The Bulletin: Courts Are Rewriting Clean-Air Compliance After the Fact

Three states moved on ozone compliance this week — and the EPA moved the goalposts in one of them

The EPA ended the week backtracking on a 2023 redesignation for Detroit, forcing the area back into nonattainment for the 2015 ozone standard after a Sixth Circuit decision vacated the original approval. The agency published a technical amendment restoring Detroit's Moderate classification effective immediately. For manufacturers and anyone who bet on clean-air compliance timelines after the redesignation, the clock just reset — three years of attainment planning are back on the table, and compliance officers will now need to reconcile what they thought was settled with what the Sixth Circuit said wasn't. The shift doesn't just hit Detroit. It's a live experiment in how courts rewrite enforcement schedules downstream of state SIP approvals, and it raises the question: what happens to facilities that made capital investments assuming Detroit had crossed the finish line?

The week, in three lines.

Detroit's ozone attainment status, approved in 2023, is now void — the Sixth Circuit decision sent it back to nonattainment

The OCC quietly removed legal risk from interchange fees with an interim final rule that took effect the day it published

Federal grant programs opened across workforce development, hazmat training, and child welfare analytics — all with June comment windows

Detroit's ozone redesignation just got reversed — and that's the bigger story

The Sixth Circuit erased three years of clean-air planning. On May 19, 2023, the EPA redesignated the Detroit area to attainment for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. On December 5, 2025, the Sixth Circuit vacated that redesignation. This week's technical amendment is the EPA documenting the reversal: Detroit is back in nonattainment, Moderate classification, effective as of the Federal Register publication. The court decision doesn't just reset the area's status — it invalidates the compliance assumptions anyone made after the 2023 approval. Facilities that bet on Detroit's attainment holding will now need to revisit permit applications, SIP obligations, and any capital expenditures tied to the old timeline.

What it means for a small-business owner. If you operate in Wayne, Macomb, or St. Clair counties and your facility is subject to RACT requirements or new source review triggers, you are back under a nonattainment regime. The practical implication: emissions offsets, preconstruction review, and compliance milestones that paused in 2023 are live again. The EPA has not said when it will issue a new attainment deadline for Detroit under the Moderate classification, but under the Clean Air Act, Moderate areas generally get six years from the original designation date — which would have put Detroit's deadline in 2024. The gap between what the law says and what the court just undid is the space where your compliance risk lives.

The next domino. The EPA proposed a clean-data determination for the Baltimore area this week, relying on 2022-2024 monitoring data and an exceptional-events exclusion for certain high-ozone days. Baltimore's determination is not final — the comment window closes June 28, 2026 — but the Detroit reversal will shadow every SIP approval going forward. If the Sixth Circuit can void a redesignation three years out, operators in Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania (all of which saw ozone approvals this week) should assume the same risk. The regulatory clock you thought was running may not be. Plan for both timelines.

The OCC removed legal risk from interchange fees — quietly, on a Friday

The backstory. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published an interim final rule on April 29, 2026, clarifying that national banks issuing payment cards are subject to the Federal Reserve's interchange-fee regulations but not to conflicting state laws on the same topic. The rule took effect the day it published — no comment window, no delay. The OCC's move is a preemption play: it locks in that national banks follow Federal Reserve interchange caps under Regulation II and do not have to comply with state-level fee restrictions that would otherwise apply to state-chartered banks.

What this means for a small-business owner. If you are a merchant negotiating processing agreements with a card-issuing bank, the rule clarifies that the bank's interchange fees are governed by the Federal Reserve's caps, not state statutes. The immediate practical effect: you cannot challenge a national bank's interchange fees under state law. The legal risk the OCC removed was not yours — it was the bank's — but the rule stabilizes what you pay per transaction. Merchants who opposed the rule have until June 28 to file public comment, but the effective date already passed. The OCC set the comment window to satisfy administrative-procedure requirements, not to hold the rule in abeyance.

Watch for. The OCC's interim final rule is a test case for preemption velocity. The agency published and activated the rule on the same day, then opened comment after the fact. If you were planning to challenge the rule, you missed the window to stop it from taking effect. The broader pattern: agencies are using interim final rules to compress the time between publication and enforcement, betting that the procedural upside of moving fast outweighs the risk of adverse comment. For merchants and processors, the takeaway is to monitor Federal Register publication dates for interim rules in your sector — not just proposed rules with 60-day comment periods.

Three states coordinated on ozone RACT approvals — the pattern is oversight consolidation

New York, Virginia, and California each saw the EPA approve source-specific or district-level RACT revisions this week. The EPA finalized approval for Calpine JFK Energy Center's RACT plan in New York, Athens Generating Plant's RACT plan in New York, and Virginia's repeal of two stationary-source regulations (petroleum refinery operations and large appliance coating) because there are no longer applicable sources in-state. The California approval covered three district rules for oil and gas production facilities in San Joaquin Valley, Ventura County, and South Coast. The moves are procedurally independent, but the timing is not — the EPA is clearing the backlog of RACT submissions ahead of the next ozone NAAQS revision cycle.

