The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA’s decision denying environmental groups’ request to add coal mines to the regulated list of stationary source categories under the CAA. In denying the groups’ petition for rulemaking, EPA made it clear that the denial was not a determination as to whether coal ...
The D.C. Circuit denied industry groups' petition for review challenging EPA's 2013 primary NAAQS for fine particulate matter. In the final rule, EPA lowered the level of the particulate matter NAAQS from 15.0 μg/m3 to 12.0 μg/m3, a level slightly lower than the lowest concentrations reported as c...
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's renewable fuels standard (RFS) for 2013. Because EPA reduced the cellulosic ethanol blending requirement for 2013 but not the total renewable fuel volume, petroleum refiners filed suit arguing the rule should be vacated. The court disagreed. The CAA provides that if EPA...
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded a lower court decision vacating EPA's transport rule, also known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which sets sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions limits for 28 upwind states based on those states' contributions to downwind states' air qualit...
A district court granted summary judgment in favor of NMFS in a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts and New Hampshire challenging the agency's decision to promulgate Frameworks 48 and 50 regulating New England’s Multispecies Fishery under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Th...
The Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Reclamation should have consulted with FWS or NMFS on impacts to the threatened delta smelt prior to renewing long-term water contracts pertaining to California's Central Valley Project. ESA §7(a)(2) requires such consultation so long as the agency has “s...
The D.C. Circuit vacated a portion of EPA's 2013 rule regulating air emissions from Portland cement kilns. The court concluded that the emission-related portions of the rule are permissible under the CAA. It also upheld the compliance schedule implementing some of the 2013 rule's emission standards....