Category
Policy
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Regulation Works: How science, advocacy and good regulations combined to force a massive reduction in power plant pollution and public health impacts
In 1996, Clean Air Task Force was founded to launch an effort to clean up emissions from coal-fired power plants. Our primary goal was to massively slash their emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2). So CATF’s first step was to document the impacts…
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Study Shows EPA Underestimates Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production and Demonstrates Need for Tough National Standards
A recently published article (Brandt et al.) assessed methane leakage rates from the natural gas sector and concluded that “official inventories consistently underestimate actual CH4 emissions, with the [natural gas] and oil sectors as important contributors…” The report stacks up 20 years of research—with different scales and seemingly different findings—along…
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First Things First: Capping Corn-Based Biofuel Production
When Congress dramatically expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2007, supporters of the revised RFS—which is supposed to push 36 billion gallons of biofuel into the US fuel market by 2022—touted the program as a solution to our overdependence on foreign oil, a cure for flagging rural economies, and a…
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Obama’s Second Term Climate Priorities
In recent statements, President Obama has ranked addressing climate change one of his top three priorities for his second term. Win, place or show, the President has already offered up a two-track course forward: first, take immediate action on near-term greenhouse gas emission reductions; and, second, simultaneously launch a conversation…
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The Time is Now
Happy Holiday Season! As CATF advocates look forward to the coming year, we are hard pressed to think of better near term opportunities for climate pollution control than those presented by three EPA regulatory processes – in each case, the Agency has until now put down only one foot. We…
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Corn Ethanol: The Next New Coke?
How do you get Americans to pay for something they don’t really want in the first place? Most of the time – as in the case of New Coke, Harley Davidson Perfume, and the U.S. Football League – the answer is simple: you can’t. But where the Edsel failed, corn…
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New Rules for Gas: Good Policy, Delayed
Last week, EPA announced New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry. These new rules are an important and long-awaited step towards better control of the air pollution emitted by this rapidly expanding sector. Notably, the standards include the first federal air pollution regulations for hydraulically…
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Memo To EPA: Stay Strong On Oil and Gas Standards
Next week, EPA will issue final New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for conventional air emissions from the oil and natural gas industry. The standards must require the capture of hundreds of thousands of tons of smog-forming emissions emitted annually by this industry, along with millions of tons of methane. Methane…
