electric generation power plants – including using coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear fuels. The agency is subject to an April 19 court deadline to issue a proposed rule.

Additional information on effluent guidelines for power plants is available on this Great Lakes Legal Foundation webpage.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has declined to rehear EME Homer City Generation LP v. EPA, the case in which the court vacated the EPA’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR).

EPA officials have announced that the agency will issue another notice of data availability before it can promulgate a final rule addressing coal combustion residuals from coal-fired power plants.

Although no timeline has been announced, BNA Bloomberg is reporting that Mathy Stanislaus, EPA assistant administrator for solid waste and emergency response, has said that the EPA will attempt to align the coal ash regulations with upcoming effluent guidelines for coal-fired power plants to the “greatest extent possible.” Environmental groups agreed in December to extend a court-ordered deadline to April 19, 2013, for the effluent guidelines proposed rule.
 

In Natural Resource Defense Council v. EPA (D.C. Cir. No. 08-1250 et al.), the D.C. Circuit ordered EPA to revise its rules governing how states implement the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5).