Environmentalists Fight Effort To Preserve Air Permit ‘Affirmative Defense’

Environmentalists are seeking to intervene in industry litigation aimed at scrapping EPA’s July rule barring use of “affirmative defense” waivers in air permits, even as industry groups step up their attacks on the policy, charging it violates key constitutional prohibitions on uncompensated takings and unlawful search and seizure. In an Oct. 19 motion , groups including Sierra Club, Environmental Integrity Project and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for...