Latest news with #CleanAirCouncil
E&E News
4 days ago
- Business
- E&E News
Enviros sue to halt EPA break for coke-makers
A coalition of environmental groups is suing to stop the Trump administration from giving makers of a distilled coal product a break on compliance with Clean Air Act requirements. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by the Pennsylvania-based Clean Air Council and a half-dozen other challengers, contests the administration's decision last month to allow coke manufacturers more time to meet the requirements contained in hazardous air pollution regulations. Those requirements were updated last year during former President Joe Biden's tenure. Included in the regulations was a mandate for coke companies to begin tracking airborne concentrations of cancer-causing benzene around their plants' fence lines. As grounds for the postponement, EPA endorsed industry concerns about the feasibility of the original timetable. Advertisement Coke is used as blast furnace fuel by the dwindling number of steel plants that turn iron ore into finished steel. The bulk of the coke industry's 11 facilities are located in the Midwest; besides benzene, their emissions may include cyanide compounds, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, according to data reported to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory.
E&E News
01-08-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Enviros ask court to block compliance break for steelmakers
EPA did an unlawful end run around public notice requirements in recently giving two leading steel manufacturers a compliance break, environmental groups allege in urging a federal court to swiftly reject it. By tapping a rarely used procedural ploy known as an 'interim final rule' to provide the compliance extension, EPA violated the Clean Air Act's requirements to first give the public a heads-up and the opportunity to weigh in, the Clean Air Council and four other organizations said in a motion filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They asked the court to either throw out or stay the interim rule, which gives Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel until April 2027 to meet stricter hazardous air pollutant limits that had been scheduled to take effect this year and 2026. Advertisement The case could provide an early test of the Trump administration's reliance on interim final rules at EPA as part of a broader strategy to benefit industry. It's a step that's generally supposed to be reserved for emergencies, but just this month, the agency has also taken that route in granting the aerosol spray paint industry and manufacturers of coke, a distilled form of coal, similar compliance extensions.
E&E News
10-07-2025
- Health
- E&E News
Enviros sue to compel crackdown on use of refinery chemical
Environmental groups want a federal judge to order an EPA crackdown on the risks posed by oil refineries' reliance on hydrogen fluoride, a potentially lethal compound used in making high-octane gasoline. Hydrogen fluoride 'is so acutely toxic that exposing just 1% of skin to liquid HF — about a hand's worth — can be a death sentence,' the Clean Air Council and two other organizations wrote in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. At least 40 refineries around the United States still use the chemical, the suit says, adding that a worst-case accident at some of them could lead to a toxic cloud threatening hundreds of thousands of nearby residents. Advertisement 'Because HF is hazardous to all life, a refinery-related release could destroy crops, livestock, wildlife, and natural areas,' the challengers added, noting that a 2019 explosion at the now defunct Philadelphia Energy Solutions facility released more than 5,000 pounds of hydrogen fluoride and injured five workers.
