Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Ninth Circuit 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 comply with best available c...
Coalition for Responsible Regulation, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit denied a petition for rehearing of an earlier decision in which it upheld four EPA rulemakings governing greenhouse gases. EPA issued the rules following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, 37 ELR 20075 (2007), in which the Court clarified that g...
Western Watersheds Project v. Salazar
A district court ordered BLM to revise the Craters of the Moon and Pinedale resource management plans (RMPs) to correct deficiencies concerning impacts on the sage-grouse. In an earlier decision, the court held that BLM's EISs for the RMPs failed to adequately analyze impacts to the sage grouse in v...
Sierra Club v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit held that EPA's determination that it completed sufficient standards to meet CAA §112(c)(6)'s 90% requirement for hazardous air pollutants is a legislative rulemaking subject to APA notice-and-comment requirements. EPA's determination, having declared the end not only of its multi-...
Desert Citizens Against Pollution v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit upheld an EPA rule that added the gold mine ore processing and production area source category to the list of source categories to be regulated under CAA §112(c)(6). CAA §112(c)(6) requires action by EPA on seven bioaccumulative hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including mercury, ...
Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station
A district court held that the CAA preempts individuals' tort law action against a coal-fired power plant for property damage stemming from the plant's air emissions. In essence, the individuals' complaint attacks the plant's air emissions and asks the court to regulate them. But the CAA provides a ...
Wildearth Guardians v. Lamar Utilities Board
A district court held that utilities violated CAA §112(g) by upgrading an existing power plant in Lamar, Colorado, from a natural gas-fired plant into a coal-fired one without receiving a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) determination. When the state environmental agency first issued th...
Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future v. Ultra Resources, Inc.
A district court denied a company's motion to dismiss an environmental group's CAA citizen suit against it for building seven compressor stations without first obtaining a nonattainment new source review permit. The company claimed that it properly applied for and received less stringent permits fro...
Western Watersheds Project v. Ellis
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group attorney fees after it successfully challenged BLM's post-fire grazing decisions and authorizations in the Jarbridge Resource Area in Idaho. In 2004, an environmental group filed suit against BLM challenging its renewal...