The D.C. Circuit upheld a $72 million judgment against an automobile manufacturer for violating a consent decree requiring certain model year 2005 engines to comply with EPA’s model-year 2006 nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standard. In 1998, EPA alleged that several major engine manufacturers viol...

The Fifth Circuit held that notices of violations EPA sent to two power plant operators for alleged CAA violations were not "final agency action" and, hence, not subject to judicial review. In the notices, EPA claimed that the operators violated the Act's PSD provisions in connection with certain ph...

The D.C. Circuit held that environmental groups lacked standing to challenge an EPA memo issued to regional directors in response to an earlier court decision vacating the Agency's 2011 Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (the "transport rule"), which sets sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions lim...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that EPA's regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new motor vehicles did not automatically trigger the CAA's permitting requirements for stationary sources that emit GHGs. The Court, therefore, vacated portions of the Agency's "tailoring" rule mandating PSD per...

A district court dismissed an environmental group's citizen suit in which it alleged a power company was attempting to construct a major modification of its coal-fired power plant in Illinois without a PSD permit in violation of the CAA. The project will physically replace an existing boiler with a ...

The D.C. Circuit vacated an EPA memorandum directing regional air districts to apply different criteria when making source determinations in its Title V or new source review (NSR) permitting decisions for facilities located in areas within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth ...

A district court dismissed an individual's CAA lawsuit against a Colorado utility and the state's environmental agency in which he alleged that toxic fumes were emitted into his neighborhood following a fire at a nearby power plant. The plaintiff lacks standing to file suit. Although he claims that ...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA’s decision to defer adopting new secondary NAAQS for oxides of sulfur (SOx) and nitrogen (NOx) pending further scientific study. Citing doubts about the accuracy of its aquatic acidification index model—used to quantify the connection between SOx and NOx in the air an...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA’s decision denying environmental groups’ request to add coal mines to the regulated list of stationary source categories under the CAA. In denying the groups’ petition for rulemaking, EPA made it clear that the denial was not a determination as to whether coal ...

The D.C. Circuit denied industry groups' petition for review challenging EPA's 2013 primary NAAQS for fine particulate matter. In the final rule, EPA lowered the level of the particulate matter NAAQS from 15.0 μg/m3 to 12.0 μg/m3, a level slightly lower than the lowest concentrations reported as c...