In a final rule that was immediately effective, EPA on April 8, 2015, removed the comparable fuels exclusion and the gasification exclusion issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). 80 Fed. Reg. 18777. EPA had to delete the provisions, as both had been vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2014.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 19, 2014, issued a much anticipated and certain to be controversial final rule under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) on the RCRA regulatory status of coal combustion residues (CCRs) from coal-fired power plants. EPA issued the final rule largely in an effort to protect communities from coal ash impoundment failures, like the Kingston, Tennessee spill in 2008. The rule establishes the first-ever federal regulations for the management of CCRs and is intended to prevent groundwater contamination and air emissions from coal ash disposal. In the final rule, however, EPA chose to regulate CCRs as non-hazardous solid waste under RCRA, opting to not regulate the large volumes of CCRs as hazardous waste.
