Strongly worded reversal of EPA action
March 27, 2012In a forcefully-written opinion, the Court vacated the EPA’s disapproval of Texas environmental emission regulations relevant to the power industry. Luminant Generation Co. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 10-60891 (March 26, 2012). The Court found that the EPA erroneously invoked Texas law and applied federal law incorrectly. See Op. at 21 (“EPA disapproved the PCP Standard Permit . . . based on its purported nonconformity with three extra-statutory standards that the EPA created out of whole cloth”). The Court concluded: “Because the EPA waited until more than three years after the statutory deadline to act on Texas’s submission, we order the EPA to reconsider it expeditiously [on remand].” Id.