This Week at the Environmental Protection Agency — week of June 22, 2026

This week the EPA’s published actions were almost entirely administrative: updating records, aligning federal rules with other agencies, and approving or proposing state air quality plans. Nothing this week imposes new pollution limits on households or businesses. The items most likely to affect the public are the extended comment period for proposed oil and gas emission rules, several state air quality decisions for specific metro areas, and a pair of pesticide-related actions.

Air quality plans move forward in several states and cities

• Arizona (proposed): The EPA proposed approving Arizona’s fuel rules for the Phoenix and Tucson areas, covering cleaner-burning gasoline, winter oxygenated fuels, and the gasoline set-aside program. The state submitted the changes in June 2021 with supplemental information in 2025. If finalized, existing local fuel standards would remain in effect without interruption.
• Colorado (proposed): The EPA proposed approving Colorado’s updated air quality reporting rules for industrial sources in the Denver Metro/North Front Range area. The state needed to fix how well these industries report emissions or risk federal sanctions; this keeps the state in compliance while improving data tracking.
• Ohio (approved): The EPA finalized approval of Ohio’s air pollution rules for specific industrial facilities in Cleveland and Cincinnati that emit volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. This locks in emission limits and regulatory oversight for those areas.
• Ohio (approved): The EPA also finalized approval of nitrogen oxide emission limits at the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works steel plant, confirming Ohio’s monitoring and reporting requirements meet Clean Air Act standards for the Cleveland ozone nonattainment area.
• Oregon (approved): The EPA updated its official records for Oregon’s State Implementation Plan, incorporating materials approved as of February 1, 2026, and correcting two clerical errors. No air quality standards changed.
• California (proposed): The EPA proposed removing several outdated air quality rules from the federal record for the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, which covers parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The change aligns federal records with what local agencies actually enforce.
• Washington, D.C. (approved): The EPA finalized D.C.’s “synthetic minor” permitting program, which lets smaller pollution sources limit their emissions below federal major source thresholds and avoid heavier regulatory requirements.

Oil, gas, and industrial emission rules

• The EPA extended the public comment period on proposed hazardous air pollutant rules for oil and natural gas facilities from June 22 to August 6, 2026. This gives industry, environmental groups, and the public roughly six more weeks to analyze and respond to the proposed standards; it is not a policy change.
• The EPA removed rubber tire manufacturing emission rules from the federal code after a Congressional veto. The rules, which were put in place last year, would have limited hazardous air pollution from tire factories. With them gone, tire manufacturers return to older standards, saving the industry about $163 million in present value costs.

Hazardous waste storage and disposal decisions

• Utah: The EPA finalized a variance allowing Clean Harbors to temporarily store up to 250 piles of certain hazardous wastes at its Grassy Mountain facility in Tooele County. The waste can remain on site for up to six months before final disposal, provided it meets federal containment standards.
• Nevada: The EPA granted U.S. Ecology Nevada, Inc. permission to dispose of elemental mercury in a landfill in Beatty. Federal law normally requires mercury to be recycled, but the EPA found the recycling market too small to handle supply from gold mining operations. Stabilized disposal reduces long-term storage risks without changing national recycling standards for other industries.

Pesticides and food

• The EPA accepted three company petitions seeking permission to use specific chemicals on food crops. This is a required review step that opens the requests for public comment; no residue limits change today. The EPA will review comments and data before granting, denying, or modifying the requests.
• The EPA finalized a rule exempting cinnamaldehyde from legal residue limits, known as tolerances, in food. The chemical is approved as an inert ingredient—a preservative or stabilizer—in pesticides applied to crops before and after harvest. The EPA reviewed the safety data and found no significant risk from this use.

Paperwork and housekeeping updates

• The EPA updated its hazardous chemical reporting rules to match OSHA standards: it replaced the outdated term “Material Safety Data Sheet” (MSDS) with “Safety Data Sheet” (SDS) and aligned hazard categories with OSHA’s 2024 Hazard Communication Standard updates. Facilities that already follow OSHA rules face no new reporting burdens.
• The EPA proposed updating its internal procedures for environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. The agency’s rules have not been revised since 1979, and the update aligns them with current federal law and executive orders. Practical impact is limited to projects requiring EPA review.
• The EPA accepted Oklahoma’s claim that it has no hospital, medical, infectious waste, or commercial and industrial incinerators, confirming which federal emission guidelines apply there.
• The EPA accepted Louisiana’s November 2025 report that the state has no existing facilities burning solid waste for energy, which similarly clarifies that federal emission guidelines for those incinerators do not need to be enforced there.

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This weekly agency digest is generated from federal records (the Federal Register and Congress.gov) and summarized in plain English. It may simplify or omit detail — follow the linked official sources before relying on any item. Part of The Boring Parts.