The Fifth Circuit upheld EPA's decision to reject a challenge to a CAA Title V permit it issued for expansion of a plant in Baytown, Texas. Environmental groups requested that EPA reject the permit on the grounds that the underlying Title I preconstruction permit allowing the expansion was invalid. ...
The First Circuit vacated an air permit issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) for a proposed natural gas compressor station that is part of a natural gas pipeline connecting the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Nearby municipalities and citizens argued that MDEP impr...
The D.C. Circuit granted in part and denied in part Delaware's and Maryland's challenges to EPA's denial of their CAA §126(b) petitions requesting that the Agency impose additional limitations on certain upwind sources contributing to the states' nonattainment of ozone NAAQS. Maryland's petition ar...
Section 401 certification and permit conditioning under the Clean Water Act is one of the most significant tools for states to influence federally permitted activities involving discharges into navigable waters. However, states are required to set conditions within one year or they forgo their ability to do so. In practice, the one-year review is difficult for states to meet and led to a common practice known as “withdraw and resubmit” in which states could reset the clock. But in Hoopa Valley Tribe v. Federal Energy Regulatory Comm’n, the D.C.