The Fifth Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision that imposed penalties against an oil company for alleged CAA permit violations at its industrial complex in Baytown, Texas. Environmental groups filed a CAA citizen suit against the company, alleging violations that occurred thousands of...
A district court vacated the Trump Administration's rescission of the Obama Administration's Waste Prevention Rule, which was enacted to reduce methane waste from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. California, New Mexico, and environmental groups argued the rescission violated the AP...
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's denial of New York's petition concerning cross-border pollution from nine upwind states. The state had asked EPA to find that power-generating and other facilities in the nine states were violating the CAA's "good neighbor" provision by producing emissions that contrib...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part petitions to review EPA's attainment designations for its 2015 ozone NAAQS. Environmental groups, municipal governments, and the state of Illinois argued that the Agency failed to follow its own scientific and technical record when it decided that ...
The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling upholding the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality's issuance of an air quality permit to construct a refinery. A conservation group argued the Department's omission of an enforceable permit limit for hazardous air pollutants (...
A district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction a suit concerning EPA's CAA obligations to regulate pollution from coke ovens. Environmental groups argued the CAA required EPA to perform a risk assessment every time it revised its technology-based standards for a hazardous polluti...
The Tenth Circuit held that EPA erred in denying an environmental group's petition to review the renewal of a state-issued Title V operating permit for a coal-fired power plant in Utah. The group's petition argued that EPA should object to the renewal because it failed to "assure compliance" with al...
The U.S. Supreme Court held, 7-2, that the Forest Service had authority under the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA) to issue a special use permit that granted a right-of-way for a segment of a natural gas pipeline to be constructed beneath the Appalachian Trail in George Washington National Forest. Environm...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court's dismissal of a suit challenging an automobile company's use of diesel-cheat devices to evade compliance with federally mandated emission standards. Two counties argued the company's installation of and modification to the dev...