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.

4th Circuit Dismisses Water District’s Appeal Of DuPont PFAS Settlement

A federal appeals court has granted a California water district’s request to drop its appeal of the $1.185 billion PFAS settlement between public water systems and DuPont, Chemours and Corteva, ending concerns that the appeal would delay payments to water utilities for contamination just as EPA finalized first-time drinking water standards for six PFAS. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in an April 17 order granted the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s April 16 request to...

Opposing Deadline Suit, EPA Says Wyoming CCR Application Incomplete

EPA is urging a federal district court against imposing a deadline on the agency to act on Wyoming’s application to operate its own coal combustion residuals (CCR) permitting program, charging that the state’s application is incomplete, and thus has not triggered the agency’s nondiscretionary duty to act under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). EPA filed an April 8 response brief to the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming in the suit State of Wyoming v. EPA...

4th Circuit denies EPA’s request for ‘good neighbor’ SIP case rehearing

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has denied EPA’s petition for rehearing of its split ruling against dismissing or transferring to the D.C. Circuit litigation over the agency’s disapproval of West Virginia’s plan for curbing interstate ozone, rejecting the agency’s bid on procedural grounds. In a brief April 16 order , the 4th Circuit in State of West Virginia denies EPA’s petition for rehearing of the case by the full court sitting en banc because...

Former Official Doubts Calls For EPA To Grant ‘Emergency’ In East Palestine

Citizen groups are again attacking EPA for what they say is its failure to declare a “public health emergency” due to the 2023 train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, OH, but a former top official says the agency lacks clear authority to do so, and granting the requests would be an “unusual” move. “It is very unusual for the public health statute or the public health emergency authority to be used in connection with an environmental challenge,” Stan...

DOJ Cites D.C. Circuit Vehicle Waiver Ruling To Defend EPA Standards

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says its recent victory against GOP states and others that challenged EPA’s permission for California vehicle emissions programs offers an additional legal precedent that undercuts states’ standing to challenge EPA’s model year 2023-26 light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas standards. The pitch surfaces in an April 15 letter formally notifying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit about the court’s April 9 decision in State of Ohio, et al. v. EPA, et al....

EPA Denies Air Toxics Waiver For Turbines, Prepares Multi-Pollutant Strategy

EPA has denied industry’s longstanding effort to “delist” over 1,000 stationary combustion turbines at 300 facilities from Clean Air Act air toxics regulations, a widely anticipated move that prepares the way for a broad new strategy that will address air toxics, ozone and greenhouse gases from the source category, the agency says. “Today’s action will ensure people who live, work and play near these facilities are protected from harmful air pollution,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, announcing the final decision...

EPA Urges High Court To Decline Review Of 9th Circuit’s CSO Permit Ruling

EPA is urging the Supreme Court to reject the City and County of San Francisco’s bid to review a split appellate ruling finding that the agency has authority to set general narrative prohibitions on violating applicable water quality standards (WQS), charging that the prohibitions at issue adequately define petitioner’s obligations and are not vague. Solicitor General (SG) Elizabeth Prelogar filed an April 12 brief on behalf of EPA to the Supreme Court in the suit City and County of San...

DOJ Cuts CWA Enforcement Deal After EPA Drops Administrative Case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and a pair of landowners have signed a proposed consent decree resolving alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations at their Nebraska property, after the pair last year successfully sued EPA to drop an administrative proceeding over the same allegations by charging that such actions are unconstitutional and require a jury trial. DOJ April 10 notified the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado that it is lodging a proposed consent decree to resolve its...

Florida Loses Bid To Preserve CWA 404 Program As Judge Rejects Stay

Florida has lost its bid to stay a court vacatur of its Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 program, after a federal judge rejected its motion for a limited stay and final judgment on the remaining claims, though the judge issued a partial judgment to allow the state to appeal previously decided claims that raised the bar for other states seeking such permitting authority. “The Court is persuaded that a limited stay is neither workable nor desirable,” Judge Randolph Moss...

