New Jersey v. EPA

Petitioners challenged two EPA rules that: (i) removed coal- and oil-fired electric generating units (EGUs) from the list of sources regulated under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) (which deals with emissions of hazardous air pollutants), and (ii) established new performance standards for mercury emissions from these EGUs under CAA section 111. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the CAA section 112(c)(9) requires EPA to make “specific findings before removing a source listed under section 112,” and that EPA had not made these findings. As a result, the court vacated the delisting rule. The court also held that EPA is barred from regulating the same source category under both section 112 and section 111, so the new performance standards were also vacated.

Citation: New Jersey v. EPA, 517 F.3d 574 (D.C. Cir. 2008)

Key documents:

• Decision
• Petitioners’ Brief

Additional resources:

• Nathan Borgford-Parnell, New Jersey v. EPA, 8 Sustainable Development Law & Policy 53 (2008)