United States v. Midwest Generation, LLC
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. ...
Montana Environmental Information Center v. United States Bureau of Land Management
A district court dismissed environmental groups' claims that BLM failed to adequately consider climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in violation of NEPA before it approved oil and gas leases on federal land in Montana in 2008 and 2010. The groups argued that BLM's failure to f...
Ass'n of Taxicab Operators USA v. City of Dallas
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...
American Trucking Ass'ns v. Los Angeles, City of
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the Los Angeles port's "Clean Truck Program," which was designed in part to reduce emissions related to port operations, including emissions from trucks. The concession agreements implementing the plan set forth a number of provisions covering, among ot...
Sierra Club v. United States Department of Agriculture
The D.C. Circuit held that a power company may not appeal a lower court decision that USDA's Rural Utilities Service violated NEPA before granting approvals and financial assistance to the company's expansion of its coal-fired power plant. An environmental group filed suit against the Service for fa...
Association of Battery Recyclers, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency
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...
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions for review challenging NRC's issuance of a combined license to construct and operate two new units at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia as well as its approval of an amended design for a nuclear power plant reactor on which the Vogtle application relied. Env...