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.

Industry Cites EPA’s Warning On Georgia CCR Permit Ahead Of Arguments

One day before an appellate court is slated to hear arguments in a suit over EPA’s interpretation of its 2015 coal ash rule, industry petitioners are pointing to the agency’s recent warning to Georgia officials regarding potential violations in a local facility’s closure permit as a way to highlight what they say is the latest iteration of EPA’s enforcement of its novel interpretation. Counsel for petitioners in the suit Electric Energy Inc. (EEI), et al., v. EPA, et al.,...

Large Coalition Of States Sues EPA To Overturn Tougher PM NAAQS

A coalition of two dozen states -- 22 led by Republicans and two by Democrats -- is suing EPA to scrap the agency’s recently strengthened national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), in which EPA significantly toughened a key annual health-based limit for the pollutant. The states filed suit at the first opportunity March 6 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the same day EPA published the rule in the...

Alabama Urges Court To Deny EPA Request To Stay Coal Ash Deadline Suit

Alabama is urging a federal court to reject EPA’s bid to continue delaying its suit seeking a deadline for the agency to make a decision on its application to operate its own coal ash permitting program, with the legal wrangling coming as EPA is continuing negotiations with a local company that could set a precedent for coal ash enforcement in the state. Parties filed a March 4 joint status report to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia...

EPA set to publish PM NAAQS rule, starting clock for litigation

EPA is scheduled to publish its rule tightening national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the Federal Register on March 6, starting a 60-day deadline for court challenges to the regulation -- which has been broadly attacked by industry groups and GOP lawmakers, but supported by public health advocates. The agency released a prepublication version of its Register notice on March 5, almost a month after its Feb. 7 announcement of the NAAQS rulemaking...

EPA Launches First AIM Act Criminal Case For Illegal HFC Imports

EPA and other agencies are launching their first criminal prosecution for smuggling climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in refrigeration and other sectors, offering the latest indication that the agency is taking a tough approach to enforcing the 2020 HFC control law. “This is the first time the Department of Justice [DOJ] is prosecuting someone for illegally importing greenhouse gases, and it will not be the last,” promised U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath for the Southern District of California in a March 4...

EPA reaches deal to act on western states’ air plans

EPA has reached a proposed consent decree to take overdue final action approving or disapproving a wide range of measures submitted by Arizona, Colorado and Utah under their state implementation plans (SIPs) for meeting national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone, particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). The proposed agreement , scheduled for publication in the Federal Register March 5, would settle litigation brought by environmentalists in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California...

D.C. Circuit Largely Revokes EPA Bar On SSM Waivers In State Air Plans

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has dealt EPA and environmentalists a major blow by largely vacating the agency’s “SIP Call” rule that ordered states to remove regulatory waivers for excess air emissions during periods of plant startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) from their air quality plans. In a long-awaited March 1 decision in Environmental Committee of the Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group, Inc., v. EPA, et al., the court...

DOD Cites Superfund Bar In Bid To Escape Some Cases In AFFF MDL

The Defense Department (DOD) is asking a federal court to dismiss several claims from the massive multi-district litigation (MDL) over PFAS contamination from firefighting foam, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction because the claims are challenges to cleanup actions, which the Superfund law bars courts from reviewing. “This Court lacks jurisdiction over the Remedial Claims under section 113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (‘CERCLA’),” which bars pre-enforcement judicial review of such actions, DOD says in a Feb...

Deepening Split, 10th Circuit Backs EPA On Venue For GNP SIP Denial Suits

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is detailing its view that EPA’s disapproval of states’ “good neighbor” air plans is “nationally applicable” and must be litigated in the D.C. Circuit, rejecting other courts’ reasoning and deepening a circuit split as the Supreme Court considers staying EPA’s broader interstate air policy. In a Feb. 27 unanimous opinion in the consolidated case State of Utah v. EPA , a 10th Circuit panel explains its recent order transferring the litigation...

Environmentalists Seek To Vacate EPA’s CAFO Petition Denial, Citing CWA

Environmentalists are urging a federal appeals court to vacate and remand EPA’s denial of their 2017 petition seeking revised effluent limits for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), charging that the agency’s denial as well as its refusal to revisit its agricultural stormwater exemption violates the Clean Water Act (CWA) and is arbitrary and capricious. “In its denial, EPA acknowledged that it has authority to address some of the most critical failures of its current regulations -- including the ‘agricultural stormwater...

