EPA POISED TO ISSUE STANCE ON ADDRESSING VIOLATIONS IN TITLE V PERMITS

摘要

EPA's agreement to respond to two long-pending permit challenges will test the Obama administration's position on whether Title V air permits should include compliance schedules to address alleged Clean Air Act violations, an approach environmentalists have long advocated but which has divided appellate courts.rnEnvironmentalists, who favor inclusion of compliance schedules for alleged violations in Title V permits, also argue the approach could allow the agency to address years-old violations that are otherwise time-barred by the statute of limitations - an approach recently backed by a federal trial court.rnOver the past few weeks, EPA has announced two proposed consent decrees that would settle deadline lawsuits in which environmentalists have sued EPA for failing to respond to their petitions asking the agency to object to power plant permits in part because they did not include compliance schedules.