Environmental Defense Fund v. Zeldin

Environmental Defense Fund and 10 other environmental organizations filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) extension of deadlines for standards of performance for new, reconstructed, and modified sources in the oil and natural gas sector and emissions guidelines for existing sources. The challenged rule extended certain compliance deadlines for a March 8, 2024 final rule that regulates greenhouse gas and volatile organic compound emissions. EPA previously published an interim final rule extending the deadlines. The challenged rule reaffirmed that the revisions to the deadlines were “necessary, appropriate, and consistent with the purposes of the 2024 final rule and the [Clean Air Act].” EPA described the deadline extensions as “timely, targeted changes to certain compliance and implementation dates that had created unintended compliance difficulties for regulated entities.” The final rule said that EPA found that there were “legitimate barriers to compliance and/or questions as to whether certain regulatory provisions were practically and logistically achievable as promulgated in the timeframes allowed by the 2024 final rule.”

In light of EPA's issuance of a final rule, the court ordered that the parties could file supplemental briefing on the motion to vacate the interim rule.