9th Circuit Rejects Biomass GHG Permit Challenge, Defers To EPA Framework

An appellate court panel has rejected environmentalists' challenge to the stringency of the first EPA-issued biomass permit to include greenhouse gas limits, sidestepping questions on whether biomass can be considered a GHG control technology and instead deferring to EPA guidance and the agency's long-running effort to establish a scientific biomass accounting framework (BAF). A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said in a Sept. 2 ruling in Helping Hand Tools, et al. v. U.S....