Litigation

Latest news on lawsuits brought by environmentalists, industry and others challenging EPA rules on a broad range of issues, as well as breaking stories on state, federal and Supreme Court hearings and decisions.

Topic Subtitle
Latest news on lawsuits brought by environmentalists, industry and others challenging EPA rules on a broad range of issues, as well as breaking stories on state, federal and Supreme Court hearings and decisions.

Environmentalists, Toledo sue over EPA’s approval of Lake Erie TMDL

Environmentalists, the City of Toledo, OH and Lucas County, OH are suing EPA over the agency’s approval of Ohio’s plan for controlling nutrient pollution in western Lake Erie, renewing a long-running battle over efforts to limit harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other adverse effects from agricultural pollution. Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based group, along with city and county officials, filed a May 1 suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio charging that EPA...

Appellate Court Backs Use Of SILs In Air Permits As EPA Readies Guide

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is backing Louisiana air regulators’ use of “significant impact levels” (SILs) to approve a gas export terminal’s air permit, reinforcing the legality of the screening tools ahead of EPA guidance that will address environmentalists’ concerns that SILs enable industry to emit excess pollution. Environmentalists have long contested the legality of SILs, which are EPA-set values that are used to determine whether emissions increases from an industrial source “contribute” to air quality...

In Precedent, 3rd Circuit Rejects Pennsylvania Challenge To EPA’s FIP Power

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has rejected challenges by Pennsylvania and operators of coal-fired power plants to EPA’s federal ozone plan imposing emissions controls on plants in the state, in a precedential decision that upholds EPA’s right to impose a federal plan even where a state has modified its own plan to address shortcomings. In its unanimous ruling May 2 in Keystone-Conemaugh Projects LLC v. EPA , a three-judge panel upholds EPA’s federal implementation plan (FIP)...

In Key Test Case, Industry Backs EPA’s Use Of ‘Exceptional Events’ Policy

Major industry groups are joining local business and municipal organizations to defend a first-time legal challenge of EPA’s use of its exceptional events policy to exclude the air quality effects of Canadian wildfire smoke when it determined in 2022 that Detroit was attaining federal ozone standards. In amicus briefs filed earlier this week in Sierra Club v. EPA , the groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to reject environmentalists’ lawsuit seeking to reverse the...

EPA deal in Nevada ‘good neighbor’ suit would lift stay

EPA has reached agreement with the Nevada Cement Company to settle suits brought against the agency’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate air rule, in a deal that lifts a stay on the controversial rule in Nevada while also requiring the company to either install additional controls, or demonstrate why more controls are unnecessary. In a May 1 Federal Register notice , EPA outlines the proposed deal that would settle two lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Awaiting High Court, San Francisco Faces New EPA Enforcement Over CSOs

Warning of “widespread failures,” EPA and California are bringing a new enforcement action against the City and County of San Francisco for permit violations stemming from operations of two combined sewer systems, even as the municipality waits for the Supreme Court to decide on whether it will review its separate case challenging federal limits at one of the systems. The Justice Department on behalf of EPA, and California Attorney Rob Bonta (D) on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Regional...

Groups Vow To Sue EPA Over Failure To Issue CWA Waterbody ‘Report Cards’

A coalition of environmental groups has filed a notice of intent (NOI) to sue EPA over its failure to craft water quality inventories that the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires it to submit to Congress every other year, while separately pressing the agency in an informal letter to address what they say are other major flaws in the water program. Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), on behalf of Waterkeeper Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), sent a joint NOI to...

9th Circuit Panel Grants DOJ Push To End Youth Climate Suit Before Trial

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is granting the Justice Department’s (DOJ) request to dismiss youth plaintiffs’ long-running constitutional climate case against the federal government before a lower court can hold their long-sought trial, dealing a major blow to the plaintiffs. In a five-page opinion issued late May 1 , the panel concludes that a district court judge incorrectly allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint even after the 9th Circuit in a...

GOP States Urge Justices To Send SIP Denial Suits To Regional Courts

A coalition of 17 mainly GOP-led states is asking the Supreme Court to back Utah and Oklahoma’s argument that regional appeals courts must hear challenges to EPA denials of states’ plans for curbing interstate ozone, escalating a legal fight with broad implications for Clean Air Act litigation over state implementation plans (SIPs) in general. The states, led by Alabama, filed a May 1 amicus brief in Oklahoma, et al. v. EPA, et al , where petitioners are hoping to...

