On Friday, in the United States v. Midwest Generation, LLC appeal, the Seventh Circuit denied the government’s petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc of the court’s July 8, 2013 decision affirming the dismissal of certain PSD / NSR claims. The judges responded to the petition uniformly. No judge in regular active service requested a … Continue Reading
On September 3, 2013, GenOn Power Midwest LP filed a Petition for Rehearing En Banc in response to last month’s decision by a panel of the the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Bell v. Cheswick Generating Station, GenOn Power Midwest, L.P., finding that the Clean Air Act (CAA) does not preempt state law tort claims brought by … Continue Reading
On August 21, 2013, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals became the fourth federal appellate court to definitively limit USEPA’s enforcement authority to five years after an alleged Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) violation. In U.S. v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P., the 3rd Circuit upheld the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania’s decision to dismiss USEPA’s claims that … Continue Reading
In a win for environmental groups, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated USEPA’s “Deferral Rule,” which had temporarily exempted some biomass sources from Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V permitting requirements. See Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. EPA, No. 11-1101 (July 12, 2013). The ruling comes a year … Continue Reading
On July 8, the landscape of new source review (NSR) / prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) case law received additional clarity when the Seventh Circuit issued its much anticipated decision in United States v. Midwest Generation LLC. The decision, penned by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook for a three judge panel, affirmed the lower court’s March … Continue Reading
The US Supreme Court has decided to hear USEPA’s challenge to the invalidatition of the Cross State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) by the DC Circuit in EME Homer City Generation L.P., et al, v. EPA. The CSAPR requires 28 states to reduce power plant emissions that contribute to the “downwind” transport of ozone and fine particulate matter pollution … Continue Reading
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week affirmed dismissal of the plaintiffs’ common law tort claims in the case Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.,[1] one of the first cases seeking to impose common law tort liability on emitters of greenhouse gasses for their alleged contribution to global climate change, and a … Continue Reading