Washington tribe threatens to sue EPA over ‘failure’ of temperature TMDL

A tribe in Washington state has filed a notice of intent (NOI) letter threatening to sue EPA and the state government over continued violations of temperature-focused total maximum daily load (TMDL) cleanup plans for tribal waters, charging that regulators’ attempts to control excess heat that can harm aquatic life have been “a complete failure.” The Swinomish Tribal Community in Washington state filed an NOI targeting EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology alleging that “ongoing violations of temperature standards” for...

GOP States Push Constitutional Claims In Legal Attack On Amended WOTUS

A coalition of 24 Republican state attorneys general (AG) is stepping up its constitutional claims over the Biden administration’s final “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, warning that it is plagued by violations of Due Process, the Commerce Clause, the major-questions doctrine, and the Tenth Amendment. The GOP states, led by West Virginia AG Patrick Morrisey, filed a Feb. 26 motion for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, charging that EPA and...

Opposing ‘Super Deference’ To EPA, Luminant Seeks SO2 Status Rehearing

Texas power generator Luminant is asking a federal appeals court for en banc rehearing of its decision upholding EPA’s designation of areas in the state as violating national air quality limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2), citing the court’s “super deference” to EPA that amounts to an “unwarranted and dangerous expansion of agency power.” In a Feb. 23 petition , Luminant asks the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to review its Jan. 11 split panel ruling...

EPA-Illinois Civil Rights Deal Requires Review Of Past Compliance History

EPA has entered into a new, landmark civil rights agreement with the Illinois EPA (IEPA) that includes first-time requirements for the state agency to consider a permit applicant’s past compliance history and impose additional permitting requirements to offset past harms. The Feb. 23 agreement could “serve as a model for strengthening environmental justice (EJ) protections in states across the country,” the Natural Resources Defense Council and several other environmental groups say in a Feb. 23 statement. “The agreement creates both...

Backing Cert, Industry Warns CSO Ruling Eviscerates CWA Permit Shield

Industry, municipal and a range of other groups are urging the Supreme Court to grant the City and County of San Francisco’s petition for review of a split appellate ruling finding that EPA has authority to set general narrative prohibitions in Clean Water Act (CWA) permits, fearing that the underlying ruling upholding such terms undercuts the law’s permit shield, thus exposing them to enforcement actions. A coalition of 15 industry groups led by the National Mining Association (NMA) filed a...

Discovery Battle Delays Suit Seeking CWA Climate Resiliency Mandates

A closely watched federal district court suit over environmentalists’ claims that a Connecticut oil terminal must bolster its resilience to climate impacts in order to satisfy its Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permit has stalled in discovery, as the two sides remain at odds on several fact-finding issues that could further delay a substantive ruling. While the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut had scheduled discovery in Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) v. Shell Oil Company to end...

EJ Groups File Suit Over EPA Rule Giving Louisiana CCS Permit Primacy

Environmental justice groups are suing EPA over the agency’s decision to grant Louisiana primary authority to permit “Class VI” carbon storage wells in the state, a move seen as an important barometer for how Biden officials could address similar requests from other states. The groups -- including Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Healthy Gulf, and Alliance for Affordable Energy -- filed a Feb. 20 petition urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to vacate EPA’s recent...

EPA Again Plans To Reject Pennsylvania Power Plant Ozone Controls

In a dispute with implications for regional air quality in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, EPA continues to feud with Pennsylvania over the state’s controls on ozone-forming emissions from power plants, proposing to again reject regulators’ planned controls for specific facilities, as litigation continues over previously disapproved similar controls. In a notice published in the Federal Register Feb. 21, EPA notifies the state of its intent to deny the 2022 source-specific reasonably available control technology (RACT) controls submitted by the...

House GOP Seeks To Bar Narrative NPDES Limits, As Justices Weigh Cert

House Republicans are pushing legislation that would bar EPA and states from enforcing narrative prohibitions against violating applicable water quality standards just as the Supreme Court is weighing a petition from the City and County of San Francisco asking the justices to find that the agency lacks such authority under current law. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earlier this month filed its report on H.R. 7023 , a broad bill that bundles a series of measures seeking to overhaul...

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