North Dakota v. EPA

Utility Air Regulatory Group and American Public Power Association filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) denial of petitions for reconsideration of its new source performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. EPA published notice of its denial of the petitions for reconsideration in May.

Twenty-three states or state agencies or officials filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) denial of petitions for reconsideration of its new source performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. EPA published notice of its denial of the petitions for reconsideration in May.

On May 6, 2016, EPA published notice in the Federal Register of its denial of five petitions for reconsideration of its performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new, modified, and reconstructed electric utility generating units. A number of the issues on which EPA denied reconsideration were related to the performance of carbon capture systems, and whether carbon capture was an adequately demonstrated technology. EPA also denied a petition that objected to allegedly impermissible communications between an EPA official and nongovernmental organizations. EPA said it was deferring action on the issue of its treatment of biomass emissions when co-fired with fossil fuels.