Court Consolidates Petroleum Catalyst Suit With Fight Over EPA DSW Rule

摘要

A federal appeals court has consolidated litigation from 2009 contesting EPA's treatment of spent petroleum refinery catalysts under a 2008 waste rule with newly filed litigation by industry and environmentalists challenging the agency's recently finalized Definition of Solid Waste (DSW) rule governing hazardous waste recycling. The action signals the resurfacing of an issue that has long been held in abeyance until the agency's release of its revamped DSW rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a May 18 order agreed to the consolidation at the request of the American Petroleum Institute (API), which contends one of its two main arguments from 2009 remains valid even after EPA revised the DSW rule. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details. (Doc. ID: 181533) The order wraps API v. EPA - a 2009 lawsuit over petroleum refinery catalysts' treatment under the agency's 2008 DSW rule - into Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), et al. v. EPA - the new lawsuit challenging EPA's 2015 final DSW rule. The court previously consolidated litigation by the energy utility industry and the chemical and oil industry, including API, as well as environmentalists, into the USWAG suit.