Wild Fish Conservancy v. Jewell
The Ninth Circuit dismissed a conservation group's lawsuit challenging DOI's diversion of water from Icicle Creek, a tributary of the Wenatchee River and the Columbia River, to the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery without a state permit. The group argued that DOI violated §8 of the Reclamation Ac...
Alaska Wilderness League v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's challenge to a CAA permit that allows an oil company to conduct "pollutant emitting activities" associated with a drilling vessel in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope. CAA §504(e) is ambiguous as to whether "increment" requi...
United States v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P.
The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing 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 that took place 15-20 years earlier. The government alleged that the former owners ...
Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station
The Third Circuit held that the CAA does not preempt state law tort claims brought by private property owners against a source of pollution located within the state. The case arose after a group of 1,500 residents who live within one mile of a coal-fired power plant filed suit against the facility u...
Conservation Force v. Jewell
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to downlist the straighthorned markhor, a subspecies of wild goat found in Pakistan, from endangered to threatened. The petitioners—safari clubs, hunters, and international conservationists—argued that FWS violated the ESA and APA by failing to issue a 12-month ...
National Ass'n of Clean Water Agencies v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit remanded EPA's "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) standards for sewage sludge incinerators under CAA §129. The court upheld EPA's authority to regulate sewage sludge incinerators under §129, deferring to the Agency's interpretation of "solid waste incineration unit" as...
Doe Run Resources Corp. v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit denied petitions challenging EPA's revised NESHAPs for primary lead processing operations. Despite petitioners' argument to the contrary, EPA's use of the lead NAAQS as a benchmark in setting a NESHAP for lead compounds does not violate the CAA's prohibition on regulating elemental ...