ELR Citation: ELR 20264
No(s). 99-1693 (S.D. Ind. Oct 14, 2008)

A district court held that it has the authority to order a company that violated the Clean Air Act's (CAA's) new source review requirements to take appropriate actions that remedy, mitigate, and offset harms to the public and the environment caused by those violations. CAA §113(b) invokes the court's equity jurisdiction. This grant of jurisdiction is quite broad, as §113(b) authorizes the federal courts not only "to restrain" CAA violations, "to require compliance" with the CAA, to assess civil penalties, and to collect fees, but also "to award any other appropriate relief." Nothing in the CAA is a "clear and valid legislative command" or raises a "necessary and inescapable inference" that the full scope of the courts' equitable powers under §113(b) is to be limited. Consequently, the court may grant retrospective remedial relief.