The D.C. Circuit upheld amendments EPA made to its CAA regional consistency regulations that allow regional offices to act counter to national policies when ordered to do so by federal circuit courts. EPA issued the amended regulations in 2016 in response to the D.C. Circuit's decision in National E...

A district court ordered EPA to promulgate revised CAA emission standards for nine industrial sectors by October 1, 2021. Environmental groups wanted the overdue rulemakings to be completed within two years, while the Agency requested seven years. The court determined that three and a half years was...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's 2012 regional haze rule, which seeks to restore air quality and visibility in certain national parks and wilderness areas to what they would be under natural conditions. The rule requires states to impose best available retrofit technology (BART) on certain stationary p...

The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part petitions concerning EPA's NESHAPs for industrial boilers. The first challenge raised by environmental groups concerned regulations that indirectly control a group of organic pollutants by limiting carbon monoxide emissions as a proxy for the targe...

The D.C. Circuit held that EPA unlawfully revoked the 1997 ozone NAAQS when it implemented the 2008 standard. In 2008, EPA set the ozone NAAQS at 75 parts per billion (ppb). In 2015, when implementing the standard, the Agency eliminated the 1997 standard of 84 ppb on the grounds that it was impossib...

A district court held that EPA failed to act when it did not rule within 60 days on Connecticut's petition concerning upwind pollution. In June 2016, Connecticut filed a petition pursuant to §126(b) of the CAA for EPA to make a finding that Brunner Island is emitting air pollutants that significant...

The D.C. Circuit held that EPA did not violate the CAA by modifying, without notice and comment, its prior understandings of how to measure a proposed transportation project’s impact on ambient levels of particulate matter. In 2006, EPA revised “hot spot" regulations for fine particulate matter....

A district court ordered EPA to issue infrastructure requirements for the 2012 fine particulate matter NAAQS for five states within 90 days. In 2015, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island missed their deadlines to present compliance plans for the 2012 fine p...

A district court denied EPA's request to amend a 2012 consent decree obligating the Agency to approve state regional haze plans. In 2011, environmental groups sued the Agency to compel it to take action on nine states' regional haze plans. Under a consent decree, EPA was given until September 9, 201...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a 2014 EPA settlement that required the Agency to set a phased schedule for it to issue air quality designations as required by a 2010 sulfur dioxide NAAQS. In 2013, when EPA missed the statutory deadline to issue its designations under the CAA, environmental groups sued to ...