Small Refinery Exemption Litigation Update
On August 14, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) released a redacted copy of its opinion in Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. LLC v. EPA, in which the D.C. Circuit...more
Chemical transport, tank cleaning and transportation depot operators breathed a sigh of relief in March 2024 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dropped provisions from a proposed rule when it issued its final...more
On March 1, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced finalized amendments to the Clean Air Act’s Risk Management Program (RMP) through the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Rule (Final Rule). ...more
On March 1, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed its final “Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management Programs Under the Clean Air Act; Safer Communities by Chemical Accident...more
Texas AG Ken Paxton settled with TotalEnergies Petrochemicals & Refining USA, Inc. to resolve allegations that the operator of a Port Arthur refinery violated the Texas Clean Air Act by repeatedly emitting unauthorized...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has recently finalized volumes for compliance years 2020, 2021, and 2022 under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”)’s renewable fuel standard (“RFS”) program and took several other related...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Administrator issued a March 4th Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part a Petition for Objection to Permit (“Order”) for a BP products North America, Inc. (“BP”)...more
On December 7, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed the long-awaited and much anticipated renewable fuel targets for 2020, 2021, and 2022 under the federal Clean Air Act’s (“CAA”) Renewable Fuel...more
Data is in from EPA’s “work practice” requirement that petroleum refineries monitor ambient air for benzene concentrations around their fence lines. The regulations set an “action level” of 9 µg/m3 benzene, using benzene as a...more
Earthjustice and two other organizations (collectively “Earthjustice”) filed an August 8th Petition to Object to the issuance of two Clean Air Act permits for the construction of a direct coal hydrogenation refinery...more
On June 27, 2019, U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) submitted a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Purdue asking him to stop threatening energy jobs in Louisiana. In his letter to Secretary Purdue, Senator Kennedy outlines...more
The Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued an Order responding to a Petition requesting objection to the issuance of a Title V operating permit (“Permit”) for the Suncor Energy...more
Certain regulated entities that operate under Clean Air Act permits are being reminded that those permits do not necessarily cover air emissions associated with the management of hazardous wastes regulated by the federal...more
On May 31, 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register its proposed 2017 volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), an ever-controversial program established by Congress to spur the...more
Last Friday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a District Court decision which had refused to impose penalties on ExxonMobil for various violations of the Clean Air Act at ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery. While the...more
On September 29, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued substantial new regulations to control hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from petroleum refineries. The final rule arises from the “residual...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in United States v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., No. 14-40128 (5th Cir. September 4, 2015), reversed the district court’s convictions of Citgo Petroleum Corp. (Citgo) for alleged...more
On September 14, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a Notice of Proposed Settlement Agreement; Request for Public Comment in the Federal Register. The notice is to settle lawsuits filed by Sinclair...more
USA v. Citgo Petroleum highlights the excruciating degree of detail in federal regulations and the gymnastics the EPA will employ justify a prosecution. The Fifth Circuit has reversed Citgo Petroleum’s conviction for...more
Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), it is unlawful to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill . . . any migratory bird” protected by the Act. 16 U.S.C. 703(a) & 704(a). In a recent...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision holding CITGO liable for three misdemeanors under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for bird deaths (the opinion lists 35 birds, including “twenty...more
On June 2, 2015, federal appellate judges decided that EPA's methodology for evaluating small refineries (those with crude oil throughput averaging 75,000 barrels or less per day) for exemptions from the RFS program was fair....more
Environmental and Policy Focus: U.S. officials cut estimate of recoverable Monterey Shale oil by 96% - Los Angeles Times - May 23: Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96 percent the estimated amount of...more