The implication. If you operate a stationary source in a state that has not yet submitted or received EPA approval for RACT, you are in the queue. The EPA is prioritizing approvals where the state can demonstrate that the source either no longer exists or already meets the control standard. As the agency wrote in the Virginia approval preamble: "The removal of these rules does not interfere with attainment or maintenance of the NAAQS because there are no longer any sources in Virginia subject to these regulations." For operators, the message is: if your state has not yet finalized RACT for your sector, now is the time to confirm whether your facility is on the submission list — and whether the control options the state is proposing match what you can actually implement.

What to watch. The EPA proposed a determination that Detroit attained the 2015 ozone NAAQS by the applicable attainment date, relying on an exceptional-events concurrence from March 24, 2026. The proposal is separate from the technical amendment that reinstated Detroit's nonattainment status, and it will not resolve the contradiction unless the EPA withdraws the proposal or the Sixth Circuit decision is reversed. The practical guidance: do not assume attainment-by-deadline proposals are immune from legal reversal. If you are in a Moderate nonattainment area and the EPA proposes a clean-data determination, plan for the scenario where a court voids it three years later.

State by state

New York pushed three RACT approvals and four building-code variance petitions. The EPA finalized source-specific RACT plans for Calpine JFK Energy Center and Athens Generating Plant, both addressing NOx emissions from power generation. The Calpine approval covers a facility at Kennedy International Airport; the Athens approval applies to a plant in Greene County. Separately, the New York State Register published four Department of State variance petitions for basement ceiling heights, bathroom fixture clearances, and pool barrier requirements across Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and other counties. The RACT approvals bind operators to specific NOx control technologies; the variance petitions allow homeowners to deviate from Uniform Code height and clearance standards where compliance is infeasible in existing dwellings.

Ohio published 178 items, all five-year rule reviews with no changes. The Department of Development Office of Community Services and the Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry completed statutory five-year reviews for rules governing community services block grants, customer eligibility verification, performance assessments, forest officer authority, and bait use in wildlife areas. None of the reviews triggered amendments. The filings are procedural markers — Ohio law requires agencies to review rules every five years and certify whether changes are needed — but they confirm that the existing regulatory text remains binding without modification.

Texas updated CPA disclaimer rules, network adequacy standards, and property tax valuation guidance. The State Board of Public Accountancy proposed reducing the size and location requirements for disclaimers that CPAs in unlicensed firms must display, cutting compliance costs while preserving consumer notice. The Department of Insurance proposed amendments to health plan network adequacy rules, clarifying what constitutes "sufficient choice" for enrollees and codifying standards for steering and tiering arrangements. The Comptroller updated the Manual for Appraisal of Agricultural Land, which county appraisal districts use to assess open-space and agricultural property — the update reflects current valuation methods and recent legislative changes, affecting property tax bills for qualifying landowners statewide.

Pennsylvania opened a $300 million infrastructure loan program and cancelled two advisory board meetings. The Department of Environmental Protection released its 2026 Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund intended use plan, allocating approximately $300 million in federal loans and grants for water and wastewater projects. The public comment window runs through June 29, 2026. The agency also cancelled the June 17 Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board meeting and the June 11 Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting, pushing the next sessions to September and October. For stakeholders tracking oil and gas or waste management policy, the delay compresses the timeline for input before the next round of regulatory updates.

Florida proposed Certificate of Need changes and moved forward on behavioral health interagency meetings. The Agency for Health Care Administration proposed amending Rule 59C-1.004 to reduce the distance requirement for replacement health care facilities from five miles to one mile within the same subdistrict, and to remove obsolete language on projects subject to CON review. The Department of Children and Families scheduled a July 16 Behavioral Health Interagency Collaboration Meeting to address accessibility and quality of behavioral health services under Chapter 394.90826, F.S. The CON amendment affects hospital and clinic operators planning facility relocations; the behavioral health meeting sets the stage for cross-agency service coordination.

What's binding this week

May 29. Safety zone for Lake Erie military training operation takes effect. Vessels excluded from the regulated area unless authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Eastern Great Lakes.
May 29. Special local regulation for Detroit River rowing regatta on June 27, 2026, takes effect. Persons and vessels excluded from the regulated area unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Detroit.
May 29. Air plan approvals for Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Gas Works RACT), New York (Calpine JFK RACT, Athens Generating Plant RACT), and California (oil and gas production VOC rules) take effect.
May 29. Safety zone for St. Clair River fireworks display takes effect. Entry prohibited unless authorized by the Captain of the Port Detroit.
June 1. Public comment closes on OCC interchange-fee clarification (interim final rule already effective April 29).
June 12. Extended comment period closes for Maryland reasonably available control technology for municipal waste combustors.
June 22. Extended comment period closes for AbilityOne Program subcontracting and central nonprofit agency fee revisions.
June 28. Public comment closes on EPA clean-data determination for Baltimore ozone nonattainment area.
June 29. Public comment closes on Pennsylvania's 2026 Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund intended use plans (approximately $300 million in federal infrastructure loans and grants at issue).

The bottom line

Courts are rewriting clean-air compliance timelines after the fact, and the EPA is compressing comment windows on interim rules that take effect before you can object. The next 30 days will clarify whether the Baltimore ozone determination survives the same scrutiny that killed Detroit's redesignation — and whether the OCC's preemption strategy on interchange fees becomes the model for how agencies activate rules before public comment closes. Forward this to the person on your team who tracks SIP obligations or monitors Federal Register effective dates.

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