The Supreme Court of Texas held that the Texas Clean Air Act and the Act’s enforcement mechanisms in the Texas Water Code preempt a Houston air-quality ordinance. The Houston ordinance’s enforcement provisions are inconsistent with the statutory enforcement requirements. The ordinance allows cri...

The D.C. Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, dismissed a petition challenging an EPA computer model that states must use to estimate motor vehicle emissions when developing their strategies to comply with the CAA. Kansas and Nebraska, as well as two nonprofit organizations, alleged that the model is...

The Fifth Circuit upheld an individual's sentence and conviction for wire fraud, money laundering, and CAA violations for selling false renewable fuel credits. The individual represented to EPA and to fuel companies seeking to purchase renewable fuel credits that he manufactured renewable fuels when...

A district court ordered EPA to either promulgate revised emissions standards for the the pulp mill and nutritional yeast manufacturing source categories, or issue a determination that such standards are not required under the CAA. EPA promulgated emissions standards for both of these major source c...

The Tenth Circuit dismissed an environmental group's citizen suit against an Oklahoma power company for CAA violations at a power plant. The group claimed the company modified a coal-fired boiler without first obtaining an emission-regulating permit as required by the CAA. But because the group file...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed environmental groups' lawsuit seeking to vacate an EPA rule that implements the CAA's new source review (NSR) permitting scheme in nonattainment areas. The groups filed suit after EPA issued an energy company a PSD permit to build a waste incinerator in Arecibo, Puerto Ric...

The Ninth Circuit held that EPA did not act arbitrarily and capriciously when it disapproved in part Arizona's regional haze SIP and issued a replacement federal implementation plan (FIP) in place of the disapproved SIP elements. First, EPA did not act arbitrarily and capriciously when it disapprove...

A district court dismissed environmental groups' CAA citizen suit against a crude oil transloading facility for constructing and operating the facility without a prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permit. The groups allege that the facility is required to have a PSD permit because it has ...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed petitions challenging EPA's authorization of California regulations intended to reduce emissions of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen from in-use nonroad diesel engines, ruling that venue was improper. A trucking company filed a petition for review of EPA's nonroad...

The Fourth Circuit granted EPA's petition for a writ of mandamus to preclude an energy company from deposing EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a lawsuit seeking to compel EPA to evaluate the CAA's impacts on jobs under §321(a). High-ranking government officials may not be deposed or called to test...