The D.C. Circuit denied petitions challenging an EPA regulation that revised the NESHAP for hexavalent chromium, a carcinogenic compound that gets emitted into the air during the chrome-finishing process. The new rule, issued in 2012, imposes more stringent emissions limitations than its predecessor...

The Tenth Circuit upheld on constitutional grounds Colorado's mandate that 20% of the electricity that generators sell to Colorado consumers come from renewable sources. A conservative energy group claimed that the renewable energy standard will harm out-of-state coal producers in violation of the C...

The D.C. Circuit upheld an EPA regulation that requires automobile manufacturers to use "commercially available" fuel when testing the emissions of new vehicles under the CAA. Several producers of E30, a fuel that contains 30% ethanol, argued that a fuel shouldn't have to be commercially available i...

A district court ordered Oklahoma to file a brief by July 16 explaining why the court should have jurisdiction over the state's lawsuit challenging EPA's proposed "Clean Power Plan" to reduce carbon dioxide emissions on a nationwide basis. Numerous states, including Oklahoma, recently filed a case i...

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded EPA's rule limiting hazardous air pollutant emissions from power plants, holding that the Agency interpreted CAA §112(n)(1)(A) unreasonably when it deemed cost irrelevant to the decision to regulate power plants. CAA §112(n)(1) directs EPA to regulate e...

The Ninth Circuit denied petitions for review challenging EPA's promulgation of 40 C.F.R. §52.245, a regulation that revised the scope of a previous EPA decision, after the Agency determined that it had mistakenly approved certain new source review rules in 2004 as part of California's SIP. EPA iss...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a USDA marketing order under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 requiring raisin producers to participate in a raisin reserve program violates the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against taking property without just compensation. Under the marketing order...

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review challenging EPA's approval of a revision to California's SIP that authorized the San Joaquin Valley air pollution control district to impose fees on mobile sources of pollution—primarily motor vehicles—as an alternative to the fees previously impose...

The Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part petitions for review challenging EPA's federal implementation plan to reduce regional haze at two power plants in Montana. The owner and operator of the plants, as well as environmental groups, filed separate petitions for review, and the court ag...