EPA Press Office:

EPA Issues Emergency Fuel Waiver for E15 Sales

EPA takes action to provide consumers relief at the pump by helping ensure an adequate fuel supply

WASHINGTON – On April 28, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency fuel waiver to allow E15 gasoline — gasoline blended with 15% ethanol — to be sold during the summer driving season. This action will provide Americans with relief at the pump from ongoing market supply issues created by Russia’s unprovoked war in toUkraine by increasing fuel supply and offering consumers more choices at the pump. The waiver will help protect Americans from fuel supply crises by reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels, building U.S. energy independence, and supporting American agriculture and manufacturing. Current estimates indicate that on average, E15 is about 25 cents a gallon cheaper than E10.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to protecting Americans from fuel supply challenges resulting from the ongoing war in Ukraine by ensuring consumers have more choices at the pump,” said Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Allowing E15 sales during the summer driving season will not only help increase fuel supply, but support American farmers, strengthen U.S. energy security, and provide relief to drivers across the country.”

The Clean Air Act allows the EPA Administrator, in consultation with DOE, to temporarily waive certain fuel requirements to address shortages. As a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Administrator Regan determined that extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances exist and has granted a temporary waiver to help ensure that an adequate supply of gasoline is available. As required by law, EPA and DOE evaluated the situation and determined that granting the waiver was in the public interest.

Currently, in roughly two-thirds of the country, E15 cannot be sold from terminals starting on May 1 and at retail stations starting on June 1. EPA is providing relief by extending the 1-psi Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waiver that currently applies to E10 gasoline to E15, which will enable E15 sales throughout the summer driving season in these areas, if necessary. This action only extends the 1-psi waiver to E15 in parts of the country where it already exists for E10. E15 can already be sold year-round in parts of the country that have a Reformulated Gasoline (RFG) program.

Because the RVP of E10 and E15 gasoline used by consumers will be the same (both will be 1 psi higher than otherwise required by EPA or state regulations) EPA does not expect any impact on air quality from this limited action. EPA’s research has shown no significant impact on evaporative emissions when the 1-psi waiver is extended to E15. With no significant impacts on emissions from cars and trucks, we expect consumers can continue to use E15 without concern that its use in the summer will impact air quality.

EPA’s emergency fuel waiver went into effect on May 1 when terminal operators would otherwise no longer be able to sell E15 in the affected regions of the country and will last through May 20 which is the statutory maximum of 20 days. EPA will continue to monitor the supply with industry and federal partners, and the Agency expects to issue new waivers effectively extending the emergency fuel waiver until such time as the extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances due to the war in Ukraine are no longer present.

For more information on this announcement, please visit EPA’s Fuel Waivers webpage.

 EPA Press Office:

EPA Honors National Leader in the Fight Against Asthma Disparities During Asthma Awareness Month in May

Wisconsin Asthma Program recognized as national model for work to enhance indoor air quality for people with asthma

WASHINGTON – Each May during Asthma Awareness Month, EPA highlights asthma awareness and recognizes leading asthma management programs for their work enhancing the quality of life for individuals with asthma.

“Growing up with respiratory challenges in North Carolina, I know all too well the struggle that millions of Americans suffer daily. Asthma is an issue that impacts the entire country, and children of families living in underserved communities overburdened by pollution are disproportionately impacted,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “That’s why I am so proud of the work EPA is doing to support real solutions, giving hope to those who battle asthma. Thanks to programs like the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Asthma Program, we are leading in innovation and making significant progress to protect public health.”

Asthma Awareness

Asthma affects more than 25 million Americans, including six million children, and disproportionately affects certain racial and ethnic groups. Fortunately, people can control their asthma symptoms and improve their health with three simple steps: 

1. Identify and avoid indoor environmental asthma triggers. Dust mites, secondhand smoke, mold, pests, pet dander and other allergens and contaminants in homes, schools and other indoor spaces can trigger asthma attacks. Work with your health care provider to identify and avoid your personal indoor asthma triggers. 
2. Pay attention to outdoor air quality. Ozone and particle pollution can cause or worsen asthma attacks. Check local air quality conditions at AirNow and download the Air Quality Index app for your smartphone.
3. Create an asthma action plan. This will help you monitor your asthma and take steps to reduce exposure to your personal triggers. Ask a health care provider to assist you in creating your plan.

