The court holds that a manufacturer is liable for response costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for dumping scrap steel and aluminum at a Superfund site. The court also grants another company's motion to certify for interlocutory appeal wheth...

The Seventh Circuit dismissed Michigan's petition for review of an EPA rule redesignating certain Native American lands to Class I status under the CAA's prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program. Michigan's challenge raises some important issues about the PSD program's regulatory struct...

The court holds that under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the former owners of a contaminated site in Georgia are liable for the disposal of hazardous waste at the site. A potentially responsible party (PRP) shipped containers of hazardous waste t...

A district court denied EPA's motion to dismiss an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the Agency's administrative stay of two rules setting forth hazardous air emission standards for boilers and commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units. EPA argued that the court lacked jurisdi...

The Ninth Circuit reversed in part a lower court decision upholding a "Clean Truck Program" adopted by a California port 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 provisi...

A district court held that an energy company did not violate the CAA when it failed to obtain a new source review (NSR) permit prior to renovating electric utility steam generating units at its Monroe, Michigan, power plant. The government argued that a permit was required because the renovations co...

The Seventh Circuit upheld a $100,000 penalty assessment against three power plant developers for PSD permit violations at a proposed coal-fired power plant site. The court previously held that the developers' PSD permit expired because they failed to begin construction within the permit's 18-month ...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of a CAA citizen suit challenging EPA's failure to take action to prevent the construction of three proposed pollution-emitting facilities in Kentucky. The lower court held that there was no mandatory duty to act and granted EPA's motion to dismiss for lack...

The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA guidance document addressing obligations of regions still in nonattainment of the 1997 one-hour ozone NAAQS. The guidance binds EPA regional directors and thus qualifies as final agency action. As such, it amounts to a legislative rule issued in violation of the ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's CAA claim challenging an air quality district's method for offsetting emissions increases in its new source review permit program. The district's regulation, contained in the state's EPA-approved SIP, requires that most increase...