Pennsylvania, other states sue EPA over ozone deadline

Clairton Coke Works, near Pittsburgh. Photo: Reid R. Frazier

Clairton Coke Works, near Pittsburgh. Photo: Reid R. Frazier
Reid Frazier reports for StateImpact:
Pennsylvania is one of more than a dozen states suing the EPA for failing to enforce on an important air pollution regulation.
In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Pennsylvania and 13 other states, plus the District of Columbia, say the EPA blew by an October 1 deadline to designate which parts of the country are failing to meet recently tightened federal standards for ozone, or ground level smog.
States use those designations to issue regulations on the amount of pollution that power plants, cars and factories can produce within their borders.
By not meeting the October 1 deadline, the agency was putting public health at risk, public health advocates said.
“The way it’s set up now, it’s going to further delay the actual beginning of the cleanup process for many of these communities, because they can’t start the planning until they know what areas are (over the EPA limit),” said Janice Nolen, Assistant Vice President of National Policy at the American Lung Association, one of several groups also suing the agency over the deadline. “The people of Pennsylvania are going to have to breathe higher ozone, longer than they need to.”
In 2015, EPA lowered its standard for ozone from 75 to 70 parts per billion (ppb). The agency had two years to determine which areas met that designation, and which didn’t.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sent the EPA a list of counties that failed the standard. They include five Philadelphia-area counties, plus Berks and Lebanon counties. Several counties in the Pittsburgh area, including Allegheny County, scored out at 70 parts per billion, just in the attainment zone.
The DEP, through a spokesman, declined comment.
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Phone calls to NJ lawmakers save Ed Lloyd’s Pinelands seat

Pinelands Preservation Alliance members outside the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting today in Trenton

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

The next time someone tells you that politicians don’t care what individual voters think, remember Ed Lloyd.


Ed LloydLloyd is the uber-enviro-lawyer-member of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission who opposed Gov. Chris Christie on a number of development issues and was about to pay the price by being replaced with a Christie appointment in the waning days of legislative session (and Christie’s term).


The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, fearing the loss of an advocate for their positions—especially after coming up short on several gas pipeline votes this year–went into high gear.

The group blasted out an e-bulletin urging immediate phone calls to member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who were scheduled to vote on Lloyd’s replacement today.

EnviroPolitics was the first media source to report yesterday that the committee had yanked the nomination hours before the vote.

[Pinelands greens rallying to save one of their champions]Two Democratic members of the committee confirmed the decision this morning before the committee met with posts on the Alliance’s Facebook page:





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Pinelands greens rallying to save one of their champions

Pinelands Commissioner Ed Lloyd

UPDATE: The nomination to replace Ed Lloyd has been pulled from tomorrow’s committee agenda. 


Environmental defenders of the New Jersey Pinelands have issued an emergency alert, urging phone calls to members of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee–and attendance at tomorrow’s  (Dec. 7)  meeting of the committee in Trenton.


Scheduled for action is a vote on a nominee to replace long-time Pinelands Commission member Ed Lloyd, a ‘Pinelands hero,” according to Pinelands Preservation Alliance Executive Director Carlton Montgomery.” 


Here’s what the Alliance has to say about the nomination:


Yesterday Governor Christie nominated Ed McGlinchey to replace longtime environmental stalwart Ed Lloyd as a gubernatorial representative on the Pinelands Commission. This is an extreme move by a lame duck governor to remove an environmental champion from the Commission.
Ed Lloyd has served on the Pinelands Commission as a gubernatorial appointee since 2002. He is an expert in environmental law, has testified before the U.S. Senate and House of Representative committees, serves on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Environmental Litigation, and sits on the Litigation Review Committee of the Environmental Defense Fund. Lloyd is a professor of Environmental Law at Columbia Law School, where he serves as the director of the Environmental Law Clinic. Prior to joining Columbia, Lloyd was the founding director of the Rutgers University Environmental Law Clinic. 

