5th Cir. Sets Aside Another Challenge to Flexible Permit Program

On July 20, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit again turned aside a challenge to the State of Texas’ “flexible permit” program, which is reserved for Clean Air Act permitting of minor sources of air pollution.  The program has been in effect since 1994, but a 2010 EPA disapproval of the Texas State Implementation Plan (SIP) was appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which reversed the EPA’s determination.  See Texas v. US EPA, 690 F. 3d 670 (5th Cir. 2012).  EPA thereafter conditionally approved the Texas State Implementation Plan (“SIP”) and the flexible permit program, but a group of citizen/environmental groups challenged the EPA’s approval.  Concluding that “our earlier opinion controls here”, the court held that the EPA’s action was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with the law; “to the contrary, it was explicitly in accordance with the law set out in our 2012 opinion”.  The case is Environmental Integrity Project, et. al. v. EPA.