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.

D.C. Circuit Revives EPA Emergency ‘Affirmative Defense’ Pollution Rule

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit has reinstated EPA’s 30-year-old policy that had provided industry with an affirmative defense against enforcement actions in the event of an unavoidable emergency, finding that the Biden-era measure that sought to rescind the policy was arbitrary and capricious. “EPA rescinded a [30]-year-old affirmative defense on the ground that it was unlawful under the Clean Air Act,” the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in the Sept...

Ramping Up Climate Attacks, Republicans Target ELI’s Training For Judges

Republicans are ramping up pressure on the non-profit Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its climate science education curriculum for judges, claiming the group secretly seeks to tip the legal scales in favor of regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which they say should disqualify it from receiving any EPA grants. While ELI has rejected the assertion, the GOP’s attacks signal an expanding strategy for countering plaintiffs in climate-related cases by attacking the impartiality of judges ruling in those cases. House Judiciary Committee...

11th Circuit Cites NEPA Precedent To Lift Injunction On ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A split three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit is relying heavily on recent Supreme Court precedent curbing the scope of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews to overturn a district court’s preliminary injunction requiring the closure of the Florida Everglades immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” In a Sept. 4 ruling in Friends of the Everglades, et al. v. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), et al. , the U.S. Court of Appeals for 11th Circuit cites the high court’s...

D.C. Circuit Delays PM2.5 NAAQS Lawsuit, Buying EPA More Time For Repeal

The D.C. Circuit has granted EPA’s request for a further 45-day pause in litigation over the agency’s tougher 2024 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), buying more time for EPA to issue its proposal to scrap the Biden rule. In a Sept. 4 order in the consolidated suit Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. EPA, et al. , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit grants EPA’s abeyance request, over the...

DTE NSR Appeal Tests EPA Enforcement Power Over State-Issued Permits

Michigan utility DTE Energy is asking a federal court to certify interlocutory appeal of its ruling that a subsidiary is liable for violating strict Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permitting mandates, in an effort that could test whether the subsidiary is by itself a “major source” subject to NSR and whether EPA can disregard state permits. Because the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan accepted EPA’s position that the EES Coke battery subsidiary is a...

Groups sue to force EPA decision on San Joaquin Valley PM2.5 attainment

Environmental and equity groups are suing EPA in federal district court to compel the agency to formally determine whether California’s San Joaquin Valley region has attained the 2006 24-hour fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard, a move they hope will lead to tougher pollution controls. In a Sept. 2 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Committee for a Better Arvin, Little Manila Rising, Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, and Sierra Club allege that EPA...

Appeal Of Maryland Wind Farm Air Permit Tests Venue For Legal Challenges

A pending dispute before EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) over a state air permit for a major offshore wind project is testing whether local municipalities must challenge such permits before the EAB or in state court, though the Trump administration is planning to withdraw approval for the project, raising doubts about the litigation’s fate. In filings in the case, In Re: US Wind Inc., for the Maryland Offshore Wind Project , the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City and...

Environmentalists sue to compel ‘worst case’ spill rule

Environmental groups are suing EPA over its failure to issue regulations to prevent and contain hazardous substance spills from non-transportation-related onshore facilities, charging that the agency’s failure to do so is arbitrary and capricious. In an Aug. 28 complaint in Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, et al., v. EPA , the plaintiffs urged the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to declare the agency’s failure to issue hazardous substance spill regulations as unlawful,...

D.C. Circuit Ruling Opens Door To EPA Reclaiming Billions In GHGRF Funds

A split appellate panel has vacated a lower court ruling that stayed EPA efforts to withdraw around $16 billion in funds that the Biden administration distributed from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF), opening the door to officials seeking to reclaim the funds and forcing the plaintiffs to fight the case in claims court where their remedies are limited. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 in Climate United Fund et...

Court Allows EPA To Cancel $2.5 Billion In EJ Grants, Rejects Class Action

A federal district court is allowing EPA to cancel $2.5 billion in already obligated environmental justice (EJ) block grants, rejecting environmentalists’ efforts to bring a class-action suit against the agency and accepting EPA’s motion to dismiss the case after finding most of the claims belong in federal claims court. Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia delivered EPA a sweeping victory in an Aug. 29 opinion in Appalachian Voices, et al. v. EPA ,...

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Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Small Incinerators Air Emissions Rule

Two environmental groups are suing EPA over its Trump-era rule setting emissions standards for “other” solid waste incineration units (OSWI), which exempted many more small incinerators from tougher regulation than the agency originally proposed, notably units in remote areas of Alaska. In a suit filed Aug. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sierra Club and California Communities Against Toxics challenge EPA’s June 30 rule revising performance standards for new sources and emission guidelines for...

DOJ Launches Diversity Investigation Into CalEPA, CARB Hiring Practices

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is launching an investigation into whether California environment agencies are using what it sees as discriminatory hiring practices because the agencies seek to “advance racial equity,” along with efforts to “advance race-based decision-making.” DOJ in an Aug. 27 announcement launched the probe, with its Civil Rights Division sending CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia a letter the same day. “Race-based employment practices and policies in America’s local and state agencies violate equal treatment under the law,” said...

EPA Says High Court Ruling Boosts Jurisdictional Argument In Grant Case

EPA says a recent Supreme Court decision is boosting its jurisdictional argument in a major clean energy grant terminations case, while attorneys assert the decision is underscoring broader challenges for parties litigating against numerous such Trump administration grant terminations. “The Supreme Court has now twice held that district courts likely lack jurisdiction over [Administrative Procedure Act (APA)] challenges to grant terminations,” the Justice Department (DOJ) arguing on behalf of EPA says in an Aug. 28 filing to the U.S. Court...

EPA sends WOTUS proposal to OMB for interagency review

EPA has sent a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) that are subject to Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements to the White House for interagency review, with officials pledging to finalize the measure by the end of the year. The rule aims to align with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision that narrowed the scope of the CWA, particularly for wetlands. The agency’s draft proposed rule revising the definition of WOTUS...

EPA Union Sues To Reinstate Contract, Alleging Threats And Retaliation

A union representing EPA employees in Region 9 is suing to reinstate its bargaining rights and union contract, in the first legal challenge after the agency terminated collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for a host of unions in violation of a promise made to federal courts, though the plaintiffs face legal hurdles in their bid to win early relief. The unions filed an Aug. 21 amended complaint in the case, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), et...

EPA Threatens Criminal Charges For Union Staff Working On Personal Time

EPA is warning that union officials conducting union activities on their personal time without agency pre-approval may face criminal conflict-of-interest charges, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s attempts to eliminate unions at the agency. The move comes after EPA stripped union representatives of their previous right to use on-duty time for union activities, meaning the agency is now cracking down on all union activities. According to an Aug. 22 legal filing , EPA sent a series of messages to...

EPA Said To Reverse Support For CERCLA PFAS Rule, Eying Repeal

A top EPA waste official appears to be steering the agency toward reversing its planned support for the Biden-era rule designating two legacy PFAS as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law after hearing industry’s objections to the landmark regulation, with Administrator Lee Zeldin likely to soon decide whether to back the new position. According to The New York Times , Steven Cook, principal deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), in late July met...

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