The U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Clean Air Act Case
September 18, 2006

The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) recently filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a lower court's decision in Environmental Defense, et al. v. Duke Energy Corp., et al.

In its decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Duke Energy's plan to modernize its electric utility plants did not need to be submitted to the government pursuant to the New Source Review (NSR) provisions of the federal Clean Air Act and its implementing regulations, as claimed by the Environmental Protection Agency and a group of environmental organizations. At issue is whether hourly or annual emissions represent the baseline for determining NSR in plant modernization.

In its brief, NCLC argued that plant modernization, a common industrial practice, does not require NSR because no major modification of Duke Energy's permitted operations had occurred.  NCLC also argued that if the Supreme Court does not affirm the lower court's decision, hundreds of commonplace modernization activities would have to undergo NSR analysis even if their hourly emission rates are unchanged and stay below permit levels that already have been approved.

View the brief here:
/nclc/caselist/issues/environment.htm

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