The D.C. Circuit denied states' and industry groups' petitions challenging EPA rules establishing CAA permitting requirements in states that do not have implementation plans for greenhouse gases. The rules were designed to ensure that a permitting authority was available to issue the required greenh...

The Third Circuit upheld an EPA rule imposing sulfur dioxide (S02) limits on a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania whose emissions travel directly across a river into areas of New Jersey. The owner of the plant challenged EPA's authority to impose direct regulations on the plant before the time t...

The Tenth Circuit upheld an EPA rule in which it rejected Oklahoma's regional haze plan to limit sulfur dioxide emissions at electric utility power plants and replaced it with its own more stringent regulations via a federal implementation plan (FIP). Petitioners—the state of Oklahoma, the utility...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed an EPA order denying an environmental group's petition to object to a CAA Title V operating permit for a coal-fired power station in Colorado. In its petition for an objection, the group argued that the permit needed to include a plan to bring the power station into compli...

The Seventh Circuit held that the statute of limitations bars EPA's and Illinois' CAA suit against a power company for failing to obtain preconstruction permits and to use best available control technology (BACT) at five coal-fired power plants that were modified prior to it acquiring them in 1999. ...

The Fifth Circuit held that the CAA does not preempt a local ordinance that allows taxicabs certified to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) to cut ahead of gasoline-powered taxis in the queue for picking up passengers at Love Field Airport in Dallas. The ordinance does not create an enforceable sta...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's revised NESHAPs for secondary lead smelting facilities. In 2012, acting pursuant to CAA §§112(d)(6) and 112(f)(2), EPA revised the 1995 emissions standards for secondary lead smelting facilities, reducing allowable emissions by 90% and requiring smelters to totally en...

A district court dismissed a city's lawsuit against California state and local air districts challenging fees it must pay to mitigate wind-blown dust from a dry lake bed that exceed state and federal air standards. Section 42316 of the California Health and Safety Code authorized the district to ord...

The Ninth Circuit, in an amended opinion, denied an environmental group's petition challenging EPA's decision to grant two air permits authorizing exploratory drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean by a drillship and its associated fleet of support vessels. The permits require the drillship to comp...

A district court held that EPA has no mandatory or nondiscretionary duty to make a determination as to whether lead emissions from general aviation aircraft engines using aviation gasoline endanger the public health or welfare under CAA §231(a)(2)(A). A finding that emissions cause or contribute to...