Air & Climate Report: April 2021
One hundred days in, the Biden administration is still getting tuned up. But, with several key officials now in place, the announcement of new air and climate initiatives has begun. The most noteworthy is the decision to rejoin the Paris Accord, with a new promise of between a 50%-52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade. The administration has not offered any detail on how it plans to accomplish that lofty goal — which is more aggressive than all but a handful of other countries’ promises — but the potential implications are staggering, as it will inevitably demand dramatic changes in the use of fossil fuels that still drive a significant portion of the economy.
One option on the table for EPA is to return once again to Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, under which the Obama EPA wrote the Clean Power Plan and the Trump EPA wrote the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. In February, EPA asked the D.C. Circuit not to revive the Clean Power Plan, despite the court’s decision that replacing the rule with ACE was unlawful, signaling that an entirely new rule may be forthcoming. However, EPA has not yet said anything about what a new approach may look like. Given the uncertainty remaining over EPA’s Section 111 authority — the ACE case could still go to the Supreme Court — EPA may also look to other Clean Air Act programs for greenhouse gas emission reductions from the utility sector. EPA may also seek to reinstate Section 111 standards for the oil and gas industry (unless Congress does it first), and it may even write new standards for other industries as well.
Beyond climate, a full review of other important air-related policies is also underway. EPA indicated early on that it will review essentially everything issued over the last four years to see whether a new direction is needed, but the pathways to new policies remain murky. For instance, while a review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for both ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter appears certain, EPA has not yet made clear how it plans to reconsider the decisions issued late last year to retain the existing standards. Other key air programs that may make headlines in the next three to six months include regional haze (state plans are due at the end of July) and New Source Review (EPA has said it will reconsider 10 streamlining actions issued by the prior administration).
With the new policy picture slowly coming into focus, and many more details still to come, we hope this report will help you keep track of the policy shifts poised to accelerate soon.