Litigation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has granted New York’s request to fast track its suit seeking to force direct federal regulation of hundreds of upwind pollution sources in multiple states, piling further pressure on EPA to revamp its interstate ozone policy following two major defeats on the issue in the same court.

Rejecting Trump administration arguments, a federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling requiring EPA within 30 days to develop a Clean Water Act (CWA) plan to reduce the temperature of the Columbia and Snake rivers, clarifying that a controversial judicial doctrine requiring EPA action can apply to a single total maximum daily load (TMDL).

A coalition of environmentalists has filed suit against EPA’s rollback of an Obama-era regulation tightening facility safety mandates on the same day the measure was promulgated, arguing the Trump administration has removed nearly all disaster-prevention measures and weakened many of the other protections that were in the 2017 rule.

EPA is poised to unveil its proposal for a nationwide permit system to govern coal ash disposal under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), a long-awaited move that will rewrite enforcement of the standards for operating or closing down ash sites from a model driven by citizen suits to one with an active role for regulators.