Environmental -- 2019



Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA   (D.C. Circuit)

Defending regulatory clarity for Clean Air Act permits

The NAM intervened in a legal challenge by environmental groups to a policy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that clarifies manufacturers' permitting obligations under the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate an EPA interpretive memorandum that identifies factors to guide a facility’s determination of whether separate physical or operational changes to the facility constitute a single project” under the EPA’s New Source Review (NSR) permitting program. Determining the extent of a project under NSR is important for many manufacturers because combining several pollution sources at a facility can trigger NSR permitting requirements that mandate expensive air pollution control technologies. The NAM intervened as a defendant on behalf of the EPA to help defend the interpretation and preserve regulatory clarity for manufacturers. On June 25, 2019, the environmental plaintiffs moved to dismiss their case. Although their dismissal motion did not state the reasons, we infer that our intervention arguments might have caused them to realize the weakness of their case.


Related Documents:
NAM Motion  (February 13, 2019)