The US Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in an important climate change lawsuit, BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The lawsuit pits the Mayor and City of Baltimore against twenty-six multinational oil and gas companies that Baltimore claims are responsible for climate change. Baltimore alleges that the companies contributed to climate change … Continue Reading
On September 20, 2019, Maui County Council (Council) voted to settle the County’s pending appeal before the US Supreme Court of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in County of Maui v. Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund, et al. As previously reported here, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling held that the eventual migration of pollutants from permitted underground injection wells … Continue Reading
It has been one year since the Clean Power Plan was published in the Federal Register, and the oral arguments for the rule in the D.C. Circuit have been concluded for about a month now. In this relative “calm before the storm,” as we wait for the D.C. Circuit decision, the 2016 Presidential Election, and the … Continue Reading
On December 15, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected challenges by energy industry groups and several states that are seeking to scrap US EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”) final rule. White Stallion Energy Center, LLC v. EPA, Case No. 12-1100. The Court remanded the rule to US EPA for … Continue Reading
Recently, the US Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) published its report Truth In Regulating: Restoring Transparency to EPA Rulemaking, criticizing EPA for not providing critical details about the regulatory intent and true costs associated with significant Agency rulemakings. The Chamber report follows on the heels of last week’s passage of H.R. 1029, the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform … Continue Reading
This month, in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, the US Supreme Court overturned the D.C. Circuit’s Paralyzed Veteran doctrine, rejecting nearly 20 years of precedent requiring federal agencies to abide by notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures when they substantially alter an “interpretive” rule. However, the decision also hints that even broader changes may be afoot. Writing in … Continue Reading
Last week, the heads of US EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation and Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance jointly issued a memorandum to regional administrators clarifying the Agency’s position on permitting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V programs. The memo was issued in response … Continue Reading
The US Supreme Court has again reiterated that the federal Superfund law should be interpreted narrowly and plainly, this time while addressing the statute’s impact on state tort theories arising from releases of hazardous substances. In CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, the Court held that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) does not preempt … Continue Reading
On April 29, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-2 opinion reversing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and reinstating the U.S. EPA’s promulgation of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”), which regulates the inter-state transport of NOx and SO2 emissions in implementing the “Good Neighbor Provision” in the Clean Air Act. A centerpiece … Continue Reading
On March 31, the US Supreme Court granted the federal government’s petition to intervene in a dispute between Texas and New Mexico over certain terms of the 1938 Rio Grande Compact (State of Texas v. State of New Mexico et al., Case number 22O141 ORG). As we reported here and here, Texas believes the Compact … Continue Reading
In the last month of 2013, the US Solicitor General filed a strongly worded brief as amicus curiae expressing the US Government’s view that the Supreme Court should grant the State of Texas’s motion for leave of the Court to file a complaint against the States of New Mexico and Colorado for alleged violations of … Continue Reading
On December 10, 2013, the US Supreme Court heard oral argument in consolidated appeals by US EPA and the American Lung Association regarding the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation L. P. CSAPR is US EPA’s second attempt at developing a rule to address the Clean Air Act’s “good neighbor” … Continue Reading
In an effort to address the growing controversy between Florida and Georgia over the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, Florida has filed a motion for leave to file a bill of complaint with the US Supreme Court under the Court’s original and exclusive jurisdiction to resolve “controversies between two or more states.” Georgia’s response is due January … 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 US Supreme Court has declined to hear the 9th Circuit’s decision in Native Village of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 696 F.3d 849 (9th Cir. 2012). By decling to hear the case, the US Supreme Court leaves another judgment stand which holds that the Clean Air Act preempts greenhouse gas tort claims. In Kivalina, the Alaskan Village of Kivalina … Continue Reading
