RECENT FEDERAL DECISIONS

January 2009

To read this entire item of approximately 1200 words online now in PDF format: Click here to read this item if you are an existing subscriber to this publication. Click here to purchase the full text of this item to read now (price: $25). To subscribe to this publication and immediately access all its archives including this item, select the relevant publication under 'Catalogue' in the left-hand column PLEASE NOTE: to read PDFs on www.argento.com you must be using Version 5 of Acrobat Reader or Adobe Reader. If you have an earlier version you can download the latest free of charge by clicking here

Ninth Circuit Holds District Court Was Not the Forum for a School District’s Clean Air Act Title V Permit Challenge
Romoland School Dist. v. Inland Empire Energy Center, LLC , ___F.3d___

The Romoland School District, along with several individuals and environmental groups (collectively: school district or plaintiffs) filed suit, pursuant to the citizen suit provision of the Clean Air Act (CAA), against the Inland Empire Energy Center (IEEC) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) asserting that IEEC’s permit to operate and construct a power plant violated the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act. The Ninth Circuit determined that because SCAQMD consolidated all federal, state and local regulations regarding air pollution into a consolidated permitting process for all facilities subject to Title V, the proper procedure for challenging a permit’s validity was through Title V administrative and judicial review provisions— not the citizen suit provision of the CAA.