The Fifth Circuit held that it lacked jurisdiction to review petitions challenging EPA's objection to three CAA Title V permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality for a proposed ironmaking facility. The state agency issued three separate Title V permits for the facility, and...

A California court issued a tentative decision upholding the California Air Resource Board's (CARB's) authority to sell greenhouse gas allowances at auction under the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, also known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32). The court tentatively agreed that the auctio...

The Supreme Court of Washington upheld an administrative order the state environmental agency issued to a farmer, directing him to take several steps to curb pollution of a creek that runs through his property. A lower court invalidated the order, ruling that it was unsupported by substantial eviden...

The Seventh Circuit reversed a lower court decision finding a Wisconsin mine operator liable under the CWA for discharging copper into navigable waters without a permit. The CWA's permit shield provision provides that if a NPDES permit holder discharges pollutants in accordance with the terms of its...

The Second Circuit upheld a lower court's permanent injunction barring the state of Vermont from bringing an enforcement action, or taking other action, to compel the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to shut down after its license expires on March 21, 2012, if it fails to obtain legislative approv...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's challenge to a CAA permit that allows an oil company to conduct "pollutant emitting activities" associated with a drilling vessel in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope. CAA §504(e) is ambiguous as to whether "increment" requi...

The Third Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing the U.S. government's lawsuit against the current and former owners of a coal-fired power plant in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, for alleged CAA violations that took place 15-20 years earlier. The government alleged that the former owners ...

The Third Circuit held that the CAA does not preempt state law tort claims brought by private property owners against a source of pollution located within the state. The case arose after a group of 1,500 residents who live within one mile of a coal-fired power plant filed suit against the facility u...