Sean writes about air quality policy and regulations. His work has been honored by the National Press Club and Washington Press Club Foundation, among others; he also contributed a chapter to "Turning Carolina Red," an eBook published by E&E in 2014. He previously reported for the Federal Times and newspapers in Alabama. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Carleton College and a master's degree in the same subject from Duke University.
EPA, after an ad hoc attempt to rework one facet of the New Source Review permitting program quickly ran into a lawsuit last year, now appears to be pursuing the same objective through a formal rulemaking.
For the second time this year, a federal judge has squelched a legal challenge to EPA's contentious membership policy for its scientific advisory committees.
Recent developments on a key EPA advisory committee threaten to upend the agency's long-standing mechanisms for safeguarding the public from common air pollutants, two critics wrote in a newly published paper.
Several Democratic lawmakers are pointing to EPA's adoption of an obscure regulatory interpretation as fresh evidence of allegedly improper involvement by air chief Bill Wehrum and another political appointee in a policy shift of keen interest to a client of their former law firm.
Texas environmental regulators have given a House committee a lengthy defense of their decision to reject NASA's offer of high-tech air quality monitoring help after Hurricane Harvey.