Nat’l Parks Conservation Ass’n v. Envtl. Prot. Agency

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The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7491, and EPA regulations require states to evaluate the impact of emissions from certain pollution sources within their borders on atmospheric visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. After conducting this evaluation, Pennsylvania declined to require its sources to implement additional pollution controls, concluding that costs associated with the controls outweighed the limited visibility improvements they would produce, and set forth its conclusions in its 2010 State Implementation Plan (SIP), which was approved by the EPA in 2014. Conservation Groups sought review. The Third Circuit denied the petition to the extent it challenged the Transport Rule or Pennsylvania’s reliance on it in lieu of conducting source-specific best available retrofit technology (BART) analysis regarding SO2 and NOx emissions from each source with an electricity generating capacity of at least 750 megawatts. This appeal was not the appropriate vehicle to challenge EPA’s finding that the Transport Rule is better-than-BART or decision to approve state reliance on that rule; both stem from a final rule and separate rule-making proceeding not before the court. The court nonetheless vacated and remanded, finding that Pennsylvania’s source-specific BART analysis failed to comply with the Guidelines, and that the EPA arbitrarily approved the SIP despite these flaws. View "Nat'l Parks Conservation Ass'n v. Envtl. Prot. Agency" on Justia Law