States and environmentalists are criticizing EPA's recent justification for why it has delayed a proposed rule to revise its particulate matter national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), saying the agency fails to explain why the delay is reasonable as they push for a court to impose a hard legal deadline on EPA for issuing the rule.

A Senate panel has narrowed the scope of an EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) lifecycle emissions analysis the agency would use to help determine eligibility for an existing “clean” fuel vehicle grant program, which could boost biofuels by avoiding a lifecycle analysis of their GHGs that activists say are much higher than biofuels makers claim.