A district court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation and granted an environmental group's motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning particulate matter emissions violations at an oil refinery in Indiana. The group brought a citizen suit under the CAA, arguing that the refine...
The D.C. Circuit denied, 2-1, New Jersey's challenge to a rule promulgated by EPA on remand concerning the CAA's new source review (NSR) program. The state argued that EPA inadequately considered concerns stemming from the predictive and subjective nature of projected emissions calculations and adop...
The D.C. Circuit vacated three provisions of EPA's 2018 rule implementing NAAQS for ozone. Environmental groups challenged four provisions of the rule: the interprecursor trading program, a provision allowing states to demonstrate compliance with the CAA's "reasonable further progress" milestone req...
The D.C. Circuit vacated EPA's Affordable Clean Energy Rule that repealed and replaced the Clean Power Plan as a means of regulating power plants' greenhouse gas emissions. A group of public health petitioners sought review of the rule's conclusion that §7411 of the CAA only permitted emission redu...
The Fifth Circuit denied petitions to review EPA's 2018 redesignation of Bexar County, Texas, from attainment to nonattainment and designation of three neighboring counties as attainment/unclassifiable for 2015 ozone NAAQS. Texas argued EPA only had authority to change the state's recommended design...
The Eighth Circuit affirmed, 2-1, a ruling in favor of a mining company in a challenge to the company's failure to obtain a CAA construction permit for a mine in rural North Dakota. The owners of an adjacent ranch argued that the company failed to obtain the proper permit under the CAA and failed to...
The Fourth Circuit granted for a second time an oil refinery's petition to review EPA's decision denying the refinery an exemption from biofuel requirements under the Agency's renewable fuel standard program, and vacated the Agency's decision. The refinery argued that EPA arbitrarily relied on DOE's...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling in a lawsuit concerning the U.S. government's and California's recovery of cleanup costs from a hazardous waste spill in the Sierra Nevada foothills that released toxic amounts of arsenic into local groundwater. Plaintiffs sued the company that had acq...
The Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling ordering mining and finance companies to comply with EPA's requests for information related to cleanup of a contaminated site in Utah. The companies argued that EPA exceeded its authority under CERCLA when it issued the information requests, the requests...
A district court held that an oil company was liable for a plume of gasoline beneath a former gasoline station that was migrating toward nearby housing units in White Plains, New York. A housing authority brought claims under RCRA, arguing its property was contaminated by discharges of gasoline and ...