National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management

Each May, through the National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management, EPA recognizes leading asthma management programs for their in-home interventions. The 2023 winner is the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Asthma Program.

Wisconsin’s program provides leadership and coordination for asthma care and service delivery statewide. Its activities focus on disproportionately affected populations, including children, persons with low income, and racial and ethnic minorities. It is distinguished by its strong partnerships with community organizations and innovative projects to improve health, including the Asthma-Safe Homes program.

EPA works year-round to promote understanding of asthma triggers, as a part of comprehensive asthma management, through research, education and outreach. With support from EPA, more communities are deploying approaches to improve the lives of people with asthma, especially in minority and low-income communities.

Visit EPA’s Asthma webpage to learn more about asthma and environmental triggers, and read about the 2023 National Environmental Leadership Award winner.

 

For further information: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

 EPA Press Office:

EPA Proposes to Establish First-Time Clean Water Act Protections for Over 250 Tribes

EPA’s proposed baseline water quality standards would usher in new Clean Water Act protections for Tribal Nation waterways

WASHINGTON (May 3, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced proposed federal baseline water quality standards for waterbodies on Indian reservations that do not have Clean Water Act standards, ensuring protections for over half a million people living on Indian reservations as well as critical aquatic ecosystems.

Fifty years ago, Congress established a goal in the Clean Water Act (CWA) that waters should support fishing and swimming wherever attainable. All states and 47 Tribes have established standards consistent with that goal. However, the majority of U.S. Tribes with Indian reservations lack such water quality standards. This proposal would extend the same framework of water quality protection that currently exists for most other waters of the United States to waters of over 250 Tribes and is the result of decades of coordination and partnership with Tribes.

“President Biden has made it clear; all people deserve access to clean, safe water. Today’s proposal is a monumental step forward in our work with Tribal governments to ensure precious water resources are protected,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Establishing federal baseline water quality standards, and implementing them in consultation with Tribal governments, will help support Tribes’ interests in protecting and improving waters that are essential to thriving communities, vibrant ecosystems, and sustainable economic growth.”

If finalized, this proposal would safeguard water quality on Indian reservations until Tribes are able to adopt their own CWA standards for their water bodies. EPA estimates this proposed water quality standard will increase protections for 76,000 miles of rivers and streams and 1.9 million acres of lakes, reservoirs, and other open surface waters within Indian reservations, protecting aquatic life and the health of over half-a-million residents living within reservation boundaries.

Water quality standards define the goals for the condition of a water body by (1) designating its uses, such as fishing and swimming, (2) establishing maximum levels (or water quality “criteria”) for pollutants that protect those uses, and (3) outlining policies that protect water quality from degradation. The proposed baseline WQS would provide a common set of designated uses, criteria, and antidegradation policies for Tribal waters, with certain built-in flexibilities to enable EPA to tailor the standards where needed to best protect local circumstances.

This proposal carries out the commitments to honor the federal trust responsibility and protect Tribal water resources outlined in EPA’s 2021 action plan, Strengthening the Nation-to-Nation Relationship with Tribes to Secure a Sustainable Water Future. It also delivers on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to uphold the United States’ treaty and trust responsibilities to the 574 federally recognized Tribes.

“The National Tribal Water Council fully supports federal baseline WQS for all of Indian country not already covered by tribal WQS (TWQS),” said Ken Norton, Chairman for the National Tribal Water Council. “While the Council advocates for tribal environmental self-determination through TWQS, we endorse EPA’s proposed rule that discharges the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes by filling longstanding regulatory gaps in Indian country, using standards that support the unique traditional and cultural uses indigenous peoples make of aquatic ecosystems.”

“We, the tribal representatives of the National Tribal Caucus, are charged with identifying and addressing regional and national environmental issues that affect Tribal Nations and Alaskan Native Villages,” said Gerald Wagner, National Tribal Caucus Chairman. “As one of the four elements of life, it is critical that Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages are provided a reasonable means to protect their water resources and ensure the protection of tribal environmental health, aquatic ecosystems, and tribal beneficial use waters. We recognize that the national baseline water quality standards is one important step in ensuring the gap is closed for impaired waters to be protected, while providing the opportunity for Tribes to gain status toward establishing their own water quality standards. The National Tribal Caucus welcomes this unique start in recognizing the importance of water quality in the livelihood of tribal communities and we hope to see further meaningful advancements that integrate tribal identities.”

