Judges Wrestle With ‘Prospective’ Air Law Penalties In Key Citizen Suit Test

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit are wrestling with EPA and environmentalists’ position that Clean Air Act penalties, while calculated according to past violations, are inherently “prospective” and designed to deter future unlawful emissions, in a landmark appeal by ExxonMobil considered a key test of standing in citizen suits. At oral argument May 16, the full court sitting en banc again reviewed environmentalists’ years-old citizen suit brought against Exxon for thousands of alleged violations...