GOP States Urge D.C. Circuit To Stay EPA’s Oil & Gas Methane Limits

A coalition of two dozen Republican-led states is urging an appellate court to pause implementation of EPA’s methane standards for the oil and gas sector, arguing the rule is “legally unsound” because it limits states’ discretion to write implementation plans for existing sources. “The rule’s sweeping reordering of our nation’s oil and gas industries deserves appropriate review. The court should stay this rule pending petitioners’ legal challenge,” says an April 12 motion to stay the rule, filed by the Oklahoma-led...

California Truckers Decline To Appeal Ruling Upholding L.A. Warehouse Rule

The California Trucking Association (CTA) is declining to appeal a federal court’s ruling upholding the Los Angeles region’s novel “indirect source rule” (ISR) to reduce pollution at warehouses -- a move that could provide further incentive for other states to copy the measure. “CTA will not be appealing the District Court decision,” a CTA source recently told Inside CalEPA in an email, ending speculation earlier this year that the group could pursue an appeal because CTA dropped its remaining...

Joining Other States, California Advances Constitutional ‘Green’ Amendment

California lawmakers are advancing a proposed constitutional amendment declaring that people living in the state have a “right to clean air and water and a healthy environment,” the latest in a growing number of states where environmentalists and supportive officials are seeking to adopt so-called “Green” amendments to their state constitutions. But the effort in California is facing pushback from industry groups and water agencies that fear the measure, if approved by voters in November, will lead to a wave...

Republicans Attack Good Neighbor Air Rule As ‘Major Questions’ Violation

House and Senate Republicans are charging that EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule violates the Supreme Court’s doctrine that “major questions” of public policy should be decided by Congress, rather than executive agencies, raising the stakes in the battle over the heavily contested regulation. In an April 8 amicus brief , dozens of lawmakers tell the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in State of Utah, et al. v. EPA, et al...

Youth Plaintiffs Reject EPA Motion To Dismiss Novel Climate Lawsuit

Youth plaintiffs are opposing EPA’s recent request to dismiss their novel constitutional litigation that argues the agency is discriminating against them by permitting unsafe levels of climate-warming pollution to be emitted from the facilities that it regulates. The youth argue in an April 8 filing in Genesis B., et al. v. EPA, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that the court should hear their “claims of systematic harm and discrimination by these...

D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenges To EPA Waiver For California Auto Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is rejecting Republican states’ constitutional challenge to EPA’s Clean Air Act federal preemption waiver for California’s passenger vehicle emissions standards, a decision that could bolster a suite of other final and pending waivers the state is seeking. In addition, the court in an April 9 opinion dismissed statutory challenges brought by both the states and liquid fuels groups, concluding that both sets of petitioners lack standing to bring the...

Facing ‘Headwinds’ In Court, EPA Takes ‘Step Back’ To Secure Key Policies

Following “headwinds” in the courts, EPA is taking a “step back” to ensure its environmental justice (EJ) and other policies and actions are more legally “robust” and able to withstand scrutiny from an increasingly conservative judiciary, Administrator Michael Regan told reporters last week. EPA faces “headwinds in the courts on a lot of issues,” Regan told reporters at the Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ) annual conference in Philadelphia April 5. As a result, part of the agency’s “strategy is to...

Industry, States Target Fundamental NAAQS Process Issues In PM Lawsuit

Industry groups and states suing over EPA’s tougher fine particulate matter (PM2.5) standard are raising a series of concerns with the broader standard-setting process, charging that Congress unlawfully delegated authority to the agency to set such standards as well as citing officials’ failure to consider costs and feasibility when crafting the reconsidered rule. In a statement of issues filed April 5 in the consolidated case Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al v. EPA, et al , a coalition of major industry...

Tire Makers Say 6PPD Case Would Allow ESA Suits Over ‘Nearly Any’ Product

An array of tire manufacturers is warning that if courts back fishing groups’ claim that their use of the anti-cracking agent 6PPD constitutes an Endangered Species Act (ESA) “take” because of the chemical’s link to fish kills, the resulting precedent would allow similar suits over “nearly any” consumer product that includes a toxic substance. “The inclusion of a chemical in a lawful consumer product is not a ‘take’ under the plain language of the ESA and its implementing regulations, which...

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