EPA is backing off a hastily crafted compliance waiver for the coke industry only months after saying the break was urgently needed.
In a court filing late Thursday, the agency confirmed its plan to withdraw the interim final rule published in July that gave manufacturers of the distilled coal product until 2027 to meet regulations strengthened last year to require monitoring for cancer-causing benzene, among other safeguards.
After subsequently collecting more feedback from a public hearing and other sources, EPA air chief Aaron Szabo wrote in an accompanying statement, the agency has now decided “to allow the original compliance deadlines to remain in effect” pending a “broader reconsideration of the underlying standards.”
The filing was a response to environmental groups’ motion that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit either throw out the interim rule or else stop it from taking effect. Now that EPA has decided to drop the rule, however, “this matter will be moot,” EPA attorneys added in urging a three-judge panel to avoid ruling on the motion.
