Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L), the level presently considered “optimal” in the United States, posed an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children. Anti-fluoride groups and individuals had petitioned EPA under TSCA to regulate the fluoridatio...
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation v. Shea
A district court granted summary judgment for conservation groups in a challenge to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS') recent update to a program concerning the use of pesticides to suppress grasshopper and cricket outbreaks. The groups argued APHIS' 2019 EIS and five state-le...
Vinyl Institute, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit vacated a 2022 EPA order requiring chemical manufacturers/processors to test the chronic toxicity of 1,1,2-trichloroethane pursuant to TSCA. A trade organization representing seven entities challenged the order, arguing EPA failed to comply with several statutory requirements. The c...
Center for Environmental Health v. Regan
The Fourth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a TSCA citizen suit concerning EPA's decision on a petition to require testing for 54 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Four citizen groups argued that EPA's decision, which granted the petition and agreed to require testing on PFAS as a class throu...
Inhance Technologies, L.L.C. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Fifth Circuit vacated two orders EPA issued under TSCA that prohibited a plastics company from manufacturing or processing long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) during its fluorination process. In March 2022, EPA charged that the company's fluorination process was subject to a recently promulgated s...
Annual Supreme Court Review and Preview
The U.S. Supreme Court's October Term 2022 had major implications for environmental law, including its most significant Clean Water Act decision ever. Upcoming cases in October Term 2023 have the potential to be just as impactful. On September 25, 2023, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts who provided an overview of key rulings and major take-aways from the Court’s prior term, and discussed cases that have been granted review or are likely to be considered by the justices in the upcoming term.