Judge Tries To ‘Wrap My Head’ Around Complex TSCA ‘Transparency’ Suit

A federal district judge said she is “struggling to wrap my head around” the novel legal arguments and conflicting procedural requests at issue in environmentalists’ long-pending suit over transparency in the TSCA new-chemicals review program, during a May 1 hearing that marked the first concrete action in the case since early 2023. Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did not announce a ruling after the hearing in Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), et...

Akron Loses Bid To ‘Stay’ Court’s Denial Of CSO Consent Decree Revision

A federal district court judge has rejected Akron, OK’s motion to “stay” on appeal his refusal to eliminate key wastewater treatment mandates from a 2014 combined sewer overflow (CSO) consent decree, amid broader concerns from municipalities on the long-term obligations they face under similar settlements with EPA. Judge John Adams’s April 23 order leaves in place provisions of Akron’s decree that require it to construct a new treatment facility and bar dumping what the agency has argued would be millions...

National Industry Groups File Separate Suit Over CARB Truck ZEV Fleet Rule

A recent constitutional lawsuit filed by two national business groups challenging California’s rule requiring truck fleets to purchase increasing numbers of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) is being sent to a federal district court judge who is already overseeing a similar “related” lawsuit brought last fall by the California Trucking Association (CTA). The newer lawsuit -- American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce; and Associated Equipment Distributors v. Steven S. Cliff, et al . -- has been sent to Judge Troy Nunley of...

DOE Drops ‘High-Level’ Nuclear Waste Definition In Hanford Cleanup Deal

EPA, the Energy Department (DOE) and Washington state have agreed to amend their settlement for the cleanup of DOE’s massive Hanford, WA, nuclear waste complex, setting new deadlines for completing a long-sought waste treatment plant while dropping use of the department’s controversial new definition of “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW) that allowed for eased disposal options. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management announced April 29 that it had reached an agreement with EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology for “a landmark...

Ethanol Groups Challenge Fuel Economy Formula In EPA’s Auto Rule

Several ethanol groups are challenging EPA’s update to test-fuel requirements, adopted alongside the agency’s final passenger vehicle emissions rulemaking, claiming that a revised fuel economy calculation to account for the test fuel unlawfully boosts the stringency of fuel economy standards. The April 26 petition for review , Texas Corn Producers et al., v. Michael Regan , filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is separate from broader litigation in the D.C. Circuit that Republican-led states are...

Judges Offer No Clues On Biogas Producers’ Challenge To EPA’s RFS Rule

Federal appellate judges are weighing arguments by biogas producers that EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rule setting biofuel volumes for 2023-2025 unlawfully regulates the sector for the first time but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit offered no signs at oral argument which way it would rule. At argument April 25 in Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas v. EPA , Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia, both Democratic appointees, pressed biogas...

Florida seeks appellate stay on 404 program’s vacatur

Florida is urging a federal appeals court to quickly stay a lower court ruling vacating EPA’s approval of the state’s Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 permitting program, saying the decision is likely to be reversed and imposes irreparable injury by placing Florida projects in “indefinite regulatory limbo.” Florida filed an April 25 motion to stay to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in its appeal of Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), et al., v....

Judge Eyes Superfund To Address PFAS Claims Against DOD In MDL

The federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation (MDL) on claims of PFAS contamination from firefighting foam is recommending the creation of a task force to explore how the Superfund law -- and EPA’s recent rule -- may provide an easier way to address claims against the military than pending claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). “It seems to me we've had a major development occur,” Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina...

Court Rejects NEPA Challenge To NRC Exemption For Diablo Power Plant

A federal appellate court has rejected environmentalists’ challenges under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other laws to a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to provide an exemption to a license renewal application deadline for the continued operation of California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, finding the agency did not act arbitrarily or capriciously. “The panel held that NRC’s decision to grant the exemption was not arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law. Nor did the NRC act...

Power Sector Rules Bring ‘Modest And Manageable’ Grid Effects, EPA Says

Compliance with EPA’s just-completed power plant greenhouse gas requirements and several other new rules for the sector will impose relatively few risks to adequate power supply, the agency says in new analysis, offering a rebuttal to attacks from industry and their allies that the rules will spark major reliability problems. Even though some utilities may run their fossil fuel-fired plants less often or shutter them altogether rather than install carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to comply with the GHG...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Sign up for 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.