In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit largely affirmed EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) on July 28. EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P. (D.C. Cir. July 28, 2015). CSAPR is the emissions trading program to address interstate pollution from power plants. The case was on remand to the D.C. Circuit from the Supreme Court, which largely upheld the rule in 2014. The D.C. Circuit still had to rule on several objections to CSAPR from industry and some states. In an opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the court upheld several principles underlying CSAPR, such as… Read more
Tag: CSAPR
Lifting of CSAPR Stay Could Reinstate Cap and Trade Air Pollution Rule
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted its stay of EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) on October 23, following the April 29 Supreme Court ruling affirming portions of the rule. The stay was lifted even though the D.C. Circuit is still considering challenges to CSAPR that were not addressed in its prior ruling, or in the Supreme Court case. Because the court did not also toll the January 1, 2015 compliance deadline for the first phase of CSAPR, there is uncertainty as to whether and how soon compliance must be achieved. CSAPR replaced the Bush-era Clean Air Interstate Rule… Read more
EPA Proposes to Increase Emission Limits in Nine States
On October 6, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a proposed amendment to its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which would increase state-wide limitations on emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in nine states. Finalized only three months earlier, CSAPR establishes an interstate emissions trading system that caps emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from electric generating units in 27 Eastern states. The goal is to reduce interstate transport of pollution to help downwind states in their efforts to attain and maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The states affected by EPA’s October 6 proposed increases… Read more