A district court granted New York City's motion to dismiss a challenge to its statute prohibiting the use of fossil fuels in newly constructed residential buildings. Trade groups and a union argued the statute was preempted by the Energy Policy Conservation Act (EPCA) because it concerned "the ...
The Seventh Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction that had barred enforcement of an Indiana statute giving incumbent electric companies rights of first refusal (ROFRs) to build and operate new interstate transmission facilities that connect to facilities they own. Companies seeking to b...
The D.C. Circuit partially granted petitions for rehearing in a challenge to FERC's reauthorization of two liquefied natural gas terminals and an associated pipeline in Texas. In a prior opinion, the court held FERC erred by failing to issue supplemental EISs addressing its updated environmental jus...
The Tenth Circuit denied environmental groups' petition to review an EPA rule that partially approved Colorado's SIP to reduce ozone pollution. The groups sought vacatur of the approval, arguing the Agency violated the CAA by approving the reasonable further progress and motor vehicle emissions budg...
The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review FERC's authorization of an owner's request to surrender its license for a hydroelectric project on the Salmon Falls River between New Hampshire and Maine. A conservation group initially requested rehearing of the authorization, arguing the two dams from t...
A district court granted in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a CAA citizen suit concerning EPA's duty to update emissions standards for hazardous waste combustors. The groups sought declaratory judgment stating that EPA failed to comply with its obligations and injunctive re...
The Fifth Circuit granted EPA's motion to vacate its disapprovals of portions of regional haze SIPs submitted by Texas and Oklahoma and the issuance of federal implementation plans (FIPs) establishing a long-term strategy and/or reasonable progress goals for the states. EPA argued that because key d...
The Sixth Circuit vacated EPA's 2023 disapproval of a SIP proposed by Kentucky to comply with Agency changes to ozone NAAQS. Kentucky challenged the disapproval, which rested on different modeling that came out after the Agency's deadline for submitting the plan and on a lower threshold than the one...
In a per curiam opinion, a divided en banc Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court's civil penalty award of $14.25 million against an oil company in a long-running dispute concerning alleged CAA permit violations at an industrial complex in Baytown, Texas. Environmental groups had filed a CAA citize...
The First Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the U.S. government in a lawsuit concerning a plan to construct a large-scale commercial offshore wind energy facility off of Martha's Vineyard. Several entities associated with the commercial fishing industry challenged the approval process, asserting...