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Illinois Supreme Court to Decide Whether Ethylene Oxide Emissions Qualify as Traditional Environmental Pollution

The question of whether ethylene oxide emissions constitute traditional environmental pollution for the purpose of interpreting commercial general liability pollution exclusions remains unsettled in many jurisdictions across the United States. The issue may soon receive greater clarity in Illinois — and more broadly within the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals — in response to a recent direct request from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to the Illinois Supreme Court to provide specific direction concerning how Illinois law should address the question.

The Seventh Circuit’s …

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Montana Power Plant Requests Clean Air Waiver: Is This the Future of America’s Coal Energy?

The Colstrip Power Plant in Montana is now one of the early applicants to the new EPA exemption application process which we have previously discussed here. Specifically, the Colstrip plant has requested a two-year exemption from EPA standards regarding air pollution.

Previously, in April 2024, this power plant was subject to stricter standards under updates to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants which was targeted at reducing airborne emissions of heavy metals including lead, arsenic, and mercury and had a compliance …

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Industry chimney with white smoke stack against blue sky.

Colorado Jury Issues First Defense Verdict after Years of EtO Exposure Lawsuits in US

A Colorado jury issued a defense verdict following a six-week trial during which four women alleged their respective cancers were caused by exposure to EtO emitted by the nearby Terumo Blood & Cell Technologies Lakewood plant over the course of several decades. They asked for a $444 million judgment.

Notably, during a years-long nationwide assessment of EtO facility emissions (covered by ELM here), the EPA previously concluded that the fence-line community living next to the Lakewood facility in Jefferson County had an elevated cancer …

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EPA Introduces New Email Account for Regulated Community to Request Presidential Exemption

The Environmental Protection Agency announced March 12 it set up an e-mail account allowing the regulated community to request a presidential exemption under Section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act (“CAA”). 

The CAA permits the president to grant exemptions to stationary sources from compliance with any standard or limitation set forth under Section 112 for up to two years if the technology required to meet the standard is not available and if it’s in the United States’ national security interests.

In particular, the EPA requested …

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New Congress Reverses Biden-Era Methane Waste Emissions Fee

Despite longstanding bipartisan support, the U.S. Senate on Feb. 27 — just as the House did the day prior — passed a resolution withdrawing the waste emissions charge (WEC), which is a fee on methane waste emissions caused by oil and gas producers.

The vote served as one of the first attempts by this Congress to apply the Congressional Review Act in order to bypass the filibuster, which requires at least 60 senators for a successful vote, instead of requiring only a simple majority vote …

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SCOTUS Declines to Review EPA’s Authority on California’s Vehicle Emission Standards

SCOTUS Declines to Review EPA’s Authority on California’s Vehicle Emission Standards

    In a significant development for environmental law and state autonomy, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently declined to review whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to grant California a waiver to set its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for vehicles. This decision leaves in place California’s ability to implement stricter emission rules, marking a key moment in the ongoing battle over federal and state environmental regulations.…

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    Waste Not, Charge Not: EPA Finalizes Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries

    The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Nov. 12 its final rule to further reduce methane emissions from oil and gas industries as required under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

    In particular, Congress established a Waste Emissions Charge for high-emitting oil and gas facilities once emissions exceed 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Coupled with the final Clean Air Act standards issued in March, the Waste Emission Charge is a central component of EPA’s efforts to reduce methane …

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    U.S. Supreme Court Rejected Challenge to EPA Efforts to Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    On October 16, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt to block the implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from power plants while the EPA is being challenged in pending court proceedings, but three justices indicated they had concerns with the rule’s legality.

    The October 16 order arises out the emergency stay applications filed by multiple Republican-led states, utility and coal industry groups after the D.C. Circuit Court rejected their stay bids in July. These parties …

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    Everything Oiled is Sued Again

    It has the origins of a great American Success Story – in 1886, in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution, a vast reservoir of oil was found in Lima, Ohio, prompting legendary entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller to hire John Van Dyke to construct an oil refinery right on the spot. German-American chemist Herman Frasch worked with Van Dyke to perfect a method for taking the sulfur out of Lima’s oil to make it more marketable. The results were explosive (figuratively); The ‘Solar Refinery,’ as …

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    Won’t You Be My [Non-Emitting] Neighbor? SCOTUS Stays EPA’s Federal Emissions Plan for States

    Last week, in a 5-4 opinion, in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court granted applications for a stay of the implementation of the “Good Neighbor” Plan, the EPA’s federal emissions reduction rule, set in 2015. The application of this rule was intended to address transboundary ozone pollution that can exacerbate health hazards. As previously explained by ELM, the Clean Air Act’s Good Neighbor provision enabled the EPA to require each state to implement regulations meant to reduce emissions that would …

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