The court affirms a district court holding that the Clean Air Act (CAA) does not preempt California's ban of the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in oxygenated fuel. CAA §211(c)(4)(A) preempts state regulation of fuel for purposes of motor vehicle emissions, but California is exempt fr...

The court held that a 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule specifying that Nevada was divided into more than 250 baseline areas for the Clean Air Act (CAA) prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) program was not arbitrary or capricious. Based on an ambiguous 1991 EPA regulation...

The court upholds the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') determination that listing the northern goshawk in the western United States as a threatened or endangered species was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act. The FWS' decision was amply supported by evidence in the record. Based ...

The court affirms a district court decision that New York Air Pollution Mitigation Law §66-k is preempted by the Clean Air Act (CAA) Title IV cap-and-trade system and violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Section 66-k requires the assessment of an air pollution mitigation offs...

The court holds that an electric utility violated the Clean Air Act (CAA) when it completed 11 construction activities that modified a coal-fired electric-generating facility without first calculating post-construction emissions and obtaining preconstruction CAA prevention of significant deteriorati...

The court holds that the no surprises rule, which provides regulatory assurances to holders of incidental take permits (ITPs) issued under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that they will not be required to commit funds or resources beyond those contemplated at the time the permit was issued to mitig...

The court holds that a local transportation control measure, adopted as part of California's state implementation plan to attain federal air quality standards in the San Francisco Bay Area, does not impose an enforceable obligation on the local transportation commission to increase public transit ri...

The court holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS') denial of an incidental take permit authorizing logging on 40 acres of protected owl habitat was neither a physical nor a regulatory taking. Contrary to the lower court's decision, the landowners' claim is ripe. Although the FWS invite...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that certain aspects of local fleet rules do not escape preemption under CAA §209(a) simply because they address the purchase of vehicles rather than their manufacture or sale. The fleet rules prohibit the purchase or lease of vehicles by fleet operators that do not ...

The Sixth Circuit upheld EPA's redesignation of Cleveland, Ohio, from nonattainment to attainment for particulate matter under CAA §107(d)(3)(E). An environmental group argued that EPA illegally waived statutory requirements when it redesignated the area to attainment by not fully approving the...