The court upholds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) redesignation of five parcels of tribal land as a nonfederal Class I area under the Clean Air Act (CAA) prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program. The court first holds that Arizona's chamber of commerce lacks standing ...

The court holds that trade associations' action for judicial review of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule permitting the use of "any credible evidence" to prove or disprove Clean Air Act (CAA) violations is not ripe for review. The heart of the associations' argument is that the credi...

The court holds that under the Clean Air Act (CAA), federal entities cannot remove to federal court state and local government actions to enforce air quality laws. A California air quality management district brought a suit against the United States in state court seeking civil penalties for a U.S. ...

The court remands a municipality's request for litigation costs relating to its successful challenge of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act (CAA) rule establishing new source performance standards for the combustion of municipal solid waste. The court first holds that the muni...

The Second Circuit reversed a lower court decision dismissing a property owner's lawsuit against a zoning district that denied his variance request to build a single-family home on his land. The district denied his application because his proposal did not comply with a local zoning law that sets...

A district court dismissed the U.S. government's lawsuit against the current and former owners of a coal-fired power plant in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, for alleged CAA violations. The government alleged that the former owners undertook construction projects at the plant without having obtain...

The court denies most of oil companies' motions to dismiss in a class action suit brought by individual well owners claiming that the companies knowingly caused methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) contamination of their groundwater. The court first holds that the claims of several of the class partic...

The court denies a petition for review seeking reversal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator's decision not to object to a state agency's determination that the heightened permitting requirements of the prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program do not apply to ...

The court affirms a district court holding that the Clean Air Act (CAA) does not preempt California's ban of the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in oxygenated fuel. CAA §211(c)(4)(A) preempts state regulation of fuel for purposes of motor vehicle emissions, but California is exempt fr...

The court held that a 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule specifying that Nevada was divided into more than 250 baseline areas for the Clean Air Act (CAA) prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program was not arbitrary or capricious. Based on an ambiguous 1991 EPA regulation...