“The Navajo Nation has water quality standards that were approved under both the Navajo and federal Clean Water Acts and are supported by EPA,” said Yolanda Barney, Environmental Department Manager, Surface and Ground Water Protection Department, Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency. “It is imperative that EPA continue to support tribal efforts to protect tribal waters. Working with neighboring states Arizona, New Mexico and Utah as well as EPA, the Navajo Nation ensures that its waters are protected from pollution to the greatest extent possible.”

“The promulgation of Tribal Baseline WQS is necessary to protect tribes without federal standards from transboundary pollution released from off-reservation polluters and addresses EPA’s duty to fill the regulatory water quality protection gaps in Indian country,” said Michael Bolt, Vice-Chair of the National Tribal Water Council and Water Quality Section Supervisor, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the only federally recognized Tribe in Alabama, has developed a robust surface water quality-monitoring program throughout the last decade,” said Stephanie A. Bryan, Tribal Chair and CEO, Poarch Band of Creek Indians. This program has helped our Tribe defend its lands and waters, but we also recognize not all Tribes have had this same opportunity. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians support any attempt to develop National Water Quality Standards to help Tribes safely preserve and protect their water rights now and into the future.”

“I appreciate that EPA recognizes that most tribes do not have WQS in place. This baseline will provide protection for fish, wildlife and tribal communities that depend on clean water,” said Russell N. Hepfer, Vice Chairman, Lower Elwha Tribal Community. “Each tribe is unique, most not having the programs or funding to ensure the baseline is met. Moving forward, EPA should consult with and support tribes with funding for implementation and enforcement.”

The Agency will accept comments on this proposal for 90 days. EPA will also hold two online public hearings on this proposal. Learn more about the proposed rule and public hearings.

BackgroundWater Quality Standards (WQS) define the water quality goals for a waterbody and provide a regulatory basis for many actions under the CWA, including developing water quality-

effluent limits in National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for point-sources; performing Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 certifications of federal licenses and permits; and reporting on water quality conditions and  designated uses attainment.

For further information: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

 EPA Press Office:

EPA Awards $100,000 to New Jersey Institute of Technology for Environmental Technologies

NEW YORK (May 3, 2023) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $100,000 in research funding to New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to further develop their innovative ideas to solve environmental challenges. These awards are part of EPA’s People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Program.

“Congratulations to our winning teams on their creative and innovative solutions to address some of our most urgent environmental problems,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “Their work is inspiring, and I look forward to seeing the final results of these projects.”

EPA's P3 program is a unique competition that offers teams of college and university students hands-on experience that brings their classroom learning to life, while also encouraging them to create tangible changes in their communities. This annual, two-phased research grants program challenges students to research, develop, and design innovative projects that address real world challenges involving all areas of environmental protection and public health. Today’s awardees have already been awarded a one-year grant of up to $25,000 for Phase I, which served as a “proof of concept,” to develop their idea. These five teams successfully competed for a Phase II grant of up to $100,000 to implement their design in a real-world setting.

Students from NJIT received the award for their research project, which is designed to reduce contaminants and provide safe drinking water by developing an innovative microwave-assisted membrane filtration system to enhance the removal of per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water.

Learn more about the P3 Phase II winners.

Learn more about EPA’s P3 program.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter and visit our Facebook page. For more information about EPA Region 2, visit our website.

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For further information: Contact: Carlos Vega, (212)-637-3662, vega.carlos@epa.gov

Researchers Capture Elusive Missing Step in Photosynthesis

 Berkeley Lab News Release:

After decades of effort, scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe

