Split Court Panel Finds Permits Must Count ‘Temporary’ Drilling Emissions

In a ruling with potentially far-reaching consequences for oil and gas drilling in Colorado and beyond, a divided appellate panel has vacated and remanded EPA’s approval of a Colorado air quality plan over the state’s exclusion of “temporary” air emissions under new source review (NSR) permitting, finding that the state must count such emissions. In its Sept. 18 ruling in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) v. EPA , a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th...