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.

EPA makes deals to determine ozone attainment in three states

EPA has cut separate deals with Kentucky and environmentalists setting deadlines for make decisions regarding the ozone attainment status of areas in Kentucky, California and Arizona, after the agency missed statutory deadlines to determine if areas met federal ozone limits and redesignate them to “attainment” status. In one proposed consent decree (CD) announced in the Federal Register Aug. 28, EPA agrees to act by Dec. 8 on Kentucky’s request to redesignate the Kentucky portion of the Louisville, Kentucky-Indiana ozone...

EPA Strips ‘Affirmative Defense’ From Polyether Polyols Air Toxics Rule

EPA is stripping “affirmative defense” provisions from its air toxics regulation governing polyether polyols (PEPO) manufacturers, as part of an ongoing effort to remove the measures that provide a shield from civil liability for industry in the event of malfunctions, after courts found such provisions unlawful. In a rule signed Aug. 27 by Administrator Lee Zeldin ahead of its upcoming publication in the Federal Register , EPA removes the affirmative defense from the national emission standard for the hazardous air...

D.C. Circuit Embraces High Court’s NEPA Precedent, Curbing Challenges

The D.C. Circuit has “embraced” the Supreme Court’s precedent for how courts should grant “substantial deference” to agencies’ National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews in a ruling that industry lawyers say will stymie environmentalists’ efforts to file such suits in the favored venue under the landmark environmental law. In its first ruling interpreting the high court’s recent Seven County decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that...

New Mexico Urges Judicial Panel To Send PFAS Suit Back To State Court

New Mexico is urging a federal judicial panel to reject Air Force efforts to move its recently filed lawsuit against the service over PFAS releases to the massive multidistrict litigation (MDL) over firefighting foam, arguing the suit belongs in state court in a case that could test what recourse states have in pursuing their claims against federal facilities. In an Aug. 20 brief , New Mexico Attorney General (AG) Raul Torrez told the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML)...

EPA Approval Of RFS Refinery Waivers Raises Thorny Legal Questions

EPA’s major policy shift that allows for dozens of full or partial waivers from renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates is raising difficult legal questions about the agency’s rationale that differs sharply from Biden-era practice, as EPA is redefining the “disproportionate” harm required to win a waiver. Central to the new policy , announced Aug. 22, is a new interpretation of the statutory term “disproportionate economic hardship” (DEH) that is required for small refineries to win waivers from their...

Industry Lays Out Arguments Against CARB Challenge To Waiver Repeals

Industry attorneys are laying out arguments to the 9th Circuit for why courts should reject California’s challenge to the approval by Congress and President Donald Trump of Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions that repealed the state’s Clean Air Act preemption waivers to implement several more stringent vehicle emissions rules. The arguments are contained in an Aug. 25 filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree), et al. v. EPA...

Court Dismisses Ohio Plant’s Suit Over Biden EPA’s CCR Interpretation

A federal court is dismissing an Ohio power plant’s suit challenging the Biden EPA’s interpretation of its 2015 coal combustion residuals (CCR) rule when it denied the facility’s request to extend deadlines to cease receipt of waste and close one of its facilities, marking the second court to find the agency “straightforwardly applied” the rule’s mandates. The decision could complicate efforts by the Trump EPA and industry groups seeking to overhaul the agency’s 2015 CCR rule and some of its...

Utilities Back EPA Legacy CCR Extensions, Seek Additional Changes

Regional power utilities are supporting the Trump EPA’s direct final rule that would extend certain deadlines for complying with the Biden-era rule governing legacy coal combustion residuals (CCR) surface impoundments, though they are recommending additional extensions and emphasizing the need for significant revisions in a future rulemaking. EPA on Aug. 25 posted a series of comments filed by regional power utilities expressing support for the agency’s direct final rule and companion proposal that would extend deadlines for facilities to comply...

Court finds EES Coke liable on all counts of NSR violations

A federal district court has found Detroit-based EES Coke to be “liable on all counts” of violating Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) requirements in a long-running enforcement case that the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing to pursue. The Aug. 25 opinion in United States v. EES Coke Battery LLE, et al., by Judge Gershwin Drain of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted DOJ’s motion for summary judgment against the company...

9th Circuit Grapples With Retroactive Application Of Sackett In Citizen Suit

An appellate panel is grappling with whether a district court properly rejected a defendant’s bid to dismiss a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit post-verdict for lack of subject matter jurisdiction as a result of the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, appearing to test defendants’ ability to apply the high court’s precedent retroactively. A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit heard Aug. 11 arguments in the suit Inland Empire Waterkeeper, et al., v....

EPA, environmentalists spar over methane suit deadline

EPA and environmental groups are sparring over whether the agency should receive more time to respond to the groups’ request that the D.C. Circuit quickly scrap EPA’s interim final rule delaying oil and gas companies’ compliance deadlines for Biden-era methane rules. In an Aug. 20 filing in Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), et al. v. Lee Zeldin, et al ., EPA asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to extend by 28 days its current Aug...

Judge Stays CWA PFAS Citizen Suit Amid Plaintiff Fears Of EPA Intervention

A federal judge has granted chemical manufacturer Chemours’ request to stay a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit seeking to enforce discharge limits at its West Virginia plant while the company appeals a landmark preliminary injunction requiring the facility to immediately comply with its permit and limit its releases. While the Aug. 22 order maintains the preliminary injunction, which Chemours did not seek to stay, it is nonetheless a blow to the plaintiffs -- West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) and...

In Clash With Trump Priorities, Court Halts Detention Center Citing NEPA

A federal judge’s decision to halt construction at the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in the Florida Everglades based on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) violations signals a major collision with two of the Trump administration’s top policy priorities: deporting undocumented migrants and rolling back NEPA mandates. In an Aug. 21 order , Judge Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District for the Southern District of Florida blocked further construction of the facility after finding that officials had unlawfully sidestepped NEPA review...

Split 4th Circuit Finds Exposure Claims Satisfy Standing In Monitoring Suit

A split 4th Circuit panel has held that plaintiffs in a class action suit seeking medical monitoring for ethylene oxide (EtO) exposures in West Virginia satisfied Article III injury and standing when citing past exposures, a loss for industry defendants and their supporters who argued that any injuries from such exposures are too speculative. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued an Aug. 18 opinion in the suit Lee Ann Sommerville v. Union Carbide Corp. , reversing...

Sierra Club Suit Says CRA Repeal Of Air Toxics Rule Invalidates 2015 Finding

Sierra Club is seeking to renew litigation over EPA’s landmark 2015 finding that the agency met a statutory requirement to regulate emissions of seven “persistent and bioaccumulative” air toxics, claiming that lawmakers’ repeal of a Biden-era rule barring reclassification of some industry plants to less-regulated status invalidates the 2015 finding. A successful legal challenge to this finding could put pressure on EPA to toughen air toxics rules or again show how it has met the Clean Air Act’s obligation to...

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