On July 29, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit released a very long (156 pages) opinion essentially upholding every regulatory decision made by the EPA in three major Clean Air Act (CAA) rulemakings: the “Major Boilers Rule”; the “Area Boilers” rule; and the “Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators” (CISWI)…
My colleagues Mark Elliott, Kevin Fong and I, in Lesson of Ninth Circuit CERCLA Decision: Prepare to Prove Recoverable Costs, discuss the lesson to be learned from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ June 13, 2016 decision in Whittaker Corp. v. United States. The Ninth Circuit held that a party which…
My colleague Matt Morrison today published a client alert titled U.S. EPA Finds Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Aircraft Endanger Public Health—a First Step in Adoption of New ICAO Standards. The Alert discusses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) issuance of a finding that aircraft greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions endanger public health…
In the latest installment in this long-running dispute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit today, in Mingo Logan Coal Company v. EPA, ruled, in a 2 to 1 decision, that EPA satisfied its duties under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it vetoed…
July 15 was a busy day at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as five important decisions were issued. What was remarkable and worth noting is that Judge Judith Rogers, a member of the court since 1994, was the author of unanimous opinions in three very…
Recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an important decision regarding the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the interactions between EPA and the states. On July 15, Fifth Circuit, in a unanimous ruling, granted a stay of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Final Rule promulgated in 2016…
Bi-partisan legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 5685), known as the “Farm Regulatory Certainty Act,” a bill that would amend Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (RCRA) definition of “solid waste” (42 U.S.C. § 6903 (27)) to exclude “animal waste, manure, fertilizer, or constituents derived from such sources.” A recent…
On July 7, the U.S. District Court for Alaska decided the case of Castle Mountain Coalition, et al., v. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, holding that a mining permit issued under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) is terminated by operation of law if the mining activities…
On July 8, the Illinois Supreme Court, in Hampton, et al., v. Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, held that temporary flooding of the plaintiffs’ residential properties located in the Chicago area can be the subject of a “taking” for which they may be entitled to just compensation under the…
The issue of the relentless growth and penetration of administrative law remains a compelling topic for those operating in heavily regulated industries like the construction industry. Chris DeMuth, a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, recently wrote Can the Administrative State be Tamed?, an interesting essay in which Demuth provides his perspective on…