Environmental Protection Agency August 10, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) will hold a public webinar briefing on August 26, 2021. The purpose of the webinar will be for an Opportunity Zones Practitioner Panel for the EFAB Opportunity Zones Workgroup. Due to interest from the full Board, this webinar is being opened to the public.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing approval of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by Missouri on January 19, 2021. Missouri requests that the EPA approve into Missouri's SIP revisions to its rule related to control of emissions from Batch-Type Charcoal Kilns. These revisions correct an erroneous reference, update, correct and clarify references to test methods, remove unnecessary words, and make other grammatical and typographical corrections. These revisions are administrative in nature and do not impact the stringency of the SIP or have an adverse impact to air quality. The EPA's proposed approval of this rule revision is being done in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to revise the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for light-duty vehicles for 2023 and later model years to make the standards more stringent. On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 13990 ``Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis'' directing EPA to consider whether to propose suspending, revising, or rescinding the standards previously revised under the ``The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021-2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks,'' promulgated in April 2020. The SAFE rule significantly weakened the standards established in 2012, which in part set GHG standards for model years 2021-25. EPA believes that in light of the significant contribution of light-duty vehicles to transportation sector GHG emissions, standards more stringent than those relaxed in the SAFE rule are appropriate under the Clean Air Act. EPA is proposing to revise the GHG standards to be more stringent than the SAFE rule standards in each model year from 2023 through 2026. EPA is also proposing to include several flexibilities to incentivize the production and sale of vehicles with zero and near-zero emissions technology to reduce compliance costs and to address the lead time of the proposed standards. In addition, EPA is proposing some technical amendments to clarify and streamline our regulations. Compliance with the proposed standards would be feasible at reasonable costs to manufacturers. The proposed revised standards would result in significant benefits for public health and welfare, primarily through substantial reductions in both GHG emissions and fuel consumption and associated fuel costs paid by drivers, and the benefits of the proposed standards would be far in excess of costs.