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Reunion in Salem: Updating the MTBE Controversy

Concerned about groundwater contamination and the potential health effects of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive used to curtail air pollution, several states have banned its use. Similarly, MTBE has been the subject of a great deal of litigation. And while the Energy Policy Act of 2005 did not ban MTBE outright, it eliminated the federal oxygenate requirement for gasoline, thereby making the additive unnecessary. But according to Richard Faulk and John Gray, the controversy surrounding MTBE is greatly exaggerated.

Cook Inletkeeper v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

A district court upheld a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit issued under CWA §404 for a railroad extension project in an area surrounded by wetlands. Two functional assessments were prepared for the project. An environmental group argued that the second functional assessment, which was performed ...

Kunaknana v. United States Army Corps of Engineers

A district court held that an environmental group lacked standing to challenge a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit issued to an oil company to fill certain wetlands in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska for a future drill site. The group's members have not demonstrated the requisite injury in...

Hawai'i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui

A district court held that a Hawaiian county illegally discharged wastewater into the ocean through groundwater injection wells in violation of the CWA. An environmental group sued the county, seeking to compel it to apply for and comply with the terms of an NPDES permit, and to pay civil penalties ...

Alec L. v. McCarthy

The D.C. Circuit dismissed teenagers' lawsuit against the federal government for failing to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Invoking the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. §1331, as the basis for subject matter jurisdiction, the minors alleged that the federal defendants are trustees of essential na...

Sierra Club v. FutureGen Industrial Alliance

A district court dismissed an environmental group's citizen suit in which it alleged a power company was attempting to construct a major modification of its coal-fired power plant in Illinois without a PSD permit in violation of the CAA. The project will physically replace an existing boiler with a ...