The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's renewable fuels standard (RFS) for 2013. Because EPA reduced the cellulosic ethanol blending requirement for 2013 but not the total renewable fuel volume, petroleum refiners filed suit arguing the rule should be vacated. The court disagreed. The CAA provides that if EPA...

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded a lower court decision vacating EPA's transport rule, also known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which sets sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions limits for 28 upwind states based on those states' contributions to downwind states' air qualit...

The D.C. Circuit vacated a portion of EPA's 2013 rule regulating air emissions from Portland cement kilns. The court concluded that the emission-related portions of the rule are permissible under the CAA. It also upheld the compliance schedule implementing some of the 2013 rule's emission standards....

The D.C. Circuit upheld the emission standards EPA promulgated in 2012 for mercury and other listed hazardous air pollutants emitted by coal- and oil-fired electric utility steam generating units. The rule was challenged by industry, saying the rule was too stringent, as well as by environmental gro...

 The primary standards for carbon monoxide have remained the same since 1971. There has not been a secondary standard for carbon monoxide since EPA revoked a secondary standard in 1985. In 2007, EPA began reviewing whether to alter the current primary standards and whether to adopt a secondary ...

A district court held that the CAA does not preempt landowners' state common-law tort claims against a whiskey distillery for property damage. The landowners alleged that emissions from the distillery caused "whisky fungus" to grow on their property. The distillery filed a motion to dismiss, arguing...

A district court dismissed an environmental group's CAA citizens suit against EPA for failing to make a finding that Idaho and Utah failed to timely submit SIPs for fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In 2007, EPA issued a rule that required states to submit their SIPs for PM2.5 within three years afte...

The D.C. Circuit denied an electric utility association's petition for review challenging EPA's new source performance standards for steam generating units. The standards—issued via final rules in 2009 and again in 2012—exempt all units using particulate matter continuous emissions monitoring sy...

The Washington Supreme Court upheld the state environmental agency's determination that an EIS was not necessary for a proposed biomass cogeneration project at a kraft pulp and paper mill. An environmental group argued that by not preparing an EIS, the agency failed to adequately consider the effect...

A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss an environmental group's citizen suit against a utility company for alleged CAA violations at a coal-fired power plant in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The group alleged that the company failed to obtain a prevention of significant deterio...