EPA, Sierra Club Defend Right To Seek Injunctive Relief For NSR Violations

摘要

EPA and the Sierra Club are defending the agency's right to ask courts for injunctive relief that forces facilities to impose air pollution controls for years-old violations of Clean Air Act new source review (NSR) permit mandates, as they fight a utility sector push to rehear a ruling that broadly upheld EPA's power to seek such relief. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a 2-1 ruling from October in USA, et al. v. Luminant Generation LLC., found EPA can still ask for injunctive relief in NSR cases even when the five-year general statute of limitations has run - even though it can not ask for civil penalties after it has lapsed.