MEDIA RELATIONS | MAY 3, 2023

Using SLAC’s X-ray laser, researchers have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Adapted from a news release by Ali Sundermier Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University and Humboldt University and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of photosystem II. Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan, they captured for the first time in atomic detail what happens in the final moments leading up to the release of breathable oxygen. The data reveal an intermediate reaction step that had not been observed before. The results, published today in Nature, shed light on how nature has optimized photosynthesis and are helping scientists develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon based-fuels. “The more we learn about how nature does it, the closer we get to using those same principles in human-made processes, including ideas for artificial photosynthesis as a clean and sustainable energy source,” said co-author Jan Kern, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area. Co-author Junko Yano, a senior scientist who is also at Berkeley Lab, said, “Photosystem II is giving us the blueprint for how to optimize our clean energy sources and avoid dead ends and dangerous side products that damage the system. What we once thought was just fundamental science could become a promising avenue to improving our energy technologies.” Bases loaded During photosynthesis, photosystem II’s oxygen-evolving center – a cluster of four manganese atoms and one calcium atom connected by oxygen atoms – facilitates a series of challenging chemical reactions that act to split apart a water molecule to release molecular oxygen.  The center cycles through four stable oxidation states, known as S0 through S3, when exposed to sunlight. On a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a player on home base is ready to go to bat. S1-S3 would be players on first, second, and third. Every time a batter connects with a ball, or the complex absorbs a photon of sunlight, the player on the field advances one base. When the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of photosystem II, releasing one molecule of breathable oxygen.  The researchers examined this center by exciting tiny samples of photosynthetic molecules from cyanobacteria with optical light then probed the molecules with ultrafast X-ray pulses from LCLS and SACLA, using a bespoke conveyor belt-inspired instrument designed by co-first authors Isabel Bogacz and Philipp Simon. The X-ray diffraction data revealed the atomic structure of the cluster and the chemical process around it.

In photosystem II, the water-splitting center cycles through four stable states, S0-S3. On a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a batter on home base is ready to hit. S1-S3 would be players waiting on first, second, and third. The center gets bumped up to the next state every time it absorbs a photon of sunlight, just like how a player on the field advances one base every time a batter connects with a ball. When the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of Photosystem II, releasing the oxygen we breathe. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

A homerun Using this technique, the scientists for the first time imaged the mad dash for home – the transient state, or S4, where two atoms of oxygen bond together and an oxygen molecule is released. The data showed that there are additional steps in this reaction that had never been seen before. “Other experts argued that this is something that could never be captured,” said co-author Uwe Bergmann, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s really going to change the way we think about photosystem II. Although we can't say we have a unique mechanism based on the data yet, we can exclude some models and ideas people have proposed over the last few decades. It’s the closest anyone has ever come to capturing this final step and showing how this process works with actual structural data.” The new study is the latest in a series undertaken by the team over the past decade. Earlier work focused on observing various steps of the photosynthetic cycle at the temperature at which it occurs in nature. “Most of the process that produces breathable oxygen happens in this last step,” said co-author Vittal Yachandra, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab. “But there are several things happening at different parts of photosystem II and they all have to come together in the end for the reaction to succeed. Just like how in baseball, factors like the location of the ball and the position of the basemen and fielders affect the moves a player takes to get to home base, the protein environment around the catalytic center influences how this reaction plays out.” Brighter X-rays for a brighter future Based on these results, the researchers plan to conduct experiments designed to capture many more snapshots of the process. “There are still things happening in between that we could not catch yet,” Kern said. “There are more snapshots we really want to take which would bridge the remaining gaps and tell the whole story.” To do so, they need to push the quality of their data even further. In the past, these types of measurements proved challenging because the X-ray signals from the samples are faint and the rates at which existing X-ray lasers like LCLS and SACLA produce X-ray pulses are too small. “It took quite some effort to optimize the setup, so we couldn't collect all the data we needed for this one publication in a single experiment,” said co-author and SLAC scientist Roberto Alonso-Mori. “These results actually include data taken over six years.”  After gathering all the data, it was another challenge to analyze it and piece together structural maps of the molecules as they change during the reaction. This work was made possible by special software developed for data merging developed by co-authors Nicholas Sauter and Aaron Brewster, and programs for structure determination by co-author Paul Adams, the Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences at Berkeley Lab. The data analysis was performed by co-first authors Asmit Bhowmick, Rana Hussein of Humboldt University, Isabel Bogacz, and Philipp Simon. When an LCLS upgrade, called LCLS-II, comes online later this year, the repetition rate will skyrocket from 120 pulses per second to up to a million per second.  “With these upgrades, we will be able to collect several days’ worth of data in just a few hours,” Bergmann said. “We will also be able to use soft X-rays to further understand the chemical changes happening in the system. These new capabilities will continue to drive this research forward and shed new light on photosynthesis.”

### Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.   DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

I'm Digging Up My POLLINATOR Garden!

Lion sanctuary on the edge of Dinokeng - Lions on the Move 1/2 - Go Wild