Sierra Club v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit held that EPA's determination that it completed sufficient standards to meet CAA §112(c)(6)'s 90% requirement for hazardous air pollutants is a legislative rulemaking subject to APA notice-and-comment requirements. EPA's determination, having declared the end not only of its multi-...
Desert Citizens Against Pollution v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit upheld an EPA rule that added the gold mine ore processing and production area source category to the list of source categories to be regulated under CAA §112(c)(6). CAA §112(c)(6) requires action by EPA on seven bioaccumulative hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including mercury, ...
Indiana Gas Co. v. Indiana Finance Authority
An Indiana appeals court reversed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's approval of a purchase and sales agreement for "substitute natural gas" an energy company plans to produce at its new coal gasification plant. The contract meets the common law definition of an enforceable contract. It als...
Babylon v. Federal Housing Finance Agency
The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of two lawsuits challenging a Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directive directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take "prudential actions" to protect themselves against risks raised by Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs that impose priority- o...
Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station
A district court held that the CAA preempts individuals' tort law action against a coal-fired power plant for property damage stemming from the plant's air emissions. In essence, the individuals' complaint attacks the plant's air emissions and asks the court to regulate them. But the CAA provides a ...
Wildearth Guardians v. Lamar Utilities Board
A district court held that utilities violated CAA §112(g) by upgrading an existing power plant in Lamar, Colorado, from a natural gas-fired plant into a coal-fired one without receiving a maximum achievable control technology (MACT) determination. When the state environmental agency first issued th...