Nucor Steel-Arkansas v. Big River Steel, LLC

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal on subject matter jurisdiction grounds of a Clean Air Act citizen suit brought by companies that operated steel mills in Arkansas to stop construction of a competitor’s steel mill. The original complaint alleged that the defendant company had failed to satisfy Best Available Control Technology (BACT) requirements, including by conducting an improper greenhouse gas BACT analysis and by improperly eliminating carbon capture and sequestration as a control technology. The Eighth Circuit’s opinion did not address the greenhouse gas-specific allegations of the lawsuit but noted that BACT requirements did not impose ongoing duties to apply BACT and that failure to comply with BACT requirements therefore could not constitute the ongoing or repeated violations required for a citizen suit.

The federal district court for the Eastern District of Arkansas dismissed a Clean Air Act citizen suit brought against a steel company by a rival steel company concerning a Prevention of Significant Deterioration permit issued by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.  The plaintiff’s allegations included that the defendant had failed to satisfy Best Available Control Technology (BACT) requirements, including by conducting an improper greenhouse gas BACT analysis and by improperly eliminating carbon capture and sequestration as a control technology. The court dismissed the action as an impermissible collateral attack on a state-issued air permit.