It is ludicrous to get rid of someone with a passion for public service and the skills to do the job.  This is political retribution for Mr. Lloyd’s staunch support of the rules that protect the Pinelands, which have, at times, put him at odds with the Governor. 

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EPA extending public comment deadline on PBT chemicals

EPA is extending until January 12, 2018, the public
comment period to receive information on the five
persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals
subject to section 6(h) of the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA).  The comments were previously due on
or before December 9, 2017.

EPA is interested in information from the public about
these chemicals, including uses, products containing these chemicals, exposed
populations, and alternatives to these chemicals. Information should be submitted
on or before January 12, 2018.

Please submit relevant information, identified by the docket identification (ID) number
associated with the relevant chemical:

  • Decabromodiphenyl ethers docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0724
  • Hexachlorobutadiene, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0738
  • Pentachlorothiophenol, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0739
  • Phenol, isopropylated, phosphate (3:1), docket ID number
    EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0730
  • 2,4,6-Tris(tert-butyl) phenol, docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0734 

For more information, please visit EPA’s Assessing and Managing Chemicals website
on the five PBTs at: https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/persistent-bioaccumulative-and-toxic-pbt-chemicals-under 


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Fed grant will help Jerseyans charge their e-cars at work


Nearly $10 million will be used to deploy electric-vehicle charging stations at workplaces, trimming emissions from refrigerated trucks

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

electric charging station

The state is using part of a $9.5 million federal grant to accelerate the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations at workplaces across New Jersey.
The U.S. Department of Transportation funding also is expected to provide money to reduce diesel emissions from refrigerated trucks unloading and loading shipments, as well as emissions from passenger ferries.
The programs, to be administered by the Departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation, are designed to curb air pollution that contributes to ground-level ozone (smog) and greenhouse-gas emissions.


Largest source of carbon pollution

The transportation sector is the biggest source of carbon pollution that contributes to global warming. Environmentalists and public health advocates have long criticized state efforts to deal with mobile air pollution and climate change as falling short of what is necessary.
The DEP said the infusion of federal funding for the projects would reduce chemicals and pollutants contributing to smog by 167 tons annually, the equivalent of removing 45,000 cars and tractor-trailers from the roads.
“Cars and trucks account for about 30 percent of ozone-forming precursors in New Jersey’s air,’’ said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin. “It is critical that we focus on reducing emissions from transportation to protect public health.’’
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Court sides with NJDEP on Newark natural gas plant mods

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:


Environmental and community groups fail in bid to require Newark Energy Center to file for new permit

newark energy center

Newark Energy Center
A state appeal courts has rejected a challenge by a community and environmental organization to a new air permit for five-year old natural-gas plant in Newark.
In a 15-page decision, the court on Friday affirmed the state Department of Environmental Protection’s approval of a significant change in the permit held by the Newark Energy Center.
The Ironbound Community Corp. and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance challenged the permit, arguing the plant should have been required to file public emergency-response and notification plans prior to obtaining it.
The 655-megawatt gas plant opened in 2012, the first of a handful of new gas facilities that have begun operating in New Jersey in the past few years as part of a trend that has seen natural gas emerge to rival nuclear energy in supplying the state’s power needs.
The court case stemmed from the plant’s significant modification of its air permit involving its increased use of sulfuric acid and other chemicals in reused water in the plant’s cooling tower.
According to the DEP, the increased use of the chemicals would not increase the emissions from the plant. The state agency issued the modified permit for the facility in August 2015.
In its decision, the court found the modified air permit maintained allowable emission limits and required additional monitoring and record keeping to ensure compliance.
In addition, the court rejected the appellants’ arguments that the permit also required the agency to determine if the plant was in compliance with other environmental laws dealing with spills and state air-control requirements.
“Simply stated, while separate, independent federal and state laws may impose public emergency-response and notification planning requirements upon industrial facilities such as NEC,” according to the court opinion, “they did not govern the DEP’s decision to approve NEC’s application to modify its permit.’’
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